Welcoming Auden Claire!!!!

So....

As you can tell, I haven't blogged in, well, eons. Eons longer than the last time I hadn't blogged in eons, I know :-( I am ashamed. And yet, it's kind of been with good reason! Because as of March 19th, we not only have a new house, we also have a new baby, our darling girl, Auden Claire LaFasto. We had no idea as we sat around the closing table signing papers on our house on March 18th that she would join us the very next day, but what a wonderful surprise it was!

Tuesday, March 19th started out like any other day, except for the fact that I had been up literally ALL night the night before coughing my head off, fighting the cold I still had after a WEEK and a HALF of being sick. I cannot remember the last time I was as sick as I had been, and I was so frustrated and miserable, and just basically pissed off that I had to spend the last few weeks of my pregnancy feeling so bad when it was supposed to be a beautiful time of relaxation and preparation. But I digress...I was getting Dresden ready for his day at school, kneeling down to put his socks on, and I coughed. And when I coughed...I felt a gush. And then I was afraid I had peed my pants, even though I could have sworn I didn't have to pee. And then I coughed again...another gush; you can see where this is going. After about five times of this happening, I decided to come out of denial and realize my water had broken - the baby was likely going to be here THAT DAY! I somehow felt extremely calm and relaxed, even though I was home by myself and had to drive D to school. I grabbed a towel to sit on in the car (good thing, too!) and drove Dresden to school. When I dropped him off, I gave him the biggest hug of his life. I couldn't believe it was the last hug I was to give him as an only child, and my heart tore to pieces a little bit at the thought. I got back in the car and called Alex, giving him the shock of his life, and then called the hospital to say I was on my way.

Once they got me all checked in, they checked to make sure it was actually amniotic fluid ("Oh, yeah!" was the nurses response), and got me set up in a room to wait to hear from the doctor. I started having slight contractions, which I would liken to being punched in the gut and having the wind knocked out of you very slowly, but nothing major, and we really only waited about an hour and a half until the doctor came in. It was the on-call doctor, because mine had apparently been up all night the night before. Funny how both times I was set to give birth my doctors changed at the last second. She turned out to be really great and helpful though. One of the concerns this whole time had been with my placenta being low, though two weeks prior it had moved up to just at the cut-off of where it could safely be. The plan had been to do another ultrasound that coming Thursday to see if it had moved to an even safer position. Now, because my water had broken and I wasn't in active labor, there was no way to get a good ultrasound of it to check it and make sure it was far enough away again. So, the doctor pointed out the risk in that. The second issue was that, again, I wasn't in active labor, and they really don't like to give women who have had prior c-sections Pitocin because of the risk of uterine rupture, so that was kind of not an option either. Basically, c-section was my safest, quickest, best option according to the doctor. I had really wanted to try it the "other" way since I hadn't gotten the experience the first time, but I was very lucky in that this doctor met me half-way and offered me a "Gentle Birth" c-section experience, where they would lay the baby on my chest immediately after she was born, just like they do with regular deliveries. I started crying tears of relief when she told me they could do that for me; it made me feel a lot more at peace with the decision. Then Alex asked what time frame we were looking at, thinking she'd say maybe 4 or 5 o' clock. "Um, let's shoot for 2:15?" We looked at the clock; it was 1! We couldn't believe we'd be having a baby in less than two hours!

Before we knew it, it was time to get prepped for the c-section. They gave me the spinal block, and I lay there growing progressively more numb, and progressively more anxious. It was kind of awful to be there all by myself, losing the feeling in the lower half of my body and having nothing to take my mind off of it, but then they got started on the surgery and Alex came in soon after that, much to my relief. It kind of seemed like time was standing still, but soon the doctor was telling the nurses to lower the curtain so I could see the baby coming out, and there she was! She cried right away, she was SO mad to be disturbed and taken out of her cozy warm little bubble. It was the cutest, best sound in the world. And then, as promised, she was right there on my chest. I was expecting myself to cry tears of joy as I met my daughter for the first time, but instead I just felt completely joyful and excited, and couldn't stop laughing, smiling, and commenting about how cute and tiny she was! I couldn't believe she was here; it felt like I had been pregnant forEVER! I held her for as long as I could, until my curiosity at how much she weighed got the better of me. She was 6 pounds, 9 ounces, and 19 and 3/4 inches long. Almost exactly the same size as her brother, who she coincidentally looked EXACTLY alike from the moment she was born. So precious!

Holding my girl...

The three of us!

Dresden Grey holding his baby sister for the first time. What a proud big brother.

Sweet girl

A few hours old...

We stayed in the hospital from Tuesday until Friday. Alex acquiesced to my request of pizza and ice cream as soon as I was allowed to eat solid food, which I thoroughly enjoyed while catching up on the episode of New Girl that I missed, since on Tuesday I was busy with my own New Girl! Auden was a sleepy, awesome, dream baby the entire time, and still is. I remarked how odd and funny it was that OTHER people's babies were keeping me awake crying all night from other rooms, while my own was as quiet as a church mouse and would have slept the whole time if I hadn't had to wake her every two hours to eat. She is 18 days old now, and still pretty sleepy most of the time, though she has more frequent awake periods, which are the best, because I love how she looks around with her curious, bright eyes, trying to figure out the world. She rarely cries, unless she has been rudely disturbed for a diaper change, or if she's unhappy with being put in her bouncy seat.

Dresden loves his baby sister, though I know he's a bit disappointed she didn't come out ready to play Rescuebots with him. He's of course having a little bit of a time adjusting, as are all of us, but for the most part he's doing really well. He starts a new school on Monday, and I think that will be really great for him. We have to remind him to be gentle and not play "Hulk SMASH" too close to her face, but he already takes his role of "protector" very seriously, and I think he will be an amazing big brother to her as they grow up together.

I am tired, though not as tired as I expected I would be, and mostly I am just frustrated that I can't work out for six more weeks. I miss Zumba so much it hurts!!! But I know the time will fly, and I will be back before I know it, and teaching Auden routines before I know it, too.

My cup indeed runneth over!!!

Love,

Cassie