Hello Baby... McElveen!

August, 604
Simdale Valley
Featuring Laney and Declan McElveen.  Laney and Declan are 40 years old.  The McElveen Family profile is here.

Charlotte, Sienna are 3 years, 11 months.  Jackson Endeavor is 68, Chloe Endeavor is 66, George and Simone Endeavor are 32.  Naomi Redbird is 32, and Dr. Sayuri Ono is 48.

Last Update/Next Birthday Post/Update

Laney went for what would be her final prenatal appointment for this pregnancy in mid August, 604.   Her mother-in-law, Chloe McElveen, went with her so that Charlotte could come along. 

Charlotte was almost four, but it seemed like she knew big things were about to change, and she had been acting more like a two year old, lately.  Laney wasn't sure how she was going to be ready to start four-year old kindergarten or deal with being a big sister.  She had always needed a lot of attention, but now she was downright whiny.

Laney was pretty relieved to be called in to wait in the privacy of the exam room.  Between the August heat and Charlotte's tantrum, she felt like she was about to explode.  And she never would have left the house in such slouchy clothes, normally, but right now, all she cared about was being comfy.

Nurse Gavigan was just explaining that everything looked good, and the baby had positioned himself, or herself, head down, when Declan burst in.  

"Got here as quick as I could," he said.  "What did I miss?"  

Laney thought, "it's not like you knew about this appointment last month..." and then took a deep breath and told herself to calm down.   Laney knew that she was a control freak, and this pregnancy had her feeling completely out of control, not to mention all her parenting work with Charlotte seemed to be falling apart. 

"When do you think the baby will come?" She asked the nurse, already knowing the answer, but compelled to ask anyway.

He surprised her a little with the specificity of the reply, "It won't be more than a couple weeks, I'd say," because you are fully effaced and 4 cm dilated.  Stay nearby, ok, so you can come in as soon as those contractions get to four, five minutes apart."  Dr. Ono said you are good to go, you can plan on delivering here at the clinic unless something unanticipated happens, and she has the airlift in Port Prominence on alert just in case.

Sure enough, before the end of the month, Laney and Declan were back at the clinic, this time in labor. 

Laney was feeling a lot better already; at least once the baby was born, they could work on building a new normal.  Chloe and Jackson had come to stay with Charlotte (Laney felt she would be more comfortable in her own home than the chaos that was her sister-in-law's house).  Declan hadn't even left for work yet, when she went into labor, so she didn't have to worry about him missing the birth.

After the nurse got them all settled in to the birthing suite, Dr. Ono came in to check on Laney, and said she was at 6 cm.  Laney had made a birthing plan, to do her pushing sitting up, and Dr. Ono told her to let the nurse know as soon as she felt ready to push.

Laney lost her cool when the baby was rounding the tailbone, but Declan called for the nurse and let him know the baby was coming soon.

Dr. Ono came back as soon as Laney started to feel like pushing, and checked the baby's heart rate.  

She told Laney, you are good to go, when the next contraction starts, push!

Both Declan and Dr. Ono coached her, as she breathed deeply.

After what seemed like a lot longer than Laney remembered with Charlotte, their baby slipped out into Dr. Ono's hands, Declan and nurse Gavigan helped her in the bed, and Dr. Ono put their baby on her chest.

They had a little boy!  With the little scrunched up face of a wizened little man, and a funny shaped head; he was the most beautiful sight Laney had ever seen.

"hello, little Ethan," she said.  "I've been waiting to meet you."

"Isn't he perfect, sweetie?" she said to Declan.

"Definitely.  Perfect."  Declan looked like he was going to bust with pride.

The next morning, Dr. Ono discharged them, and Chloe and Jackson met Laney, Declan, and Ethan at home.  Chloe took Ethan right away, which gave Laney a chance to hug Charlotte.

Then Charlotte got to meet her little brother. 

Soon the whole family started pouring in.  Naomi, Laney's sister, was excited to be an aunt for the second time.

But she spent most of her time playing with Charlotte, which was good for her, since all the attention was on Ethan.  Naomi thought it was awfully considerate of Laney to have kids, so Naomi could enjoy them without having to parent them!

Charlotte wasn't the only one noticing that babies get a lot of attention; Sienna wasn't too sure about her mom holding Ethan, either.

Thankfully, Chloe was looking out for everybody and made sandwiches before there were any hunger meltdowns.

Everybody else seemed too busy catching up to think about logistics, like eating.  You wouldn't know they all lived within a 3 block radius of each other!

Little Ethan seemed pretty content; maybe he was going to be a little more laid back than Charlotte.

Eventually, Naomi hugged Laney and let her know she had to get to the salon, but call her if she needed her.

Finally, there was no one left but Laney, Declan, Charlotte, and Ethan.

And Laney and Declan finally got to just look, and look, at their son. 

Declan gave Ethan his first bath.

And put him down when he got sleepy.

Notes:

I decided to wait on making a new portrait when Charlotte and Sienna age up, in the next update, instead of doing one now AND one then; they just don't look a month away from four as toddlers.

When Laney started pushing (as soon as I changed the Labor of Love pose from rest to push the first time), Declan started having major attraction to her!