I didn’t get any sleep last Thanksgiving night.

And I was about as thankful as a person can be.

I won - I had to fight for it - the right to stay up all night with our newest grandchild for the second night of her life.

From about 10 a.m. to about 6 a.m., I held little Kaylee, walked her around the hospital floor, laid her on my lap and generally enjoyed every minute.

Our family has grown by three this fall.

We got a new grandson on the first day of the fall semester, a new granddaughter on Nov. 1, and another granddaughter the day before Thanksgiving.

All three babies and all three mothers came through in great health.

We only have three children, so it was a three-for-three fall. Our oldest, a daughter, and her husband had their third child and first daughter. Our second oldest, a son, and his wife had their second child, both girls. And our youngest, a son, and his wife had their first, a son.

Because one lives in New York and one in South Carolina, we had quite a fall of traveling. But it was worth it. And we were able to spend Thanksgiving weekend close to home; our daughter lives in Saline.

I’ve always wondered why some men think they’re too macho to participate in the birth process, helping with all the little details of nurturing a new life through those first days.

They don’t know what they’re missing.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.