It's a Girl!
Colette "Coco" House was born on a freezing cold day in March in my hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We chose to name her Colette (nickname Coco) because it's a sweet French name, and it's not something that's going to be on a Top 10 names of 2013. It's also not the kind of name that requires an immediate explanation like Apple or Squash or Desk. Her middle name, Marian, was my Granny's first name. She passed away in December of 2011, and I loved her so much that I had to name my daughter after her. Colette was named after my father's mother and she was born on my Mimi's (my mom's mom) birthday.
Her delivery was extremely easy. Seth and I went to the hospital at 12am, I was given Pitocin, and was told to sleep. There wasn't any way I was going to be able to sleep because the contractions I felt were very uncomfortable. So I was given some kind of narcotic because I do not do feeling contractions. The nurse told me "this will work very fast". I figured her to be a liar when I wasn't numb before she could finished her sentence. I do not do feeling contractions. Then, wait for it, 2 more seconds past....awww yeaaaa...that shot had me seeing the world like those trippy Beatle's cartoons from the 60's.
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| high as a kite |
I also had a random exchange with Seth at about 3am...
I wake up, look at Seth, and see what looks to be him sleeping sans shirt with the hairiest chest in the world. Like bear fur chest.
K: Seth! Sick! Put your shirt back on! Where do you think we are?!
S: (half awake) Huh? I...I have my shirt on...
K: Gross! You don't! Put it on!
S: knows I'm high, falls back asleep
K: It's like I'm dreaming, and can change the plot of my dreams....
S: zzzzzzz....no, you still look pretty....zzzzzzzz
The doctor broke my water at around 7am, and I started progressing with lightening speed. My mom, sister, and mother in law arrived in the delivery room seconds before I started pushing. I'm kind of a champ pusher, my kids come pretty fast, and after about 10 minutes she came into the world. The doctor placed her on my stomach, and all I could think was how absolutely cute she was. Seriously, she was ridiculously good looking. She didn't have the beat up look like most infants; she didn't have any trace of cone head. Colette was an absolutely beautiful two second old (and still is at 2 months).
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| I had to add the rabbit hat on our Easter baby |
Benjamin loved her from the start. We all breathed a sigh of relief.
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| He had a lot of practice with monkey |
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Due to Benjamin and I going home for 3 1/2 months it almost felt like we lived back in Louisiana. It was absolutely wonderful; it's always great to be home. The long stay makes saying goodbye absolutely gut wrenching. It was like the first time I left, but this time I had a new addition-one who everyone fell in love with immediately- that was leaving them. I know I'll miss family; I know they'll miss me, but it's the most difficult when I think about them missing my kids. The next time Colette is home she'll be around 9 months old. Benjamin will be 4. They will have changed so much, and it's hard to think about the people who love them (other than their mom and dad) missing out on that. That's the most difficult part of this expat life. Leaving family again and again hasn't become easier. It has become extremely difficult.
Another difficult part of the trip was that Seth was only there for 4 weeks. It's no fun being back home without him! He had to leave earlier than us to return back to work (we're using the rest of his vacation to go to Spain in October), and we had to wait out Colette's passport. He was home two days before his baby girl's birth, and left 4 weeks after. There was plenty of snuggling and crawfish eating done in those 4 weeks!
In our 3 1/2 months home we got to celebrate Mardi Gras (see post below), Easter
Once we had Colette's passport in hand we were able to head out. One 3 year old, one 6 week old, one scared Mom, one prepared Granny, 12 suitcases and 4 carry on's all left New Orleans on May 12th. Benjamin, as always, was a champ flier. Colette slept most of the way. I think the whooshing sound of the airplane really helped with that. The trip was pretty seamless excluding my mad rage for KLM booking my mom on a separate flight once we were in Amsterdam. However, I'm so glad to report that we were fine without her help. Egypt Air is one of the best airlines in the world to fly with kids. They bent over backwards to help me. Delta, well their flight attendants literally stood a foot away from me and watched as I struggled with getting Coco into her Ergo and tried to balance two carry on's. Egypt Air put away all of my bags, played with Benjamin, and couldn't of been more kind. Delta- your suckage knows no bounds. Shape up.
| all expat mom's in Egypt agree that Egypt Air is awesome |
It's great to be back in our home across the ocean. We came back at just the start of summer. Tomorrow's high is going to be 106. Can I plan stuff or what?! I am glad to have our family together again though. Even if we're together and all sweating- we're all together. Team House reunited with our newest member- the beautiful Colette Marian House.
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| Welcome to Egypt, Colette |
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