I know I’m a couple of months late, and the news has already made its way around the social networks, but I wanted to “officially” announce the birth of my second child to the blogosphere. On June 15, 2010 at 12:54 PM, Aidan Lucas Edwards officially joined the cast of the Edwards family. Although Aidan’s birth event (thankfully) lacked a lot of the stress of his brother’s arrival a couple of years prior, this time around was just as blog-worthy.
Ginny and I had been trying to grow our family for a while. We didn’t seem to have a problem getting pregnant per se, but we had run into a few challenges staying that way. So, we were cautiously optimistic to learn that we were again once pregnant in late September 2009. Ginny wasted no time consulting with a specialist, who immediately started pumping her full of hormones to ensure the pregnancy would stick this time around.
In fact, my poor wife became something of a pincushion during the pregnancy. She had to take blood thinners every day, and then later she developed gestational diabetes, which meant testing her blood glucose about 4 times daily. It was as if fate was teasing her, “how badly do you want this baby?” Ginny is one of the most committed and diligent people I know, and although it couldn’t have been easy on her, somehow she managed to pull through.
Although Ginny made no bones about her preference for a girl, we found out at week 18 that we were in fact expecting yet another boy. She still insists it was my fault, like I somehow filtered my genetic contribution to include only the Y’s (the secret is how you…never mind). Throughout the remainder of her visits to the OB, she continued to ask the technician to please check again, just in case it was an arm or something. Nope, still a boy.
Fortunately, we were well prepared for “yet another” boy. In February, we moved Logan up to a “big kid” room and began preparing his old nursery for a new occupant. Ginny held onto all of his baby stuff, so we basically had to buy…diapers. Yep, that’s about it. Get ready for a lifetime of hand-me-downs, kid.
As the zero day approached, we meticulously compiled lists of our favorite names, figuring that we’d simply cross-reference our choices, find a match, and there we’d have our pick (yeah, we’re a couple of geeks). Turned out not to be such an easy task. Since Ginny really had her heart set on a girl, she burned a lot of time trying to figure out how to butch up names like “Sarah” and “Emma” before “Zachary” became her front runner. I really liked “Jackson,” so we found ourselves in a bit of a stalemate, and we aren’t exactly known for our ability to compromise. Logan offered up his suggestion of “Diego Velociraptor.” At the eleventh hour, we miraculously settled on Aidan Lucas. Aidan is a Gaelic name that means “little fire,” and Lucas means “he who continually tweaks classic sci-fi films.”
Getting ready to head to the hospital to deliver a full-term baby was unfamiliar territory for us. We kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Ginny was actually scheduled for a C-section on Monday, June 14th, but early that afternoon, the hospital called to tell us our doctor had called in sick (oh, the irony abounds). So we were in a holding pattern until the next day. Then another unexpected delay, but not until we’d already checked in at the hospital, so we were sort of like those airline passengers who find themselves stuck on the runway. Except they usually have decent internet access.
Around noon on Tuesday, they finally whisked my wife away to delivery. (BTW, Ginny has a whole saga to insert here, which I missed completely. Something about a giant needle and sheer panic.) Moments later, I found myself decked out in a gown, mask, and hairnet holding her hand and looking at absolutely nothing in the room except her eyes. Then in a flash and a one-foot incision, out came baby, and our lives changed forever…again. He’d really already been with us for nine months, but we were thrilled to finally meet him.
And so the next chapter of our family adventure began.
– Greg
gregsedwards 