The Casey Family

Ok I have put off writing this, mainly because I knew it would take some time and thought. Here are some details about the day Asher was born and some other things I just don't want to forget. This is mainly for me and Zack, and I know it is A LOT, but I want to be able to remember so many of the sweet things he does right now that I know won't last forever.

Asher was born at 12:35 pm on Monday, November 3rd. I was exactly one week past my due date. I started having contractions late Sunday night around 8 o'clock, but since it was my first baby, I waited to make sure it was the real thing before going to the hospital. I definitely did NOT want to go in to the hospital a week over due, only to be sent home because I had indigestion or something! We waited until close to 1100 and decided to go on in to the hospital because my contractions were coming pretty regularly. We called my Mom and Shan (the doc :)) and met them up there. Once we were there, they checked me and I was in labor--I had FINALLY dilated. I wanted to labor without the use of Pitocin or an epidural(-my mind quickly changed about the latter). They let me walk around for a while to try to cause me to dilate more. I walked for about an hour and when they checked I had progressed a little bit on my own, but I was going slowly. After a while, they broke my water and Zack and I decided that I did want to get an epidural. After that, we settled in to wait. Zack slept some, but I don't think I slept a wink. I was so excited, anticipating Asher's arrival! Around 6:30-7 they checked me again and I was dilated to a 8 and they said it wouldn't be long. When it came time to push, however, the details start to get kind of fuzzy. We had some difficulties with the epidural causing my blood pressure to bottom out and Asher's heart rate to drop. Added to that, Asher was in a 'face-up' position, which makes it really had to deliver without the use of forceps---which I did NOT want.I pushed for a while and Asher wasn't really moving. So we stopped pushing and let me rest for a while and a nurse came in and turned me over in an attempt to get Asher to move into the correct face-down position for delivery (you want the baby's chin to be facing downward towards their chest and his was lifted up--if that makes any more sense). After a little while longer, we started pushing again. This time, to help me push more effectively, they turned the epidural pump off. I pushed for a while--not the quick 20-30 minutes you hear everyone else talk about. and FINALLY he was here!! Safe and sound our sweet little baby was brought into the world by his Pops! And with that our lives dramatically changed---wonderfully so!! I remember bringing Asher home from the hospital and just watching him. I could have watched him for hours and not gotten tired of it. He slept in a bassinet in our bedroom for the first few weeks. I would lay on the end of my bed just watching him breath (when I should have been sleeping :)) The Lord has taught me so much about trust this past year and about not letting worry consume me! As a mom it is so, so easy to let thoughts of 'What if" consume you! It has been wonderful to just let the Lord lead me and deliver me from that! Parenthood has been the most challenging and joyful and rewarding thing that has ever happened to us. Here are some random things about Asher's first year I wanted to share, just little details that I don't want to forget.

Asher had his first smile at 4 weeks. I remember I was getting ready and Zack was in the living room watching Asher in the swing. He had discovered the mobile above his swing and was just smiling away. He started crawling at 6 months--doing the army crawl and a few weeks later was crawling on all fours. He took his first steps at 10 months and was walking at 11 months. He got his first tooth at 5 months (the two front bottom teeth at the same time)

Asher nursed every two hours until he was almost four months old. He continued to nurse until we weaned at 11 months.
Asher loves the color blue.
Asher is serious about this food!! His first word was more. He quickly learned to sign 'please' to get more food. He can also make signs for 'more' and 'thank you'.
Asher has hazel eyes.
Asher loves, loves, loves music. (imagine that :)) He listens to music everynight while he goes to sleep. His favorite CD is the Veggie Tales Lullaby CD.
Asher has been rocked to sleep for just about every nap and every night at bedtime. I cherish that sweet time to cuddle and pray over my sweet baby boy!
Asher loves to read books. We read every night before bed. His favorite books are I See a Monster(--which he wants to read over and over and over), Goodnight Moon and Brown Bear.
Asher loves to play guitar with Daddy. Zack will be practicing some music or playing on his guitar and Asher always wants to climb up and 'help' Daddy strum.
Asher is so friendly. He is the friendliest baby I have ever seen. He has a smile for everyone! He waves to everyone we see! We'll go to the grocery store and waving to the other shoppers will keep him occupied :)
Asher can say several words/sounds that Zack and I at least know the meaning of. He will say Dada, Ma ma, moa-moa for more, food or drink, and Da-nee for Daphne our dog, hi, hey, bye-bye. We are working hard on other words like juice, bath, etc.
Asher loves to be outside. He will stand at the door and just watch everything, waiting to be taken out to play.
Asher is a daredevil--He is not afraid of anything and I have rarely seen him exercise caution in anything. I call him my little tornado. He does everything BIG and LOUD!
Asher eats oatmeal EVERY morning for breakfast--he LOVES it!!
When he gets sleepy he will find a pacifier and rub his ear or his neck. Just recently he has started rubbing his tummy--it's pretty funny.
Asher loves juice, but will not drink milk--still working on that.
Asher loves other children. He insists on giving every child we come in contact with a hug. He is a very loving child.
Asher loves to chase Daphne.
Asher loves to cuddle. He has always been a snuggly baby--which I LOVE!
Asher had a bath phobia for a LONG time. He would cry the entire time--it was so sad. He has just recently within the last 2 months started to enjoy bathtime--which was such a relief to Mommy and Daddy!
He will hold up one finger when we say "How old are you Asher?" (and sometimes we have to prompt him with "Are you one?")
Asher loves to play with Daddy! but when he is sleepy or hurt, he only wants to be comforted by Mommy!
Asher loves being at home. He is a home-body! If we ever spend all day out running errands, he gets so excited and happy to be home. He will giggle and squeal when he gets home and run to see Daphne and play with his toys.
Asher is a neat/clean boy. He doesn't like to have food or a mess on his face or hands. We will give him a napkin after he eats and he will wipe his tray clean. (What can I say?--he gets it from his Daddy)
Some favorite foods right now are meatloaf (not really sure how we discovered this, but he LOVES it), grilled cheese, black eyed peas, bananas, oatmeal, cheerios, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, applesauce, yogurt, cheese and hot dogs. He isn't super picky. He loves to eat.
Asher loves to play and sing patty cake and itsy, bitsy spider. He does the hand motions (or attempts to do the hand motions)

We went to the doctor for his one year check up. He weighed 21 pounds 9 ounces and was 31 1/2 inches long. He is walking, or I should say running everywhere, which keeps me very very busy! He has 10 teeth now. He just cut two molars and I discovered just yesterday that he is working on two more on the bottom--The nurse at Dr Ebba's office says he has more teeth than her three year old-haha. These past two teeth were definitely the hardest to get through. He ran a fever, had an upset tummy, was fussy and drooled so much that he got thrush in his mouth. It was pretty sad. But we made it through, hopefully these next two will come in fast without too much trouble. Asher has brought so much joy to our lives this year. We can't wait to see how much he will grow and change over this next year. We love you Ash-man!!

This past Thursday our church had our annual Fall Festival. Of course, we got Asher dressed up in his Halloween costume and set out for an evening of lots of food and fun! Asher was Max from Where the Wild Things Are this year for Halloween. His very first Halloween by the way. My mom made his costume and it was amazing!! He looked absolutely adorable!! I, however didn't get very many good pictures, but I wanted to share the ones I did get. We are having his on-year pictures made next weekend and I am going to take his costume to see if we can get some shots of him in it because it is just too darn cute. And as many of you with children on the move know, it is almost impossible to get a picture that isn't blurry (especially with a dinky little camera like ours--hint, hint, Zack :)) ok so here are the pics from Thursday.