Our New Little Guy

Casen Clark Smith happily arrived on Febraury 22, 2010 at 13:20. He was 7 lbs 15.7 oz and 20 1/4 inches long, and was born with a very healthy set of lungs! We are so excited to have this little guy join our family! Isabella is a very happy big sister, finally!

We had a c-section scheduled for 12:30 that day. Chad's mom, Linda, flew in Sunday afternoon to watch Isabella and help out for a week. Chad and I got up and got ready, and said our goodbyes. It was hard to leave Bella and know that things were never going to be the same. We made it to the hospital a little before 10:30 to finish paperwork and get all set up! The hospital staff was so nice and I had the same nurse throughout the entire thing, pre-op through the recovery. She was great! The doctor was in another delivery, so we waited a little before they were ready for the c-section, which was fine with me, I didn't mind a few extra minutes. We went back and Chad waited outside the OR until I everything was ready and then came in and we waited. The doctors were great and talked and joked around with us. They asked us how big we thought he would be and we said we were hoping for at least 7 pounds since his sister was eight. I really thought he would only be 6.5 lbs. When they pulled him out, they said he was big and he might be close to eight pounds, and he almost was. They pulled down the curtain so I could see him, and he looked almost just like Isabella did. His face was all scrunched up, and they definitely have the same nose. Chad went with Casen to watch him get all cleaned off, and Casen screamed and screamed. And then Chad got to bring him back into the OR and let me see him again while they finished stapling me up. Then I went into the recovery room and Casen and his daddy went upstairs to get him weighed and checked out. And when they were done, Chad got to bring him back downstairs for me to see him again! We had decided to name him Casen, but Chad's family thought his middle name would be Chad. However, we decided to name him Casen Clark. Chad's middle name is Clark, after his dad, and his dad is named after his Grandpa Clark. It was fun to surprise Chad's parents, and we are glad we have such a great person to name our son after!

Because of the swine flu and measles, no children were allowed in the hospital, so Isabella anxiously waited for her baby brother to come home. The staff and doctors were nice, and let us go home Wednesday evening instead of Thursday morning so we could take the little guy home to meet his big sister! Casen was great in the car and let Isabella hold him right away. He was hungry, so we let Bella feed him a little bottle, which she loved. She couldn't pull her eyes away from him! It's crazy to have a family of four at home. Casen already has a strong personality, or at least a strong cry. He starts of very loud, and screams every time he has a messy diaper. Mostly because getting it changed is so traumatic after the circumcision, poor little guy. And of course, he has decided to mess his pants about four times when we are trying to go to bed. It has been about 2 hours before he is down long enough for me to fall asleep, but at least I know that part gets better (hopefully)! I am a little nervous for Linda to leave. She has been great, as always! Luckily, my mom is coming for a few days next weekend, and after that, hopefully we can get somewhat settled in. I know it is going to be hard to juggle two kiddos and awhile before I feel back to normal. As my good friend Amy said, it's a good thing they are so cute!!! And we are definitely lucky to have our little family together!!!!