Happy 1/2 Birthday

Today, my sweet little man, turns 1/2 a year old! WOW!!! I can't believe that 6 months is already here. It just seems like it was December 1st, and Cash was making his oh-so fast grand entrance! In keeping with the McWhorter/Marler tradition, we celebrated Cash's 1/2 Birthday, with a "Happy 1/2 Birthday" cake, of course!

I also wanted to post Cash's birth story...from Conn's perspective. I don't think I ever even posted his birth story, from my own perspective. If I have seen you since then, you have probably heard the WHOLE story. It is one for the books...I must say so myself! I wish we would have had time to turn the video camera on. It would have made for a much more entertaining story and I TOTALLY would have put it on here! :)

"It was Saturday during church when Ashley started feeling something “different” from her usual discomfort from being pregnant. Because of the rapid delivery of Maggie (getting to the hospital with her at 8cm), we went ahead and went into the hospital to find out she was dilated to a 4. We walked around for a bit and they checked again- - still a 4. We decided to go home. The next day, Sunday, we ended up going back in that night because Ashley was hurting pretty good. She was checked and again, she was a 4. We walked briskly through the halls of labor and delivery for an hour and checked again- - still a 4. We decided to go home...again. Just a few hours later at 3:45 AM or so, Ashley wakes me up and says that she is having terrible contraction pain and they’ve been happening for the last 30-45 minutes or so. I decide that we should just wait for another 15 minutes just so we can say we tracked the contractions for about an hour when we got to the hospital again, now, for the 3rd time in 3 days. At 4:15ish, I realize we’re going to be heading to the hospital, so we call Ashley’s parents to come over and watch the girls, until the babysitter can arrive. They arrive about 4:45 and by this point, Ashley is hurting. We get in the car, after calling our sweet nurse/friend Linda (who has helped deliver all our kiddos), and head to the hospital. Ashley is in major pain. When I say major, I mean, holy cow, I’m starting to get a little scared. We turn the corner by the hospital and my wife, who is normally quite calm, cool, and collected, looks over at me and says- “Ooooooohhhhh Conn, he’s coming out! He’s coming out!” I’m trying to be the calm husband, so I say, “Well let me pull over right here and we’ll do this.” "Pull down your pants." I really did say it in a calm voice, but internally, I was absolutely, positively, 100%, freaking out. We did make it to the hospital and left the car parked in the pull through loading area, at 5:00 AM. We get into the labor and delivery hall of the hospital and about halfway down, Ashley has another "car" episode. I immediately holler (and yes, it was a good ole Texas holler) down the hall, “We need some help here!” You see at this point, all the nurses knew us by name because we had been there twice already. They come running toward us with an office chair because they can't find a wheel chair. Ashley screams that she can't sit down so she somehow manages to walk to the closest hospital room. As soon as they get her gown on, they lay her on the bed and her water bursts everywhere and they say that Cash's head is right there. Remember, her doctor hadn't even shown up yet. They barely got her I.V. in. Ashley is screaming (Yes, like the girls you see on the TLC shows. It really is for real! ) and I just take her by the hand and tell her, "It's just you and me, babe! " In runs Linda and Dr. Strong at 5:22a.m. He barely gets one hand in a glove, and Cash was born at 5:24am. No stirrups...no broken down bed...and NO epidural!!! My wife was AMAZING!!! Scared me half to death. But, amazing!!!! It was an adventuresome night, but sweet Cash has been super laid back since the day he was born. I figure he owes us that much."