Rosie # 5 -- Daniel James!!

Rosie and Anthony moved into a tiny little apartment; a "student apartment" that was 1/4 of a very oddly divided old creaky house near Midsized-University. Rosie continued with her senior year at Tiny-Catholic-College. And at Thanksgiving they had an annoucement -- grandbaby #1 was on the way!

This was difficult for Arwen, who was still struggling with infertility, but the rest of us were delighted. Rosie, unfortunately, was also nauseated. Badly, most of the time, and for a long time. How she managed that with classes, I can't imagine. But eventually she felt better, and in early May we attended her graduation. The baby was due in early July, and since Anthony had changed from "self-employed landscape contractor" to "valued sales employee of large software firm" and was now making more money, they started looking for a larger apartment. And, oh, yeah, now that she was out of college Rosie might start thinking about childbirth classes, because she'd been too busy before.

The hospital where her obstetrician (who was also by this time Arwen's obstetrician, hurrah!) practices has regular tours for prospective parents and their support people. Since I have six kids, have been there at the births of several friends babies, and at one time read almost obsessively on the subject of childbirth, Rosie signed me up to take the tour with them in mid-June (which I figured was cutting it a little close, but she was a grown married woman now....). But before our scheduled tour date, and five weeks before the due date, our phone rang early one morning. Rosie's water had broken, they were at the hospital, and today was going to be the day.

I flung some clothes into a suitcase, braved the rush hour traffic between me and them, and found my way to the OB floor. Rosie was not in much pain yet, but a little scared, and definitely unprepared -- she and Anthony had never gotten to any classes, and she was only 2/3 of the way through the book she had decided to read instead! Fortunately, she's the kind of person who listens to authority (OK, in this case me), and also fortunately, her labor was much shorter than it could have been, because I was able to successfully coach her, step by step, until just after noon, a tiny but gorgeous little guy arrived. Daniel James! They hadn't told anyone what names they were considering, and had chosen not to know whether he was a boy or a girl(although Arwen had seen the ultrasound.) I thought both he, and his name, were perfect.

Although Daniel is now 17 months old, that time has gone by like the wind! Rosie and Anthony are excellent parents. They have moved twice since Daniel was born (once to that bigger apartment, and recently to their own house). We see them quite regularly, here and there, and it was pure delight to have Rosie and Daniel here for part of this week while Anthony is in Hawaii on business. Anthony and Daniel will each get their own series of posts later, but for tomorrow -- on to Maggie!