Asher E.--A Baby Story

    I promise I won't go into great detail, but I did want to write out my birth experience with Asher.  Okay, so maybe I should share a little about the pregnancy before telling about the birth.  We found out we were pregnant on July 24, 2012.  We were very excited, but also very nervous.  I'm still not sure I ever felt like the pregnancy was real (trust me I know how weird that sounds, but I didn't want to get my hopes up).  I put a call into my doctor and they did a blood test to confirm the pregnancy and check what the hcg levels were at.  They had me repeat the test about a week later to see if they were high enough to do an ultrasound.  At about six weeks I went in for an ultrasound and they said they could see the baby, but that I was not far enough along to see the heartbeat.  The ultrasound was repeated about a week later and I was able to see the sweet little heartbeat, nothing more than a flutter, but to me it was the first checkmark I could make on my mental one.  My mental checklist included things like seeing the heartbeat, hearing the heartbeat, making it to such and such week, then to the next target date, feeling the baby move, and another week milestone.  Other than waiting until the end of my first trimester with my first two, these things didn't even cross my mind.  They were givens.  But I was nervous throughout the whole pregnancy, but very determined that this one would end up like the other two with me going into labor on my due date.  With this pregnancy we opted not to do any prenatal screening.  We just trusted that whatever God had in store we could work through. I had a very easy pregnancy with no complications.  I felt baby move at about sixteen and a half weeks (which gave me reassurance).  We did another ultrasound at twenty weeks and opted not to find out the gender.  Mike and the kids were convinced it was a girl, as was I until the baby started moving.  At 36 weeks I saw my doctor and had a normal appointment.  He did the Group strep B test, listened to the heart, and we joked about how I was willing to hold off until my due date just so that he didn't miss the delivery while he was on his Spring Break trip.  Haha.  Joke was on me.  I went home and had a normal evening and even told the parents of the daycare that it looked like I would go full-term.  Went to bed and woke up at about 3:00 in the morning when Noah came into our bed.  I helped him up and then went to the bathroom.  The trip was a little different.  I went to lay back down, but I couldn't get the story of my friend who was due somewhere around the same time off my mind.  She had a leak in her amniotic sac and was told they would need to deliver.  About 4:30 in the morning I decided to put a call into the doctors office.  When the doctor on-call didn't call back, I put in another call at about 6:30.  My doctor called me back and asked how soon I could get to the hospital.  We dropped Mikayla and Noah off at my sisters and headed for the hospital.  When we arrived at the hospital they tested the fluid and said that it was my water that was leaking.  At this point in time I was not having any contractions.  They hooked me up to the monitor and started a pitocin IV.  I had a great nurse who made sure to move me around and change positions.  Towards the end my contractions were coming so fast that I didn't have much time to recoup.  I finally opted for the epidural and about a half hour after getting it he was born.  I was lucky in that the delivery was pretty easy.  It definitely made for an easy recovery.  Since I was only 36 weeks we were given all the standard speeches about how he might not be able to breath or eat on his own, but our little guy came out perfect and healthy.  We are truly blessed.

Welcome Asher Ethan!

 

What's New

Wow, it has been a really long time since I have posted.  As you might have guessed things have changed since I last blogged.  The biggest change is our new addition.  Asher Ethan was born on March 9.  We are so in love with him and are excited to have him as a part of our family.  I will share in a few posts later some of our obstacles in having him, but for now we are going to leave it that we are in a good place with a very happy baby.  As for Mikayla and Noah they are both thrilled to have a little brother.  Mikayla finished up fall soccer and then went on to play in an indoor league.  As soon as that was done we dove right back into gymnastics at a new location where Mikayla is thriving.  She also completed second grade (guess there is an end of year post due).  Both Mikayla and Noah  had swimming lessons.  Mikayla is now in level 3 and Noah is in level 1.  Noah is looking forward to a summer full of activities.  He graduated preschool and is now set to enter Kindergarten (enter sad face).  Not sure how that is possible.  Hopefully once we set into the summer routine I will be able to post more regularly.  But for now I will leave you with a few pictures of Asher.

Fresh new bundle.

Ready for home.

A big yawn.

Asher and big brother.

Proud big sister and brother.