A New Addition and a New Name

I'm sure you all noticed that my blog has a new name. It's the third name change since I started this blog almost four years ago. It's appropriate as it follows the changes in my life since then. About a year after we were married, we got a dog (Raising Adler). Two years later, we had Austen (Raising Adler and Austen) and now we just added a new addition to our family - a little girl, Peyton. So instead of using Raising Adler, Austen and Peyton, I thought it was better to keep the title simple. Regardless, the focus won't change. I will still be writing about my two kids and our dog. Only now, I'll have more material with one more child.

Anyway, Peyton was born last Wednesday, December 30th. The birth was much easier this time around since I was scheduled for a c-section and didn't have to go through labor. What a blessing that was. I felt more alert and certainly knew more of what was happening this time around. When they pulled her out and said "it's a girl!," the first thing that Tom said was "I don't know what to do with a girl, I grew up with three brothers!" My first thoughts/words were "I told you!" I felt like she was a girl. Not because my pregnancy was much different this time around and it was (harder I would say) but because of my dreams. Before Austen was born, I had three dreams that he was a boy. This time, early on, I had a dream that it was a girl and then one about two weeks before I gave birth told me again it was a girl. So I was pretty confident it was a girl.

Austen met his little sister on New Year's Day. He visited the hospital with my mom. I was sitting on the couch on the far side of the room with Peyton. He entered the room, looked at Tom and was about to give him a hug when he saw me and ran to me but immediately halted when he saw Peyton in my arms. He turned on his heel and ran back to Tom and gave him a hug and a kiss. Then he hesitantly approached me and gave me a hug and a kiss and peered down at his new baby sister. That lasted a few seconds before he was mesmerized by the big windows in the room and all the buildings outside. I would say that since her birth, he's been interested in helping to throw away her diaper (one of his favorite things to do) and then just goes about his business of playing with his cars, trucks and trains like he did before. Of course he's had his moments of acting out but he's back to school and his routine, which I'm sure is comforting for him.

Here's a clip of the two meeting that first day: