elodie grace tyre

date: 4/4/10
time: 5:25 am
weight: 7 lb 12 oz


Of course, you will all get to hear T's side of the story and rather than summarize what I did not experience, I will summarize what I did experience.

I came into the city on Thursday night, the night before Tara's due date. Friday, being Good Friday, I had it off, as would I have Monday off. Perfect. I can keep her company. And this whole thing is certainly not about me, but please please let this baby come this weekend! So I first see Tara and Michael on Friday morning for their 9:30 am appointment with Dr. Jin, who told us she really thinks it will happen this week but Tara looks too good for that to be true so we'll see, and there was a mention of April 17th as an induction date. Gulp. It was very nice to meet Dr. Jin and see what these appointments are all about. T is huge but doing incredibly well and I should mention at this point, that much to my surprise, Tara is an amazing pregnant person. She has barely complained at all about this pregnancy and that's not to say that I thought she'd be a total wuss (but kind of). So we spend Friday walking around, killing time, etc. And I guess we do that Saturday too. And these two days also involve acupuncture sessions for Tara with her friend, who mentions some supposed labor inducers, which sends Ali and I off across Brooklyn searching for raspberry red leaf tea and oil of evening primrose capsules and causes us to brew her tea, make her down capsules, walk a lot, eat spicy food, bounce on her exercise ball, etc., etc.

On Saturday afternoon, my parents also arrived. We all meet up and go to dinner. We return to my mom's sublet and hang out for a bit and then Tara gets a stomach ache. And so we all split up and go home. And of course, we are all hoping that this is no stomach ache because 4/4/10 would be a perfect birthday, but we don't want to say anything to ruin that chance so we say good night.

Until Ali and I are woken up at 2 am. It is my dad. Tara is at the hospital. It's time. Be downstairs in 15. Never have I woken up in the middle of the night with zero grogginess like this. We were ready to go! And my dad picks us up and informs us that Tara is progressing fast. And so we get to the hospital around 2:30 and wait in the waiting room and take turns standing post in the hallway so we can see through the small windows through the doors to the labor wing to try and figure out what is happening. Until we see Michael come down the hall with fists in the air. She's here! Born 5:25 am.

And so Michael brings us all back to the room. And as we walk, he tells us she's beautiful! That she has so much hair! And these comments and the excitement and love in which he delivered them are something I will always remember about this day. And then we go back and there is T, looking great, and on her, is this little baby and her name is Elodie. And while I have never had my own child, I now know that this is what it is like to meet something you have loved from the moment you knew about it and you just had no idea what this thing that you loved would look like and then there it is right in front of you. And she is beautiful. And while you look at her to see whether it's Tara or Michael, it isn't either one of them. It's Elodie.

And so we all stare and smile and cry and welcome her to our family. We spend a bit of time with them and then it's time to go home and freshen up and rest. And so we nap but that involves me drifting in and out of sleep, thinking about the new baby. Until it's about 2 hours later and Ali and I ready to head back to the hospital. Where we relieve Michael and spend the next 7 hours with Tara and Elodie, and my parents too. Elodie is a quiet, little baby, who likes to stare at us when she is awake, which isn't often. She's beautiful too.

Tara is a 10/10 baby and her baby is a 4/4 baby. Welcome to the world, little Elodie! You are as lucky to have us as we are to have you.