boston baby portraits ~ nope, no baby yet! (sebastien miles)

It’s funny how as a young person in your twenties, you take in the events of your life, but not really. I mean you experience all the great life experiences, your high school graduation, your first date, your first kiss, your engagement and then subsequent wedding, birth of your own children, anniversaries, old age with your parents, etc. etc., and you do love all those events and have a good time as well as, challenges, but not like when you are older and have a keener perspective. As I sit here typing this, I look back on my own life. How I met Rich, our dating experience, our own engagement and marriage and then, the birth of our own three beautiful and wonderful children. As you read this, I am sure you are thinking the same of your own life and wondering where this is all leading. Our oldest daughter, Tara, whom you may remember, as I posted their wedding photos back on September 7, 2007 to Nick, gave birth to our first grandchild, a boy, aptly named Sebastien Miles Vuono, last Sunday, January 31, 2010 at approximately 3:54 p.m. in the afternoon.
I can remember getting the call like it was yesterday, Tara and Nick then living in London, called us to inform us that we were to be grandparents. I, all excited, and Rich, being the more contemplative one, asked the question that every father begs to ask “where had all the time gone, how could I now be of the age to become a grandparent?” Like the song says, you blink, and your life has moved on. Me, always the one to embrace such events, patted his semi-gray head of hair and reminded him how life stops for no one and that age old saying that “you are only as old as you feel”. Months passed and when they returned from their journeys abroad, they landed in Arizona for a visit. Our own “baby” was then four months pregnant and her little tummy was beginning to show the secret that lay inside it. The joy showed in their faces as they both excitedly and nervously awaited the birth of their first child. Tara, always the avid reader since she was 4 years of age, began absorbing as much reading material as she could on becoming a mom. The one thing I don’t think she or anyone else for that matter, could gather from all that reading material, was just how much love and closeness you can feel as a new mother to this child which has been growing inside you for all those months. But I knew.
We were in Arizona awaiting “the” call. You know the one. The one that comes in the middle of the night, the one where you can hear in your new son’s voice that it’s “time”, you need to come NOW. We waited, and waited, first she was 1 day late, then that turned into 2 days and so on and so on. At 6 days late, last Friday morning, while I made my bed, I received such a call. It wasn’t Nick though who alerted me that something wonderful was about to happen, but our youngest Ashlyn, who texted me (some things do change) that Tara was having pains, nothing severe, but she just wanted me “to know”. I called Tara only to find out yes, she was having pains, five minutes apart even, but there was a nervous giddiness in her voice. I knew and soon she would too, that although she was in labor, she was not “IN” labor. I asked if it was time to buy our tickets to Boston to await the birth, and she said “not yet mom”. We waited and waited. She walked the mall, watched tv and rested as best she could and yet nothing. We, on the other side of the country, waited as well. We decided to take a long desert hike that ended with a full moon, a perfect sign of impending birth and the most magnificent sunset I had ever taken note of. A few phone calls later, we were told to come and so we gathered our luggage and headed east that Saturday.

We were flying from Phoenix to Chicago and then on to Boston. Our trip would take us approx. 7 hours, surely I thought enough time for our little angel to be born. Part of me was sad that I wouldn’t be there anxiously awaiting his or her arrival in some stark white room outfitted with chairs and a tv that would be set to the prerequisite CNN. No, I, instead would be flying through the clouds, cell phone in the off position waiting to be turned on to blare that big green box that would read “Text Message from Nick……you now have a *****”. But each time the pilot would announce our landing from the cockpit, Rich would rush to turn it on as we sat there blankly staring at the i-phone, green lights glowing with all its bells an whistles igniting, only to find “no message”. In Chicago, we impatiently texted, Ashlyn. She answered saying that after a few trips to the hospital, the labor was stalled, no dilation was really taking place. We sighed okay as we stepped aboard our next flight, thinking surely, this time, we will hear something upon our landing in Boston. But again, nope, no baby yet. Nerves started to kick in mixed with excitement and jubilation of having a new baby boy or girl in our family. What would it be? Who would it look like? What time would it arrive? How big would it be? But none of these questions would be answered yet…………time was at a standstill as far as our little baby grandchild was concerned. He or she was on their own clock. It had now been about 42 hours since that first giddy phone call.
Nick picked us up at Logan Airport even though we said we would take a cab and transported us to their new home. A beautiful apt. set in Boston’s Back Bay area. We walked in and Nick left us to go downstairs to see how Tara was doing. He came up and asked me to go down to see her as he said he thought she needed me. I went down to find her laboring in the bed in their room with a very concerned Ashlyn sitting by her side. They had given her Ambien to sleep and instead it was making her feel horrible. She was in the throws of strong labor pains that were relentlessness in their presence and timing. I could tell she had been crying and need both sleep and relief. I advised her to go to the hospital as did Nick and see what they could give her for the pain. They left around midnight en route to the hospital while Rich, Ashlyn and I stayed behind. With Ashlyn in bed and Rich laying down, I was supposed to do what? Sleep? That was not going to happen. How could I sleep, when my “baby” was in all this pain for such a long time…… I laid there on the freshly made aero mattress waiting for something, anything, to let me know that she was alright, that the baby was fine, that we could celebrate and rush over to hug an snuggle him. But nope, no baby yet.

During the night I would periodically reach over Rich’s still boy and pick up the cell phone, just to check we had service, it was on, it was doing something other than sitting there on the floor silent. He too, laid there awake, silence between us, afraid that something, anything, could go wrong in this final stage. Finally, at about 2:30 a.m., I received a text from Nick. It read that they were moving her finally to a room and she would be administered an epidural to help with the pain and to give her time to get some sleep. Then silence until around 5:30 a.m. when they awoke to let me know that they had slept, thank God, and things were finally progressing. Little did I know that an hour away in Rhode Island, the other grandma, Nancy, was walking the floors as well! We were told to come now to the hospital, she was comfortable and that our new grandchild would definitely be born sometime that day before 7 p.m. on Sunday!

We showered quickly, all three of us, gobbled some bagels down, and rushed over to the hospital via a cab. When we arrived, we found them doing good now that her pain had been alleviated. It was now around 12 noon or so on a beautiful clear, crisp winter day. You know the kind, the ones with the blue sky devoid of a single cloud.

We talked, we laughed, Nick got Mexican food, I tried to eat, all the while staring at her, laying in the bed, waiting for her to what, pop?

Periodic checks by the nurse kept us all abreast of what was happening with her body, her pain, her dilation. I’d watch the many boxes all set forth spilling information on ticker tape. Every once in a while a nurse would come in, hold the mass of folded paper and read the pyramids of ups and downs diligently and then re-fold it neatly, paper clip it, and stack the little package neatly upon the table, like some sort of gift.

At around 2 p.m., Rich begrudgingly rushed down to the cafeteria to fetch us some drinks, thinking now I will miss the whole shebang.

But nope, no baby yet. The nurse came back in in his absence to tell us that it would be around 4 p.m. she predicted. We waited and then down the hall, amongst the chatter, we could hear laughter and small shouts of happiness as the birth of another little one arrived into the world. Then a 15 year old, 10 cm dilated arrived and all the commotion shifted in her direction as we could hear the rushing of feet down the hall beyond our curtain.

It was now 3:30 and our nurse returned and asked Tara if she felt the urge at long last to push to which she nodded yes.

A quick grabbing of our things, pocketbooks, soda, as we imagined we’d leave the room, was met with pleas from Tara to stay if we wanted to. To be a witness to the birth of our new grandchild. A secret longing to see my new grandchild enter this world pleaded at my heartstrings while I tugged at the sensibility of having her have this private moment to share with just her hubby. Upon her urging, Ashlyn and I decided to stay, to take photos of his “entrance” into this world and be of what moral support we could be, while Rich, being the good dad, decided to wait on the other side of the curtain.

After 58 hours of labor and just a mere 10 minutes of pushing, fighting back tears that would not relent, our little grandson, Sebastien Miles, was born at 3:54 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was 20″ in length. He was perfect in every way. He came into this world screaming his head off and grabbing the dr.’s hand as if to say “hold on lady, nope, no baby yet!”

And then there he was, all pink, ten little fingers and ten little toes, sandy brown colored hair, dark blue eyes.

No one preparing you for how much this little soul would mean to these people who had gathered and waited so anxiously all day Friday, all day Saturday and half of Sunday.

And, as gorgeous as it had been that Friday night with the full moon all aglow, and the crisp blue sky of the earlier day, God gave us another beautiful gift and put a gorgeous sunset right outside of our window!

So here he is…..part of a new little family with all those same desires and expectations set before him. Will he be organized and sensitive like his mommy

or be a soccer player, nature lover and good husband like his daddy?

Will he be smart and breeze through school and be a protector to his other siblings in the future? No one really knows………..but one thing is for sure, he is blessed with a loving home, a mommy and daddy who adore him and he has made an indelible mark on all of our hearts forever <3

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Amanda: Love it Mindy --- Thank you soooo much for sharing!! As ALWAYS the photos are amazing!! February 9, 2010 7:25 pm

Lysette Hill: Congratulation Grandparents! Your grandson is beautiful, and the pictures are wonderful! February 13, 2010 2:41 am

Kweilin: Awh how cute Congratulations! February 24, 2010 4:13 am

Lauren Walsh: Congrats on your first grandchild! I love the blog and the way you capture and share big events. If only we all had parents as photogs for life's big moments :). Congrats again! February 24, 2010 2:11 pm

Heather: Beautiful!!! Congrats again. March 12, 2010 10:32 pm

Theresa Iacobazzi: absolutely amazing... brought tears to my eyes!!! October 14, 2010 6:06 am

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boston baby portraits ~ nope, no baby yet! (sebastien miles)