The big news of the year,though, is the arrival of little Miss Austin! Austin Mackenzie Di Fabio was born bright and early (actually still the middle of the night) Thursday, May 28th. 12:43 was the actual time she showed up, but Crystal had been laboring since midnight the night before. She endured 6+ hours of what they now call 'active labor' and in my day it was called 'hard labor' I think for a good reason.
This is where it all happened. Memorial Hospital North, Colorado Springs, Colorado. 
This is Crystal, early in the day, still pretty darned happy, with her day nurse Brandi. I guess her water broke (sortof) late Tuesday night, but they didn't go into the hospital until 7ish in the morning.
The nurses thought that walking around might help speed things up, so that's what we did!
The view from the windows in the hospital went right out over the Air Force Academy and it was graduation day! We got a show from the Thunderbirds who did their fly-by after VP Biden gave the commencement address. Little Miss Austin chose an exciting day to come into the world!
Lots of people came to greet Austin into the world, but as all of the moms reading this will attest, the baby doesn't just show up, there's a lot of pain between now and then. THis is the fun part. Soon-to-be dad, Joe, being a dork and using the bed well.....
This is Adam, Dane and Tadd playing with Morgan on the floor.
Here is Amanda, George, Dane and Adam just waiting with everybody else.
This is Crystal and Morgan. He didn't quite know what to think of the hospital stuff, having just gotten out of the hospital a few weeks ago with the rotavirus. A bit scary I think.
Morgan tried really hard to wait for his new cousin to be born but couldn't make it much past 4. They eventually packed it in around 6 and went home. No baby yet.
The picture you just looked at with Morgan in it is the same time as this one was taken. I just turned my head. Crystal is getting to be more 'uncomfortable' by now, but not awful yet.
It was heartbreaking to watch your child endure such a nightmare, but knowing the end result helped. Those of us who have had kids know that 'this too shall pass...' but that's small consolation when you can see that agonizing pain in her eyes for hours on end. As heartbreaking as it was to watch Crystal, though, watching Joe was nearly as bad. He was soooo helpless to fix her pain, and it got to him a few times. I worried in the beginning of the labor process that he wouldn't be up to the task of coaching. I'm pretty sure that when he looks at Crystal he sees somebody so capable, and so strong, that for him to tell her how to do this very basic and very fundamental thing would be almost insulting to her. When she was heavily into the throes of hard labor, and her eyes were rolling back in her head with an out of her mind look, he somehow realized how much she needed him and stepped up to the plate. He was a real trooper through it all, because he had to keep coaching her even though it was tearing him up inside to watch.
I didn't post any pictures of the labor or delivery, for obvious reasons, but these are the ones taken right after the birth. Mom is getting finished with the docs, so baby Austin got passed around the room a bit.
Here is J, hold baby Austin. Quite a traumatic evening for J, which is a whole other blog!
Here is the (clearly) proud papa, holding his new baby girl.
This is right after they got done working on Crystal, and Joe gave baby Austin back to her. Not her best picture maybe, but possibly her best moment..... :-)
... and before everybody left for the evening, one parting shot with the doctor, Crystal, and Joe. I tried to get baby Austin in the picture, but through clenched teeth, Crystal said "just take the *^#@ picture....." I think someody was a bit exhausted??? 
and this is what I watched just before I left at approximately 3. Joe is snoozing, Crystal is snoozing, the doc is gone, the nurse is about to save Austin from rolling off of her sleepy dad, but she is wide awake and taking in her new world! What a little doll she is!
Quite an evening.......
2 comments:
Every time I hear her birth story I get tears in my eyes. Hearing about Crystal in that pain, hearing about Joe watching her in that pain, and then at the end hearing about beautiful Austin. Whoa. Thanks for sharing. I dying to talk to Crystal and give her the biggest huge; it's practically killing me to be in Indiana
Thanks so much for sharing the story and all the pictures! I know these two weeks will fly by and we'll be there before we know it, but right now it seems so far away!!! I want to hold that precious little baby and congratulate Joe and Crystal in person!
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