Ilona Comes With the Rain

Since apparently the only time I have for blog posts is when I'm home taking care of a newborn baby, I didn't want to miss the opportunity this time! For those not aware of the adventurous life the Corse Collins family has been leading lately, I wanted to do a recap of the past 3 crazy weeks... Thursday November 21: Ben and I went to downtown Houston and signed millions of papers, thus completing the closing of the deal on our new house. Saturday November 23: With the help of movers (since I couldn't lift anything) we moved and spent the first night in the new house. Monday November 25: One of the worst Monday mornings I can ever remember. It was raining hard and we attempted a family commute in our 1 car. I was in the car for a total of 4 hours that day, getting everyone where they needed to be and collecting them later. Tuesday November 26: 1 car family commute day 2. Still raining but not as hard. When it rains in Houston the streets are filled with water due to the nonexistent elevation above sea level - it makes driving quite the adventure. I went to my 38 week doctor's appointment in the afternoon, where my blood pressure was found to be high. My doctor told me that I needed to go to the hospital that night and have the baby in the morning. This caused me to burst into tears since it meant that we wouldn't be able to go to Austin the next day, where we had planned to spend Thanksgiving and the weekend with my parents, sister, brother, and their families, although in retrospect these plans were cutting it a bit close (you might find a trend here). Along those lines, and representative of my life lately, I had a grant deadline on December 3. I didn't want to worry about this over Thanksgiving so I was almost ready to submit but needed a few more hours. With baby coming this became a real emergency. So, around 7 pm, Ben and Bluet dropped me off at the hospital with my computer, and I finished the grant, submitting it at 2 am that night. Wednesday November 27: I woke up in the hospital, but I was moved down the list of those most in need of a C section due to the arrival of women in worse shape than I. So, I spent the morning wishing for coffee, being hungry (no food or drink because of the impending surgery) and responding to work emails. Around 11 am, I actually went into labor much to my surprise. A couple of hours later I was having painful contractions 5 minutes apart, which moved me back to the top of the surgery list. Maybe Ilona had gotten hungry as well but in any case she had decided it was time to come out. So, we were whisked to the OR, prepared for surgery, and she was born at 2:49 pm, 7 pounds 2 ounces and screaming her head off. If my anesthetized memory is correct Ben came dashing in about 5 minutes later, having been occupied with meeting my mom so that Bluet could represent us at the Thanksgiving holiday, cleaning out our old apartment, and some of the other tasks on our very long list. Ilona's name comes from a novella by the Colombian writer Alvaro Mutis (Ilona Comes with the Rain). I highly recommend his collection of novellas "The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll" - I first read them about 10 years ago and they continue to be memorable. And, it turns out that Ilona did come with the rain. Here is Ilona today: