miracle of... thinking alike

our dear friends and neighbors, judah and sonia, welcomed a beautiful baby girl into their lives over the weekend. it was a long and arduous process—the leading up to delivery, the actual labor, and the general stress of having family members in town, awaiting the blessed event. naz and i stayed out of the way until we were given the all clear—a text message saying the baby was out and healthy.

we trekked down to st. luke’s in the mission monday night to meet leila celeste. as naz and i got closer to the hospital, we just kept saying to each other, “man! they have a baby!” perhaps it was our idle way of addressing the inevitable change of things, wrapped in a sincere disbelief that nine months had just passed by.

we walked in to their room just as feeding time for the little one had ended. judah was wrestling with her to get her properly swaddled, calling her “little duder” and “little monkey.” he positioned leila back into sonia’s arms, but she quickly asked if i wanted to hold her. i scooped her up and sat with her for a bit. she seemed quite content, just looking around, possibly marveling at this new world she had entered. i eventually passed her off to naz, and he stood with her, rocking her, caressing her little hairs and her soft cheek. i offered him a chair, but he refused the first couple of times. i was actually impressed with how long he stood with her before resigning himself to a chair.

his arm tiring, he handed her back to me—i think the new parents were glad to have some reprieve; most of their family members went home before leila was even born. i made sure to prop my left arm up this time, so i, too, wouldn’t tire too quickly. she wiggled a bit, squawked briefly, but overall, just hung out and eventually fell asleep. at one point, i looked over and sonia had drifted off as well while we chit-chatted with judah and sonia’s step mom.

we eventually grabbed dinner with the new dad, then later walked sonia’s step mom to her hotel. once naz and i were alone again, i made a confession.

“so when i first picked up leila, i was afraid i would get that pang. y’know, that maternal thing. but i didn’t, and that made me happy. i’m glad we’re in the neighborhood, and we can play aunt and uncle, but i still don’t want any children.”

“that was the longest i ever held a baby. and i guess i wanted to see if i had any fatherly feelings. but yeah, i still don’t want any of our own.”

and then we high-fived. yay for being a pseudo aunt and uncle. and for being on the same page.

31 March 2010