3/5/14. The post where I get a new niece.

3/5/14: I was still feeling pretty bad last night, but I went straight to sleep when I got in bed.  A deep sleep - so deep I didn't hear the strange noises coming from our bedroom until my patient, long-suffering husband woke me up saying, "Can you hear that?"  Weird tapping and thumping all along the wall, like our cat was rolling around with a metallic toy.  Except we don't have a cat.  

Our next thought was that there was a mouse or some other kind of critter stuck inside the wall, although it sounded like it was coming from inside the room.  (I actually had a few other, much scarier thoughts, as I suspect he did, but we wisely kept them to ourselves.)  It was pitch black, but he bravely got out of bed to track down the source of the noise while I clutched my cell phone, with 9 and 1 already dialed, just in case.  

The source of the noise?  Some pigeons, trying to get out of the wind and cold, had decided to roost right up against the door leading from our bedroom to the patio. Periodically they would roust themselves and walk back and forth on the metal door plate, bumping against the door as they walked.  Our first thought was to shoo them away, but it was so cold we didn't have the heart to do it. They stayed all night, doing their periodic impressions of the Ghost of Christmas Past, and were still there when I got up this morning (pain level down to about 7, by the way).  By the time I left for work, they were gone, but they had left us quite a few reminders of their presence on the patio.  Time to buy a plastic owl.  And a pressure washer.

Shortly after I got up, I received a text telling me that my brother and his lovely wife (my sister-by-love) had gone to the hospital for the arrival of my new niece, about five days shy of her due date.  My family has a well-considered communication plan for such events (which I'm sure doesn't surprise any of you at this point) and we are always excited to put it into action.  An integral part of the communication plan is that no news is good news.  The next text would be the one informing me of her appearance, so I kept my phone close by all day.  

No word all morning.  This afternoon was my first PT appointment in nearly two weeks, so I reluctantly put away my phone.  Even though I had been doing my exercises, it was sort of a rough appointment because of my condition the last few days. Everything seemed to irritate my foot, so they were very careful.  I did more mirror therapy, and it was interesting to see that afterward my right foot turned red and complained loudly like I had worked it out, even though it had done nothing but rest on the floor for ten minutes while my left foot did all the work.  Interesting, and also annoying.  

I checked my phone immediately after PT for news of my niece.  Still nothing.  I went home to rest a little before our church's Ash Wednesday service.  While I was home, I got an interim text.  Things were progressing, but no niece yet.  This was approximately 11 hours after the first text.  I thought about how tired my sister-by-love must be already.  You go, girl - you can do this! 

Finally, just as we were walking into church to begin the service, the text came.  Raven Miranda came into the world at 7 lbs 7 oz and 20 1/4 inches long. So today was a great day.  As her uncle (AKA my patient, long-suffering husband) pointed out, a Raven born on Ash Wednesday is destined to be a handful.  Just like her aunt.