Asher's Birth

I'd have to say that this was by far the easiest delivery I've had so far.(Thank you little Ash) In fact the hardest part was probably getting up at 4:30am in order to be to the hospital by 6:00am. Ok so that's not entirely true but seriously, I couldn't have asked for a better delivery.

I was worried because we were inducing 8 days early but I was already dilated to a 3 and 85% effaced so my Dr. said it would not be a problem.We were a little late getting to the hospital(shocker) so I probably didn't get started on pitocin till about 7:30. Then it was just a waiting game. I already knew I was going to get an epidural early in the game just because the last two times I held off as long as I could and it was torturous. This time I figured if I'm going to get one anyway then why not just do it earlier and save myself the torture. After a few hours I still hadn't really felt anything. The charts were showing major contractions but for some reason they weren't bothering me too bad. After another couple hours they started to get pretty uncomfortable but not too unbearable but I wanted to be numb before it got to that point.

Last time I had a resident place(or should I say misplace) the epidural and it didn't work. Unfortunately for me I had to have a worthless epidural when delivering my biggest child.(9 lbs. 2.0z) I did NOT want that to happen again so we asked for a non resident. The guy I got was AMAZING! They said he could do the job with his eyes closed although I'm glad he didn't. Lets just say I couldn't feel a thing. They had to tell me when to push because I had no idea.

Shortly after the epidural I was dilated to a 6 and 95% effaced. Then my water broke and it was pretty much go time after that. I jumped to a 9 and my Dr. said I could start pushing. I usually push for about 45 minutes but after 4 pushes this little guy was welcomed into the world at 12:28pm weighing 7 lbs. 5 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long.They placed him right on my stomach so I could look at him. He cried for a second then just lay there looking so peaceful and perfect. His head was hardly misshapen and was not too swollen. It was love at first sight. I got pretty emotional in that moment just watching him sleep on my tummy. He had the sweetest little face.

They told me the epidural would wear off after a couple hours and then they would move me to the post delivery room. 4 hours later I was finally able to move my legs a little bit. (I told you it was a good one) In fact Jacob was holding my leg during delivery and after the baby was born he (forgetting I was numb) dropped my leg to go get the camera. It slammed down so hard and my Dr. laughed and said "Wow, now that's a dead leg."

This was the first time I kept the baby in the room with me at night. I usually send them off to the nursery but I didn't really think about that this time. It just sort of seemed natural to keep him with me. Needless to say it was a horrible night. He fussed and fussed and I thought I had myself one of those babies thats just fussy all the time. By the next day I wanted out of there and luckily the staff was able to make that happen for me.

It was so nice to be home and so far we are doing Well. Asher is not a fussy baby he is actually really good and my recovery has gone a lot better than the last two times. I love this little guy and am so happy he is in our family. The kids love him (so far) and things have been great. I am so proud of my family of 5.

100!

Psion Beta has sold over 100 copies. This is right along with the goal I'd set for it. Kat and I are so excited and grateful for everyone's support. If you haven't already, please leave a review for it on Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com or both. Currently, Kindle copies are outstripping paperback sales this month. Anywho, just an update.

www.psionbeta.com

Also, the blog of the cover artist:

http://curly-b-marie.blogspot.com/

Little Ash Man

So far things are going pretty well. (as well as they can after having a baby) Ash is a champion eater and had a great night last night. I hope it continues. He is the absolute sweetest thing and we are just loving him to death.

Today I came in my room and found Lily just watching him sleep. I thought it was pretty cute.

Here is the sweet little face she was staring at.
And here is the little guy with his eyes open for once.

Welcoming Rawland Asher

We added a new member of the family around 12:30pm. Rawland Asher was born at 7lbs 5oz and 20.5 inches in length. He is as healthy as we can hope, and Kat is also doing very well. We're very excited and grateful for such a wonderful addition to our family.

Kat and I went to the hospital at 6 this morning. She was induced with pitocin and received her epidural from a very capable anesthesiologist (for once). All in all the labor went very fast and smooth. She had to push through (I believe) 4 sets of contractions.

Asher came out, looked at me, said, "Hi Dad!" Then he asked to be washed off. It was very fun.
He wasn't thrilled about the goop in his eyes.


Kat's mom came into town last night and watched Lily and Jake for the day. After everything settled, I went home, got them, and brought them back to meet Asher.

FAMILY PICTURE!

Feeling Bad

We now have less than two weeks until our new little baby is born and I am starting to get worried about my little Jake. He has been the baby for the past almost 2 years and I don't know how he is going to take sharing the attention with a little brother. I know he will get through it as all kids do but I can't help but feel bad for the emotional trials he is going to be put through. I didn't worry this much about Lily when we were having Jake because she is just one of those happy, positive little girls who goes into any situation with a smile and has never really had any serious emotional attachment issues. She never cried when I left her at a baby-sitters even if she didn't know the person. She has always loved going to see the Dr. even if she knew she was getting a shot, she loved nursery from day one and she was so excited to have a little brother. She never went through the whole jealousy phase or was mean to baby Jake. She welcomed him happily and has loved him from the start. Jake on the other hand has some attention and attachment issues. Most of the time he won't even let Jacob do things for him. It always has to be me and once I have this baby I won't be able to do that any more. He is the biggest cuddle bug and any time I am sitting or laying down he always comes and asks if he can snuggle with me. Every day when I put him down for a nap I hold him or lie with him till he falls asleep. I probably shouldn't have started doing that but I love the one on one time I get with him each day and it's sort of our special bonding moment. Then after he is asleep I play board games with Lily and have my one on one time with her and she and I usually end up snuggling and watching a show on my bed. I don't know if I will be able to keep that up once #3 arrives but I really hope that I can. I just keep having this fear that the more children I have, the more I will lose some of the relationship I have worked so hard to build with each of my children. I want them to know that I love each of them equally and that love will never lessen no matter what they do. I guess I just need to have a little more faith that we will be able to make this transition smoothly and that everything will be okay.

Here is Jake laying on the floor at my feet. No matter what I'm doing weather it's the dishes or on the computer or in the bathroom(a mother has no privacy) Jake is always right there laying on the floor waiting for me to be done.
Here he is in the babies car seat. I was getting it all set up tonight and he wanted to "snuggle" in it. He definitely still thinks he's a baby.

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Memory

When I was a little girl (I can't remember how little) my parents had the basement set up as the kids play room which means it was ALWAYS a DISASTER. It drove my parents crazy but it was too big of a mess to keep cleaning up on a daily basis just to have it destroyed again by 8 little children. One day I decided I was going to clean it but when I started I became extremely overwhelmed at the mess and decided to just gather everything up and put it in a huge pile in a corner of the room. That way it would look clean and it wouldn't take as much time. I remember feeling bad that I wasn't able to put everything away but I decided to show my parents anyway. When they came down they very convincingly acted like I had done the greatest thing in the world. The part I remember the most is when my dad said "Now there is so much clean space down here that it makes me want to dance and twirl." Then he began to do just that. I don't know why but watching him dance and twirl around the room made me feel so good about myself and I have never forgotten that.

About a year ago, Lily and I were cleaning her room and she (being only 2.5 years old) was so overwhelmed by the mess that it took a long time to convince her to keep working. Finally it was clean and as I looked around the room I remembered the story of my dad so I said to Lily "YAY now we have all this clean space so we can dance and twirl." She thought that was the greatest thing ever and now every time we clean her room we dance and twirl in celebration of our victory. She is now to the point where she cleans it by herself with out even being asked and she always comes and gets me when it's done so that we can once again dance and twirl.

Now that she and Jake share a room she has included him in the cleaning process and the other day I overheard them celebrating their accomplishment and I was able to catch it on video.

She is singing a song from Sleeping Beauty if you can't tell.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This has nothing to do with the above story I just wanted to remember something. Lily has developed quite the imagination and I love to hear her play. She spent this particular afternoon playing with her doll house. She is extremely dramatic so unfortunately the family that lives in the doll house go through many trials and tribulations on a daily basis. Sometimes I don't know how they survive.

Oh, and Jake spent his afternoon trying to figure out how to enclose himself in a plastic bin.