Chapter 5, Welcome to the World!
July 17, 2002
Something my parents have been doing now for the past two weeks is having us spend time with some of our aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Mom told us that sometimes babies have their own schedules and want to be born early. She also told us that it hurts a lot and doesn’t want us to hear her in pain. Luckily for mom and dad, I think Bex is going to be born on time, though at what hour is a little bit of a mystery. Our parents have both been spending most of their time in Uncle Tony’s house, as he lives pretty close to a hospital. It was 6:26 pm; Auntie Patrica was watching the news. I had nothing better to do, so I joined in on watching. Just then, the phone wins and Aunt Patrica answers; she has a look of confusion and excitement on her face. After she hangs us, she makes an announcement.
“Ken! Lorezno! Brenden!” She exclaims, “We have to go!”
“Where are we going?” I say, as I turn off the tv.
“Well isn’t it obvious Little Kenny?” Lorenzo says.
I connect two and two together, then I realize it; my baby sister is going to be born! After I gather all my things, I enter the car. There I wait for Brenden, Lorenzo, and Auntie Patrica to enter. Once we do, we drive to the hospital and enter the emergency room, Aunt Patrica talks to the woman at the reception desk and we’re allowed in. We sit in a room on the 5th floor, the TV in the corner is playing the news. There was a vending machine in the room, I was getting hungry as my stomach growled. I think I also heard Lorenzo and Brenden also growl, hearing that Auntie Patrica gave us some money and told us
“Hey, you can get a snack while we wait for Bex to arrive” She says in a happy go lucky voice.
Me and Lorenzo go over to the vending machine, I want some chips at the top row; though I can’t really reach it.
“Hey Lorenzo…” I say, “Can you get me the yellow chips for me?”
“Yeah little Kenny” He says, he inserts my 5 dollar bill into the machine, it gives him the chips. He then places it on my head and says, “Hah! Shortie”
“What was that for!” I tell him
“Well, the last time I can say you’re the shortest one!” He says, before he giggles.
It’s true, I finally won’t be the ones with the short jokes! Though I feel like Bex wouldn’t enjoy them that well, I’ll just need to protect her until she can do so on her own. 10, then 15 minutes passed, and a lot more family members came to wait here. My grandparents even showed up for this. Finally, a nurse walks up to us and she announces we can take turns entering the room. Luckily for me and my brothers, we’re the first to enter the room and see our mom and dad. We walk in, I see dad standing next to the bed; my mom is in a gown holding the baby. That baby is my new sister, her name is Bex. My mom sees us walk in and says
“Are you guys ready to hold Bex?” She says, mom is clearly tired; I can imagine that took a long time. As it’s now 9:48 pm.
“Hey mom” I reply, “Before we can, is the baby really a girl?”
“Yeah you can” Mom says, she quickly shows us
“Yeah, the doctors were right,” Lorenzo says.
Soon after, Brenden is the first to hold her. I see little Bex, she’s sound asleep. I heard that babies often cry soon after being born, so we probably waited a few extra minutes before we were able to enter the room. Soon after a few minutes it’s Lorenzo’s turn to hold Bex, I really want it to be my turn though. I heard Brenden and Lorezno do some little talk with Bex, and now it’s my turn to do so. I’m given Bex by Lorenzo, as I hold her I look down at her. She’s still peacefully sound asleep as we pass her around. She has no freckles like what me and Lorenzo have, so I hope she doesn’t become a meanie like Brenden. I whisper into little Bex’s ear
“Welcome to the world, little Bex.” And honestly, I’m excited for all the moments we will have together.
A few minutes after meeting Bex, we are driven home by Uncle Tony. It’s getting kinda late after all. It's really past my bedtime, luckily it’s the summer so I don’t have to worry about school. Uncle Tony is going to sleep with us tonight while my parents are going to stay overnight at the hospital. Uncle Tony tells us
“Alright kiddos! You should all get ready for bed!”
“Alright!” Me, Lorenzo, and Brenden all collectively say.
We all start to get ready for bed, I can’t really wait for Mom, Dad, and Little Bex to make it home. Though I wonder how it's going to be like living at home with a baby. Mom and Brenden told me stories on how I used to cry in the middle of the night as a baby, so it might be my turn to experience that. I hopefully still get enough sleep and luckily it’s still the summer so I don’t have to worry about having to wake up before a deadline. When we woke up the next day, Uncle Tony was gone and my parents and Bex were home. She’s very tiny, my parents said she weighed 7.3 pounds; though soon she’ll start to grow. I change my clothes, and we go to the nursery; there is where Bex would sleep. There’s a lot of pink in this room, and cute drawings of animals on the walls. Bex is asleep at the moment so mom placed her in the crib. After she placed little Bex in the crib she told us.
“Ken, Lorenzo, Brenden; please don’t intentionally disturb your little sister.” Mom says before returning to the living room.
So now, there’s 4 Pop Siblings; three boys and one girl. Of course there’s Lorezno, Brenden, and of course me! And now we have Bex, the baby of our family. It’s going to take a bit to get used to 4 siblings and saying ‘I have 2 older brothers and 1 baby sister.’ But I think I’ll get used to it soon!