Dan and Hannah Have a New Grandbaby on the Way

Coming down the homestretch, our son Will and his wife Laurel are expecting their first child and our third grandchild on June 28.  They are going old school and will learn the gender of their baby when their bouncing baby turns their world upside down.

Since Will and Laurel live in Ithaca, New York where he works in the athletic department at Ithaca College and she is a nurse at a local clinic, Hannah and I will travel 400+ miles from our home on the coast of Maine to meet our new grandchild; Laurel’s mom Sandy lives about the same distance away from Ithaca on Cape Cod.  Fired up about the arrival of a new bambino, I ask you, who should be the first grandparent(s) to visit when the baby arrives?  Sandy or Dan and Hannah?

Hannah and I vote for Sandy.  We think it should be the mother of the new mother.  Laurel will have gone through the wringer and would quite naturally be most comfortable with her own mom around as she regains her strength and deals with being a new mom.

We have family history on our side as precedent.  When Molly gave birth to Owen in 2012 and Max in 2014 in Virginia 550 miles away from our home in Maine, her husband Tip, understood that Molly would be most comfortable with her mother (one Hannah Banana) during the days immediately after each of their son’s birth.

Certainly, if either family lived near to Virginia, they would go to the hospital and be a part of Opening Day.  Since both sets of grandparents lived a good day’s drive away (Tip’s mom and dad also live nearly 550 miles from Virginia), Hannah and I were the ones who were first invited to come to Virginia to see our grandsons.

Funny, how the universe had other ideas.

As it turned out, Hannah fractured her tibia water skiing in Maine a mere twelve hours before Owen was born.  As such, she and I weren’t able to travel for a while.  But that’s beside the point.  Tip got it!  Molly’s mom was the first one to come to support his wife.

Back to Will and Laurel.  A week ago, we received a sweet text from Laurel thoughtfully wanting to include us in the first days of the baby’s life.

Will and I wanted to offer that when we go in to the hospital for labor, that you are welcome to come and stay at our house, so you can meet Baby R when he/she is born. My mother will be here as well. We have decided to be just the two of us in the delivery room, but we would love to have you there soon after. We also understand if you’d like to wait until a later time, but the offer is there!   

Laurel’s equally sweet mother-in-law Hannah responds to them after she and I talked.

What a sweet offer, Laurel! We do think we’ll wait a bit ~ til your mom has had her time with you and Baby R… maybe even give you a day or two to then catch your breath ~ and perhaps even a rhythm of sorts?!  Of course, we’ll need/want pictures right away!!  We SO appreciate your thoughtful offer to have us come right away. Hope this idea sounds OK to you, though. Meanwhile, each day closer to June 28th gets even more exciting… We LOVE the weekly update pictures of Baby R’s beautiful mom!