The boy who stole my heart

If you haven't seen me around lately, its because I've been fawning for the last week (and not to depress anyone, but this might be going on for a while :) over my long awaited NEPHEW! On August 9th, 2014, I got to hold his little 8 lb 11oz body for the first time and kiss his sweet little head. Now that I'm an auntie, its going to take a lot to get me away from my little guy. I could hold him for hours- he is so beautiful that I can hardly stand it.

It all started out Friday night. My girlfriends Kim, Lizzy, and I went to a Dust Devils baseball game, and afterwords, I went over to Lizzy's house spur of the moment to spend the night, which meant that I didn't have any extra clothes. Or make-up. Or anything I would need to jump in the car when my sister called to say she was in labor. I had a half-packed bag waiting at home, but I had decided to wait to finish until we were about to leave. I was certain that after waiting all week for the call, that my nephew was not coming tonight. Well, obviously, my womanly intuition was a little off because I was wrong. Dead wrong!

After staying up until after 2:00am (talking about pregnancy and labor of all things :), I woke up about an hour later to the sound of Lizzy whispering "Dani!" in an effort to wake me up. I think I kind of freaked her out because as soon as she said my name, I sat up straight in bed to figure out what was going on. It turned out my phone had been ringing on the nightstand but I had been too conked out to hear it (no wonder Lizzy was startled- she probably thought I was too tired to hear her whispering :). As soon as she mentioned my phone going off, I knew it could only mean one thing.

Yep. My sister's water had broken in the middle of the night and my mom was packing up the kids to leave for Lynden. Baby Vander Veen was on his way!

I quickly got dressed, called someone at the house to finish packing my bag for me (I am obviously not a Boy Scout because I do not live by the "Be Prepared" motto! Special thanks to those who covered for me on this one. Needless to say, I learned a good lesson about expecting the unexpected), then my mom picked me up at Lizzy's house a little after 4 in the morning. My mom told me to sleep, but I knew I needed to trade her driving in an hour, and once I fell back asleep, I wouldn't be able to stay awake. So I toughed it out, ended up getting a cat nap in the car later, as well as about five more naps when we crashed at Philip and Stephanie's later that day.

We arrived at about 9:30 and dropped my mom off at the hospital. It was like, the longest day ever, waiting, waiting, WAITING to hear what was going on. At this point, my sister was still breech, so I spent a lot of time texting that day, as we had a whole team if people praying for a miracle.

I heard back later in the afternoon that the baby didn't turn and that Stephanie had gone in for a c-section. At 2:50, the sweet little baby boy was born!

The next three days were full of drives to the hospital, sibling duty, coffee runs, and prayers for recovery and safety. It was exhausting, but SO worth it, even though my nephew BAWLED the first time I held him. Apparently, it wasn't my fault because he was having a tummy ache, but by the end, I was crying too, not because I was stressed (okay, maybe I was a little :) but because he was just so precious and he was in my arms at last.

I can already tell my nephew takes after me in several ways. First, the name Philip and Steph picked out didn't fit him, just like the name Catherine didn't fit me. So he remained nameless (sound familiar :) until three days after he was born. But it was worth the wait to finally hear his name: Caleb Thayne (pronounced Thay-in) Vander Veen. He also takes after me because he likes to sleep a lot. And also, he is just so sweet, just like me :) :) :) That last one was kind-of a joke. Maybe I have a few things to learn from baby Caleb :)

I guess the moral of the story is... WHO NEEDS A BOYFRIEND WHEN YOU HAVE A NEPHEW??? I would way rather spend the day cuddling with little Caleb than with a hairy sweaty man boy who hasn't learned yet how to deal with the complex emotions of women. Granted, one day Caleb may grow up to think girls are gross. But for now, all he knows is that his Aunt Dani loves him so much, and he is content to sleep in my arms as I dream of the day when I will have my own son, so long as I get over my sweaty-man-boy-phobia and find someone to settle down with.

But for now, I have Caleb to love and cherish. And he is the best little guy a girl could ask for.