Monday, June 8, 2009

Joys of Paternity Leave

Like Father...Like Son

Friday, June 5, 2009

BROTHER "BABY BOY" BASALUSALU

Sunday May 31st at about 9:30 p.m. I accompanied the wife to the hospital for a scheduled induction. Lots of anticipation and excitment surounded our 5 minutes drive to the hospital because we are one of the many old-fashioned couples around that still enjoyed the thrill of waiting till our babies arrive to find out what gender they would be. The night started off great, with an awesome and outstanding nursing crew. Nurse Jo even gave us some aloha loves after we found out that we all spent years in Hawaii. Hoooo, the Aloha hugs and kisses, I miss those type of greetings. At any rate, back to the hospital, after getting pricked and hooked up to monitors, we settled in for the night. Wifey on her nice hospital bed and me on my "Foreverstrong" hospital pull out chair/bed.

Sleep was good for the both of us. At 7:30 a.m. June 1st, the Doc. shows up with his big mug of coffee. The induction process started and he left to go do a C-section. Contractions increased and the nurses got everything preped. Our history at this hospital (having had the previous 2 here) is that the babys come fast. In 20 minutes, she dialated from a 2cm to 4cm. Nurse Mary phoned the Doc to let him know that he better hurry with the C-section. Well, long story short, after a few adjustments here and there and with a couple of big pushes, baby showed up at 9:15 a.m. on June 1st.

This is where the fun, suprise, shock, or whatever happened. After baby came out, I looked to see what the gender was. It was clearly a boy, and I did not even have to take a double take. With her desire to know what it was, wifey asked, "What is it? What is it?" I said, "It's a boy". She said,"No it can't be". Nurse Mary said, "Well, if it's a girl it sure has some clear boy parts". To understand this moment, you should know that we have had dreams, plans, and hopes for another girl. So when he arrived, it was as if we were given a wrong address to a very important meeting. However, deep down we know that there is a reason why he is here.

With all the "shock", we struggled to find a name for this baby boy. We've been to the lab a couple times where the nurses asked if his real name was Baby Boy. After much thought and prayer, baby boy is now officialy known as LONNIE FAITALA YAVACA BASALUSALU. So, back to June 1st, 2009 at 9:15 a.m. the Basalusalu Clan welcomed to "This Crazy Thing Called Life" a little boy named Lonnie Faitala Yavaca Basalusalu who weighed 6 lbs. 12 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. The name Lonnie is after the wife's second maternal grandfather and Faitala, though a Samoan name is the middle name of my older brother. Translation wise, it is said that Lonnie means noble or ready and Faitala in Samoan indicates nosy or a busy body. So in our hands we have a READY NOSY NOBLE. Now try top that. If all these translations are true, be forewarned, whether you like it or not, this boy will be forever ready to be in your business :) All kidding aside, we are happy to have him as a part of our family.

It has been told that children before reaching the age of accountability (which is 8) are the closest people to Heaven and do at times speak with angeles. This was confirmed to me as I drove with Vai on Tuesday to the grocery store. He asked if we had decided on a name because he really liked Lucas. I told him that Mommy and Tata had not because we had thought that it was going to be a girl. He paused for a couple minutes and then told me this: "I knew that Heavenly Father would not lie because He had told me that our next baby was going to be a boy". We have been teaching our kids to say their personal prayers and bless baby to be healthy when it comes and I guess at one point, Vai had this exchange with the Lord. There is a reason that Lonnie is here, and with this experience I had with Vai, I have a stronger testimony of the scriptures that say,"Blessed are the little ones for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven".