Austin: The delivery.

I have picked up the computer several times over the last 12 days, but each time I've just stared at the keyboard with no idea where to start. I have SO much I've wanted to write about and share, but I tend to use my free time resting, snuggling my newest little one, or frantically trying to get some one-on-one time with my old little one. Sorry. I know everyone wants to hear how things have been going, so I'll try to catch everyone up.

As I said, I'm not sure where to start, so I guess we'll start at the beginning. Last time I posted, I was nervously heading to the hospital. When we got there, the doctor starting things going and said they were hoping for a "daylight delivery." After everything we went through last time, Dan and I just laughed them off. We knew better. Or so we thought. They broke my water at 11am, and gave me the epidural at 12pm. I continued to progress right on schedule, but still had the craziness from Abby in the back of my mind. Sometime around 4:45 I started to get uncomfortable, and by 5pm, we'd called the nurse in. She watched me breath through a few contractions and started getting the room ready. While it looked like that daylight delivery might actually occur, Dan and I were still uneasy.

At 5:30, I was really ready to start pushing. Dan and I had commented throughout the day how "routine" things had seemed, but this is when I really started to understand that Austin was going to make things a lot easier than Abby did. The nurses were calm; the doctor was confident. Everything seemed to be normal. I guess that helped me calm down because the pushing went a lot easier than it did with Abby. I was still slightly nervous, but then the doctor looked at Dan and asked if he wanted to cut the cord. Then she asked me if I wanted the baby on my stomach after delivery. (If you had asked me my ideal delivery situation beforehand, this is what I would have asked for. I felt slightly cheated with Abby because we missed out on these two things.) At that moment I looked at Dan and finally relaxed. I was going to have this baby just the way I wanted to, and it was happening right then. Sure enough, 1 1/2 pushes later, I had a screaming little boy on my stomach. Total pushing time: 19minutes.

My first thoughts as I looked at my little boy, were 1) he didn't look like Abby and 2) he had Dan's nose. Since Abby was my only reference point for this whole mother thing, I guess I'd assumed he'd look just like she did as a baby, and while there are similarities, it was weird to realize at that moment that they really were two different people. As for the nose, for whatever reason it's always been my favorite physical characteristic of Dan. I've always loved that it's a little bit of softness and roundness to an otherwise very structured face. In my mind, it mirrors his personality: mostly sharp, but with just a touch of softy. Anyway, seeing it mirrored on my son was a pretty overwhelming moment for me. Not that I wasn't already, but it was at the moment that I truly fell deeply in love with my son.

Austin cried for a full 15 minutes while they finished everything up. He was crying so hard and long, that everyone in the room was laughing. He didn't calm down until they took him from me and put a diaper and blanket on him. To this day, it's the most he's cried. (Though the diaper seems to be his thing. If he doesn't have one on, he is screaming.)

And that's pretty much Austin's birth story. Routine delivery. In all my wishing and hoping for that day, I never considered it would be so easy. We really got everything we could have wanted out of the whole thing. (Though, of course, all we really wanted was a healthy little boy. But you know what I mean.)

Since then, things have been going well. After Abby, I was a drugged up drowsy mess for about a week. With Austin, I was up and moving hours after delivery. I felt pretty good, considering. Abby was a crier and made for a rough first night in the hospital. Austin might have been fussy too, but I smartly sent him to the nursery so I could rest. They brought him to me every 3 hours so he could feed, but he was pretty calm most of the hospital stay. He's actually been pretty calm ever since.

He's a quiet, laid back little guy. He gets mad when we're changing his diaper or his clothes. He gives a few little yells when he's hungry. Otherwise, he's awake or sleeping, but calm. We had a few nursing issues but I think we've finally gotten over that hump and are going strong. (With all the comparisons to Abby and her first few days, I have to say the nursing difficulties surprised me. Abby took to it like a champ and I never had any sort of issue. I had assumed Austin would have been the same. Not so much. Thankfully, I did have such a positive experience with Abby to keep me going. There were definitely a few sessions I sobbed through with Austin, and I can easily see why so many people give up and go to the bottle. But I didn't give in, and we are doing just fine now. I am almost to the point where I can enjoy the togetherness even.)

Well, that's a start. I have so much more to write about, particularly how well Abby is doing with her new life but it will have to wait. A certain little guy needs some snuggle time.