Welcome to the World!

Introducing Asher Daniel Milliken. Born to us on Sept. 11, 2009. Weighing in at 7 lbs., 15oz.

The story goes like this.

Began induction process at 5:45 (in the morning, ugh). They said I actually began labor at 7:04 am. Doctor broke my water at 9:00am ish. Then the really bad pain began. That's when I called in the drugs.

Let me just inject one thought here. For those of you women who have done this process naturally, I applaud you. I give you a standing "O". But, I not going to lie, I don't see why anyone would want to endure the pain if they don't have to. Let's be honest, my threshold for pain, not the highest.

So, anyway, now come the anesthesiologists to relieve me of the excruciating pain. And what do they do, put me in more pain (well, eventually). The doctor/intern messed up twice before the third one "took". That's right folks, three holes in my spine. Do you know what that means? Well, the odds of getting a spinal headache when they mess up once is 50%. Now my odds are like 100%!

Finally the epidural kicks in and I am feeling pretty good. It's now about 10:15 am. At this point the nurse says I am about 6 cm dialated and Kevin assumes he can check out for a while because our previous experience with Grady was a slow process. I hear him snoring from the other side of the room and wish that I could be doing the same thing, having only slept about 3 hours the previous night.

I start to relax and close my eyes. Then the nurse says she thinks I might be close because the baby's heart rate is dipping when I am contracting. She checks and I am 9.75 cm dialated. It's now 10:45am.

"Kev, Wake up! You're going to miss it!" I shout.

11:00am doc shows up and it's time to start pushing. Now, I will not go in to detail here, for obvious reasons, but I will just say this. The experience this time around was so much better than the first time.

11:24 am after having only pushed for 20 minutes, Asher Daniel joins our world.

The feeling was different this time. With Grady, I was overwhelmed by the volume of love I had for him because I had been literally waiting my whole life to be a mom. With Asher, I felt more relief that I was no longer pregnant. Later that day, when I was in the room alone with Asher, all of my fears that I wouldn't be able to love him as much as I love Grady had disappeared. He is this tiny little person who needs me and I need him just as much.

Now that he is here, we can't imagine life without him. Grady is the best big brother, constantly helping. He loves to give Asher kisses and tells him what he is doing all of the time. I am already amazed at how much Asher responds to Grady. Every time he hears Grady's voice he is wide eyed and looking around.

So begins our journey as a family of FOUR!!