As the summer shifts to fall, our lives has shifted from one of 3 to 4. I am blessed to say that I had the most Amazing experience having my 2nd child, and am even more blessed to welcome a son into our family.
Austin James was born on September 14th, 2010 at 2:39 PM. Weighing in at 7 lbs 11 oz and 20.5 inches long.
My OB decided to go ahead and induce me at 39 weeks since I was 3 cm dialated, having lots of regular cramping, and had such a hard time pushing out Ashlyn.
We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 am on Tuesday the 14th. After a not fun experience getting my hand IV (poked over and over, busted a vein in my hand, and pumped fluid into it) we were ready to get things going. They started my pitocin around 7:30 and I felt tightening from the contractions but no pain. Requested the epidural at 8 since I don't like pain. They had the epidural in by 8:45 and my OB broke my water around 9 am. Things progressed from there at a pretty regular pace, dialating about 2 cm's every 2.5 hours or so. When she checked me at 2:00 I was at 10 cm, and ready to push.
The nurse called the OB and came back to start practice pushing. My dad arrived and helped me push. About 20 minutes later Dr. Shie arrived and they prepped me to deliver. Matt and I were in shock since I pushed for 2 hours with Ashlyn. About 2 more contractions of pushing, and we had our baby BOY!! Matt was all smiles, it was an awesome surprise (definitely worth the wait). I felt no pain during the delivery (unlike Ashlyn) and had no tearing. It was almost TOO easy and surreal.
Ashlyn arrived about 2 hours later and got to see Austin for the first time as we settled into our big corner "suite" for the night. She wasn't too sure what to make of him, but very excited!
Our family of 3 quickly changed to a perfect little family of 4!
After 1 night in the hospital, we decided we wanted to head home. I was feeling really good and everything checked out great with Austin. So we packed our bags and broke out early. Not sure I would do that again, it was pretty exhausting at home that night!
Ashlyn spent another night with Mimi and Papa as we settled back at home with Austin, then she joined us the next day. She loves knowing where he is, and what he's doing, but really has no interest in holding him or messing with him. She just likes to look at him and say "Hi Baby Austin". It's been an adjustment with lots of temper tantrums and wanting mommy to hold her, but that's to be expected and overall she's doing pretty well.
He looks just like his big sister, and daddy! Doesn't have the big cheeks and dimples like Ashlyn did, but everything else about his face is exactly the same.
Mostly he does what babies do best, SLEEP! The boy is awake maybe 2 hours out of the day. We've gotten a whole week now of awesome sleep. He nurses at 11, sleeps until about 3:30, then nurses and goes right back to sleep till 7. He never cries unless you are changing his diaper. It really is just too good to be true, but i'm not complaining. We've been sent an angel, and I just can't get enough of him! Our lives truly have been BLESSED!
Cincinnati and Dayton have a lot of really fun family oriented things to do in the Fall. My mom always talked about wanting to take the grandkids on the LM&M train ride in Lebanon, so when I saw that they did a Pumpkin train trip I knew we had to go. Ashlyn was SO excited to get to ride on a real train and get to pick a pumpkin. Although the train only went 10 mph, is not air conditioned (it was 86 degree on this particular October day), and drops you off at a random farm in Mason...it was a really fun trip. Ashlyn loved seeing all the animals (chickens, cows, donkeys, horses, sheep, goats), walking through the corn maze, picking a pumpkin, and waving to all the cars we passed while on the train. She is still talking about it, and I know it is a fun fall memory we will never forget! Next project is to decorate pumpkins....hmmm!
