The day he was born

Cash was born on a Saturday at 12:10pm.

After a quiet Friday night at Aspen Valley Hospital, I woke up, had a nice breakfast, and went from calm and happy at 7:30am to screaming pain by 8:30am. I had told Josh I wanted to try have a natural delivery - he leaned in after I asked for the epidural and said sweetly "You said to remind you that you want to do this naturally."

Ha ha.

Four hours (and the epidural) later there was Cash: 6 pounds 2 oz, 17 inches long, pink and squeaky. Cash had some fluid in his lungs, so we sent him to the incubator and I had a grilled cheese sandwich and a nap.

Cash's birthday was a happy day. It wasn't until later that it became clear something was wrong. For the next 3 weeks we were in and out of hospitals as Cash wouldn't eat and got sicker and sicker. It was when he was nearly 4 weeks old that we learned he had a chromosomal abnormality.

I never wore the dress I was wearing that day again.