No, I don’t mean the musical award, but yes, I do mean an award! There is nothing like having your child have a child. Nothing. Friends of mine who have already experienced this tried to tell me. I would smile and say I couldn’t wait, but I didn’t actually feel it – yet. You can’t really feel something until it happens to you. My daughter became pregnant with our first grandchild last fall. It was hard to wrap our heads around. We always chased this kid through life and the thought of her doing that to a kid was out of our realm of thinking. I’d be rich if I could have a dollar for everytime we talked about our “baby having a baby.” For eight months I waited for the “rush” of feeling. It wasn’t happening. Then the morning she was being induced and I was texting her, I broke down and cried. It hit all at once.
We left early for NY and got there in plenty of time. Sitting in the hospital room, not knowing how this was all going to go down, was the most frightening moment since HER birth. We went back to the hotel and made dinner. By 10 pm we still hadn’t heard anything. I went to bed in anticipation of getting some rest for a long night ahead. Good decision. Her husband called at midnight and said there hasn’t been much action since we were there at noon. Then, at 1:30 am he called and said, “This is happening!” We jumped out of bed, got dressed and drove to the hospital. We got ourselves settled in the waiting room by 2 am and sat. Those were the most frightening moments of my child’s life for me because I just sat there imagining what could go wrong. I ate stale nuts out of the vending machine and would give my right arm for a cup of coffee. (Not knowing there was a 24 hour DD 4 floors below me.)
Finally, at 3:19 am we get a text from our son-in-law – “He’s out!” I laughed and cried at the same time! I was a grandparent. A few minutes later our son-in-law came out and hugged us. It was very emotional. He had to get our daughter some Gatorade and then he told us he’ll be out to get us when we could come in. So, again, we sat and waited. Finally about 40 minutes later, he came out to get us, but he needed coffee and that’s when I found out about the DD! We went to get coffee, and then headed up to see her and our new grandson.
We got to the room and there she was – our baby holding her baby. The rest is history. We spent the rest of the Easter weekend taking turns holding him. He is amazing. He eats and sleeps and loves to just be cuddled. The new parents don’t seem new at all. They care for him like they had him always. It was a joy to watch the new family.
We left on Monday to come back to the Cape. It was so great to leave knowing that they were all doing so well. Inside of me there was an emotion waiting to bubble forth. I wasn’t prepared. They sent us pics of his homecoming and his first doctor visit. On Monday I sent him a welcome home present that arrived today. My daughter sent a pic of him with the book I sent him. It was a book about unconditional love. There it was. A connection made. I looked at that pic and fell in a love such as I have never known and cannot explain to you. In that moment I was “Grammy.”
Funny. Many people asked me what I wanted to be called – Nana, Grandma, etc. I said I had no idea and would let it evolve. My daughter said we would be Grandma and Grandpa when we were in the hospital and I said fine. But when I saw him with my gift, it was from “Grammy.” I was right. It evolved. I’m Grammy. I won the ultimate award. A “Grammy.”
And so, as another day goes by, I write this blog not for me, but for my little Liam so someday he’ll know how I felt about him coming into this world, how he moved into my heart, and about that important thing…I have written.
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