Good day friends near and far. Although I’ve been waiting about a week to actually write up this post, I can assure you that the excitement has not died down one bit yet. On November 11th, 2009, at 11:31pm, the world welcomed Julien David Hill Meyer. And what a dramatic entrance this little fella made. Try these numbers on for size. First major contraction was at 10:20pm. Several more followed at 10:30, 10:38, and 10:42. At 11:15, it was decided they should head to the hospital. At 11:20, they were let into a room, and 11 short, amazing minutes later, out popped (quite literally I’d guess) Julien! How crazy is that? Read on for a few more thoughts on this special day. Unfortunately, at this point, I don’t have too many pictures to share with you all, but I’m sure that will change over the coming months.
I guess the other important stats that people might be interested in of course are the weight, and health of mommy and child. Well, 6lbs. 3oz. was the weigh-in at birth, which made him even smaller than Helena when she was born. Since that time, he has already managed to pack on 6oz. though, which is a healthy weight gain since birth, so he’s on a good trajectory. Looks like this one might decided to do everything really fast. That doesn’t bode well for crazy uncle ActiveSteve, who’ll no doubt have to race against young Julien later in life 🙂
So, the health? Happily the whole Hill-Meyer family is healthy and happy (if not sleep deprived at this point). The rapid delivery caused a few little hiccups, resulting in poor Andrea and Julien having to stay at the hospital for an extra few days, but all is very well now. Clean bill of health from the public health nurse, his pediatrician, and all who lay eyes on the new family unit.
So why didn’t I post any sooner? Well, strictly speaking, I was under orders not to :-). You see, I didn’t want to be the one to spill the beans before Andrea had a chance to tell the world. When I finally did get the green light, I had a few other things I was working on, so I had to wait till I had time to write a proper post. I am happy to say that I’m probably the first person that heard of the birth, as we got the call very shortly after midnight that night. It had been a glorious day, and a perfect day in which to welcome a new little person into the family. Another plus? It’s highly unlikely that I’ll EVER forget his birthday! The next morning on my way to work, it was very foggy, a pretty magical bus ride. I wanted quite badly to meet my new nephew right away, but that would be impossible thanks to our annoying new friend H1N1.
Hospitals currently have a policy of 1 visitor only per new mom. That’s not 1 at a time, but only 1 ever. That of course would be Patrick. Even Helena would not be able to meet her brother until the weekend. Pretty annoying eh? At least it meant the hospital was a little quieter for Andrea. In the end, we only got to meet Julien later on Saturday, along with Granny and Grampy Hill, who had driven up from Picton. We had a nice visit and meal over at their house, before heading out. I’m sure we’ll have many more visits in the coming months and years, and I’m certainly looking forward to getting to know this little guy better. For the next little while, he won’t be super-interesting, but just wait till he get’s older. After all, Helena is a bundle of energy and always doing interesting things now.
What else can I tell you all? Well, not too much I guess, other than you have to wonder what roll the magic number 11 might play in Julien’s life. After all, he was born in the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2009 (which adds to 11), and he was also born in 11 minutes! A lot of coincidences, wouldn’t you say? Well, there are quite a few websites which talk about the mystical powers of the number 11. I’m not sure just how much I buy into any of them, but for fun, why not read what one site has to say about that? That’s it for now, gotta get back to my planning how to corrupt Julien as he gets older 🙂
