All about that baby!

Friday morning already!  What a WEEK!!!  First of all, I want to say that God has been so GOOD to us this week.  To give you a peek into the way my brain can get caught up with worst possible scenarios, here you go.  Knowing that Lori's due date was March 12 and that Dick would be in Florida over that time and that we have been known to have full blown snow blizzards in March and that Anthony and Lori live at the top of a hill that my van cannot climb in snowy weather.....  Need I say more?

The actual scenario was this.  Last Friday, when discussing the upcoming weekend with Lori she said she really wished the baby would hold off a few more days because of the things she still needed to accomplish.   I said,  "Okay, I'll pray that he waits a few more days!"  And I did.  So we got to have our weekend of being with Dick's family, and Lori and Anthony got a few more days of getting things done and doing fun things with Austin.

On Monday morning, at the beginning of a week that promised beautiful warm weather, also at the beginning of Spring break, Lori texted me that she was having regular contractions and was pretty sure it was the real thing.  I prepped some food for them at my house, just in case it wasn't the real thing.  Normally I teach piano lessons from 5:30 to 6:30 on Mondays, but because my students were in Florida during Spring break, I did not need to worry about that!  At 5:30 I picked Austin up from the YMCA and headed to their place with him and the food.

By that time there was no question that it was the real thing.  Lori wanted one last "family of three" picture, so we took care of that first.

I took Austin home with me and they prepared to leave for the hospital.  I gotta tell this story from our drive home.  At one point Austin asked me if we were soon at my house.   I said,  "Well, we're over half way.  It usually takes 25 minutes to go from your house to mine, and I'd say we have about 7 more minutes to go."  He was quiet for a just a moment, then said, "So we've been driving for 18 minutes?"  Wow!  Talk about first grade mental math skills!

I knew that Anthony and Lori did not plan to be as public about this labor and birth as they were the other time, but when I got home I noticed his "veiled" FB update.  "I've - 4 min. - you're - 3 min. - we're"  Get it?  Each word is a contraction with minutes in between, hahaha!!

Austin played with our marble roller kit, but not as a marble roller.  He used pieces from it to create his own Star Wars two-legged walker!  When it was bath time, that, and his great imagination, were the only tub toys he needed to entertain himself for at least 45 minutes!

We prayed for his mama and baby brother before he went to sleep.  Even though he had previously  expressed a lot of fear about the birth, he was very calm about it that evening.

Dick headed to bed at his regular Monday evening time (he gets up early to play basketball at the Y on Tuesday mornings), but I stayed up to do music prep for Sunday and to keep up with the latest "labor" updates.

I decided to "sleep" on the sofa so that updates on my phone would not waken Dick or Austin.  I had my volume turned all the way up so I wouldn't miss a thing, haha!!  And I prayed.

Just before 1:00 AM my phone dinged and there were pictures of a very healthy baby boy!  Thank you, Jesus!!!  I stared at this little face on my phone, and thought, "There is Austin all over again!"

I got bits and pieces of sleep the rest of the night between text messages and Dick getting up at 5.  Austin woke up at his regular 7:00.  I told him that his baby brother had come out of mama's belly.  He seemed surprised and said, "He did??"  I told him that his name is Hunter Jay Stauffer.  Austin said, "What??  That's not his name!  His name is Austin II."

Because of Spring break and no school (such great timing!!) we could lounge around until time to go to the hospital.  He told me he did not want to see mommy's belly bleeding.  I assured him that he would not.  Bless his heart!  The nurses had suggested waiting till 9:30 AM to bring him in.

What a perfectly beautiful sight met our eyes!

Austin was not quite ready to touch him that morning.  He was mostly interested in his belly button!

But he was eager to wear his "coolest brother ever" shirt!

This beautiful sight gave me tears.  No greater love!

In the evening we went to the hospital so Grandpa could get to meet Hunter.

By then Austin was obviously becoming attached!

 Four good looking Stauffers!

On Thursday morning Dick and I were up before dawn because it was VACATION day for him.  We had booked his flight out of University Park Airport, just five minutes from our house.  More expensive than driving to a big airport, but just perfect for this time.  I dropped him off at 5:20, and by 6:00 he was on his way!  He had a layover at Dulles in DC, but was already landing in Tampa before 11 AM!!   Today he's at Sophie's Grandparents Day at school.

I skipped exercise class after work Thursday and went over to Anthony and Lori's for my "baby fix" before choir practice.  They had come home from the hospital earlier in the day.

Ahhhhh.

Lori sent me these this morning!

Melt my heart!!!!!

And that's all for this time.  Surely many more pictures coming, both from here and from Florida.