My love for Zachary

The Beginning:
When Audrey(his mom, my sister in law) was pregnant with Zachary I hoped that God's plan for them was to keep them healthy in this phase of life...and God did. I would feel Audrey's stomach all the time when she announced that he was moving. I LOVED it when he responded with movement of any sort and would sometimes kiss her tummy(in a non weird way, haha...we are extremely close) as if I was kissing his sweet self.

Fast forward

The News:
I was sitting in my living room on Monday Oct 26, planning on getting stuff done since I was going to work the next day. I saw my aunt on skype and was chatting with her when my mom called and said Audrey was 4cm and she and Brian were headed to the hospital. This was around 1:30pm. It was kind of funny I found out through skype(I was talking with my aunt, my mom called her and she said outloud what mom was saying on the phone) that they were heading to the hospital, I guess Brian told mom she could call everybody but Karen and me because he wanted to call us...who knew! We laughed about that later.

I slammed my laptop shut, jumped in the shower(which I normally take at night but had planned on running first that day)got dressed, packed a few pair of clothes to head to the hospital and off I went...only to realize when I was in my car heading out of the driveway that I had no idea how to get to Rex hospital, haha!

I did all that and was in my car with no directions in approximately 37 minutes. I was in such a hurry for one because I was so stinkin' excited. For two, I told Audrey awhile back when she asked, that she could use my laptop while she was in labor...this was their only request from me so I was gonna make it happen and was SO happy they asked!

The Hospital:
I found my way and was the first one to get there from our family. I hurried up and found audrey's mom, audrey, and brian sitting in the room. I dropped off my backpack, complete with my laptop, dvds, and some popcorn(for brian, haha) and gave him a hug. It didn't take me long to realize she was in active labor when I went to love on Zachary(aka Audrey's stomach) and as I was 2 inches away, audrey in her sweet voice said softly but firmly "wait!" and that's all it took. I know pregnant women(I'm an L&D nurse) so I respected that, and then her parents and I let them be as the cord blood lady came in to ask questions.

I talked with Audrey's parents outside of their room for about 10 minutes about common labor stuff/process and then we decided to just go to the waiting room. This was the last I saw of Brian and Audrey before Zachary. I did try to go back and see them and when I knocked on the door, the nurse outside said Audrey was showering. But I knew I heard another voice, only to find out later that Katie(audrey's sister) had snuck in for a few while I was with their parents walking around to find coffee. I'll try to fast forward a little and leave out some pretty pointless details...

So the families started piling in(and aunt Jill brought us all some Dunkin doughnuts!)...

Katie, audrey's sister, is pregnant herself and she was on edge for the majority of audreys labor, knowing her sister was in pain while laboring, etc. By on edge, I mean she did not like being on the other end of having a baby, the waiting part(she has a little boy)! None of us did, really. I found her at one point(when I got tired of not knowing myself)pacing the hallway hoping her sister was okay. I remember thinking and I think I said to her that Audrey is not only the sweetest, soft-spoken, most gentle person I knew, but also one of the strongest people I knew. Not sure if it helped her, but it helped me not to worry about her myself, haha.

Zachary is Born!:
Katie, Karen, and I were all sitting on a hard-ish type bench staring at the elevator for at least 2-3 hrs waiting for Brian or someone to get off and tell us we could come see our first Nephew! We watched the numbers go down from floor 2 like it was our job...and no one ever came. I asked the security guy if they had moved rooms and he said yes and gave me the number! I immediately told the family I knew he had been born and apparently they were in room 320. The real number was 323 but I wanted to beat them all and selfishly love on him myself so I purposely told them a different room. But I knew they would find out sooner rather than later, so it was more me trying to be funny...I only told Katie the real room number, I knew she was equally as excited as I was, we were such proud, excited aunts! We found out around 9:30pm that Audrey had delivered. Brian called mom and said we could all go up.

HAHA, it makes me laugh thinking about it. Katie, Karen and I b-lined it to the elevator and politely told our families that we could not wait for them, therefore we were the first ones in the room. We were greeted at the door by Brian holding Zachary swaddled nicely in a baby blanket and Audrey just as beautiful as ever in the bed. I loved on bubba(Brian) and gave kisses to Zachary(and then audrey), not wanting to seem selfish in asking to hold him, knowing I might not have first dibs considering there were a bagillion of us there wanting him...

Then the rest of the family came in and we all analyzed his adorable, most perfect and beautiful self and were overwhelmed with excitement. We were all there for a few and then people started to fizzle out(it was getting late) and just my immediate family and audrey's immediate family stayed around. We had much much waiting before we finally got to go back in and hold the sweet fella for a few. It was worth every bit of waiting to hold him, for the 10 minutes I got. I LOVED HIM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH. He was just beautiful. I'm not bias, haha...I've seen ALOT of babies, and he was gorgeous.

Work:
I debated for awhile onMonday about whether I should call out of work on Tuesday, and looking back I am SO glad I did. I went home with mom and dad that night and we went back up to the hospital the next day...and I got to hold Zachary AGAIN for a little longer(not nearly long enough of course though)! Katie and Bobby had stopped by for a few and they left shortly after we arrived. We played pass the baby for a little bit :) He was SO precious. His little foot at one point had become all dis-raveled in transit from one family member to another and was sticking out when I was holding him. My mom went to put it back in, and I said no...I wanted to see his little foot and leg. I loved it, and I am glad I got to see his little precious feet. I eventually covered them back up, I wouldn't let my little fella get cold!

That is all I have of my memories of Zachary. There are a lot more details I left out and I could add more to the story, but this is all I got for now...and its really long.

I am very thankful to have had the time I did with Zachary, many of our relatives never got to meet him or hold him. I feel so so grateful and miss him so so much. I loved him a lot. He will forever be my first nephew.