The next morning, I heard Michael and Maren in the kitchen at 5 in the morning, and then someone left the house. They weren't having an argument by the sounds of their voices, so I just assumed they were going out to get some fresh breakfast rolls from the bakery before it closed up again for the holiday, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. At 8 I woke up and went upstairs to find the kids watching TV in the living room and the breakfast table not set. That was kind of weird, because Maren had clearly been awake for hours and the first thing she does in the mornings is set the table, but I went ahead and set everything out for us and then went to go sit with the kids in the living room. After about half an hour, I hadn't seen either Michael or Maren, so I asked Merit where her parents were. Merit said that her mom was in the hospital, but her dad was upstairs sleeping. My goodness, did I feel like the biggest idiot, for not realizing that that was the reason Maren was awake at 5 am. Apparently her water broke around 4am, but she had enough time to shower and finish up packing her emergency bag before leaving for the hospital. Michael stripped her bed, carried her mattress out to the trash, and dropped her off, but came back so he could sleep a little bit longer. He came down for breakfast at 9, and I asked him if he should go alone or if we should all go in together, and he said we should all go together, but suggested driving separately so I could leave with the kids whenever they started getting bored.
So I got the kids and myself ready, we got to the hospital around 10:30 am, and had to wait for awhile before going in to see Maren. Merit and Marten were the first ones in the room, and you could immediately see the concern on the kids faces when they saw their mom. She was breathing heavily, the way you're supposed to, and hooked up to all these machines that measure not only her vitals, but that baby's as well. Marten asked if she was going to die, and Maren laughed and told him that everything was fine and she would be better than ever in a couple of days. The baby's heart rate increased drastically once we arrived, so Maren said we should only stay for a couple of minutes before heading out again. (The kids kept complaining and arguing, so it was only adding stress for her.) So I took the reluctant kids back home, promising them that their mom was going to be ok. Once we got home, I settled down with my book while the kids jumped off the trampoline, and not a half hour later I got a text message from Michael saying that the baby had just been born. Her name is Miriam, and she weighed 3,040 grams upon arrival and was 49 centimeters long. (aka- adorably tiny!!)
Later that day, Maren's parents came over to visit with their daughter and granddaughter, and to take Marten to stay with them for a couple of days. Maren stayed in the hospital until Thursday, but we kept our barbecue date that evening with the neighbors. Everyone joked about how rude it was of Maren to not attend.
Today is Sunday, so they've only been here for 3 days, but it already feels totally natural to have a baby in the house. She's very calm and quiet most of the time, and only starts to whine when she's hungry or has gas. She usually sleeps between 3 and 5 hours at a time, (Maren puts her to bed around 11:30 and usually has to wake her up between 4 and 5 for her next feeding!) and is given lots of love and attention by her big sister, Merit. Marten still hasn't come home yet, so I'm sure the dynamic will change once he is back. He demands a lot of attention himself, since until now he has always been the baby in the family and is used to having at least one adult give it to him. In fact, any time his mom is having a conversation with someone else, he starts saying "Mama!" louder and louder until she actually turns away from the other person and listens to him. So this should be interesting... But I think he'll learn pretty quickly that he can't yell anymore and can't always have attention. Hopefully, anyway :P
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