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!!

Mario Kart

Grady has taken to playing Mario Kart (Wii) these days. A couple of weeks ago I was explaining to him the difference between "Manual" and "Automatic" when we pick our cars to race.

Tonight he said this to me:

"Mom, you don't want to be MAN-ual. You want to be GIRL-ual, because you're a girl."

Swimming

Grady is learning to swim with this awesome floaty suit this summer. He is really independent in the water now and loves to jump in by himself.

Working Men

Yesterday Grady went to work with Kevin. If you know Kevin and his job, you know there is a lot of driving involved. Grady tends to get a little restless in the car sometimes.

While driving over a bridge Grady says, "Well, this'll cheer me up."

Kevin says, "What? Why?"

Grady: "Because I am really bored."

Heat Wave

Last night when Kevin put Grady to bed he was wearing only his underpants because it was at least 80 degrees in his room. I went to check on him a couple hours later and found him fully clothed (shirt, sweat pants, and socks) with three layers of blankets on himself. I was confused thinking that Kevin had put him in bed this way on such a hot day. When I inquired about it, Kevin said he had only put him in the pull up with a sheet over him. So Grady had decided he was cold I guess.

And, again, today for nap, Grady goes to bed with only underpants on and this is how he woke up, socks and slippers.

Under Construction

We are currently undergoing some changes to our blog. Please stay tuned as it will prove to be worth your while.