Audrey's Story

She's Here!
She's arrived, and she's beautiful!  Audrey May Bowden entered the world at 9:03 p.m. on Friday, November 26.  She weighed 8 lb 11 oz and was 20 in long.  Against all odds, she has lots of dark brown hair.  A gorgeous baby, if I do say so myself.

Her Birth Story
For those who've asked, I want to share her birth story.  I started contracting around 12:30 p.m. but thought maybe the Thanksgiving leftovers were to blame for the tummy trouble.  When things weren't getting better, even after a nap with Clara, I sent Aaron and Clara to the bookstore so I could get some peace to time the contractions.  When I saw they were 4-6 minutes apart, I called Aaron and told him we needed to head to the hospital. We finished packing, got Clara settled at our cousins' house, and parked the car at 7 :00 p.m

Well, when I told Audrey not to keep me waiting, she listened!  Things progressed very quickly, and I went from 1 cm to holding a baby in less than 2 totally surreal hours. I got a last-minute epidural but had to push before it kicked in.  Everything I learned in Lamaze class went out the window.  If you were in Torrance on Friday night (like anyone is) and heard a crazy woman alternately begging the Lord for mercy and cursing an anesthesiologist ("HE LIED!"), that was me.  Sorry if I scared you.

Her Name
As many of you know, I wasn't completely sure of a name the entire pregnancy.  We just knew Clara Anya was "Clara Anya" before we even knew we were having a girl.  With Audrey, I knew I loved the name, but wasn't sure it was her name until about a week and a half before her birthday.

Aaron and I agreed when we had kids that we would choose a first name that we simply loved, and we would choose a middle name that "means something to us."  I knew that this baby's first name should convey a peacefulness, and I had it narrowed down to Audrey and Eve, both of which sound so serene to me.  Aaron loved Audrey more, so that was the working title most of the pregnancy.

The middle name was tougher, because "means something" could mean anything!  The obvious choice is to choose a family member's name, so we picked Genevieve, my only non-living grandparent (and it had that "Eve" sound I like).  But, in the final weeks, I kept feeling like we should name her after me or Aaron somehow.  We considered Audrey Keane (her daddy's middle name) or Audrey Elizabeth (at a friend's suggestion), but decided to name her after both of us.  May is the month of both mine and Aaron's birthdays (see "Lovefest" post below).  And we were married in May, in Riviera Maya.


I love it.  It is absolutely perfect on her.  And when things get hairy here in this new stage of our family, I'll say Audrey's name and think of peace and my love for my daughters' daddy.

And so concludes the first of many one-handed blog posts.