My long-awaited nephew was finally born. I spent an entire evening with him on Thursday night. He was a little slow feeding, so I was called in to coax him to drink some formula.

I sat with him in my lap, and he held one of my fingers in each hand. He was watching the wall behind me intently, and every so often his eyes would widen and he would squeeze my fingers tightly. I don't know what he was seeing, but it was quite amazing to him.

The best part was when my nineteen year old nephew joined us for a few minutes. I got to finally tell him some of his baby stories, while we sat burping his new little brother.

I told my sister tons of info about when my kids were babies, but my most important advice to pass along was the advice I got from the mechanic at Sears while I was pregnant with my first child: The first six weeks are the hardest. Just get through the first six weeks, and you'll be fine.

Little did he know, he saved me with those words. The hope, offered by my mechanic from Sears, was enough to carry me through the hard times with my newborn.

Anyway, my sister laughed when I told her, but I bet sometime in the next six weeks, the mechanic's words will bring her reassurance!

For lack of anything better to write, today I will tell some of my favorite bloodletting experiences:

1. Pregnant with my first child, I decide it would be fun to take my four-year-old nephew with me to my blood test. I lean him against the wall in front of me, and in full "Aunt Nana" mode, explain the intricacies of the blood test, as my nephew turns green and slides down the wall.

2. Pregnant with my second child, the nurse decides that, instead of sending me to the lab to have blood drawn, she will do it herself in the office. She can't find a vein in my arm, so she tries on of the plump, juicy veins on the back of my hand. She still can't do it, so she calls another nurse, and the two of them jab at me with a vengeance. The pain was intense, but instead of speaking up, I decide to be polite and just pass out. I wake up in a puddle of sweat with smelling salts under my nose. On my way out, the nurse tells me that I should have "had something to eat" before I came to my appointment.

3. While in the hospital, the techs come by in the middle of the night to draw blood. I hear the lady in the next bed (in full flirt mode even at 3:00am) say to the tech, "You can take my blood anytime." The tech responds, "You shouldn't say that to a vampire." I pretend to be asleep when he takes my blood.

4. At the lab at the hospital, the tech is drawing my blood, when without warning, a female wearing a very revealing bikini walks into the lab (!) All of the male techs continue to draw blood from the rest of us unlucky patients without actually looking at what they are doing.

I'm not much in the mood for writing, but I am still reading...over there on the right I will continue to share my favorites if you are interested.