Asher's Birth Story

We thought that we would write down the sequence of events that brought our beautiful boy into the world...here we go...

Around 9:30 pm on Monday, January 18th, I felt my first contraction. Of course I didn't know what it was because it lasted about 30 seconds and didn't return for another 2 hours. At 11:30 pm the same feeling came back followed by one at 11:40 and another at 11:50. At this point we are thinking, "OK, is this it?". Shortly there after we were convinced because starting at 11:55 we had contractions every 5 minutes for the next 2 hours. The doctor told us if we were experiencing contractions for 2 hours at this rate, we should call. So, around 1:50 am on January 19th, we called the doctor. Dr. Cook called us back shortly to tell us that we should head to the hospital. Let me back petal, for the past hour of contractions, Mark and I had a burst of energy that included Mark doing the following (loaded and ran the dishwasher, took out the trash, took a shower, changed the sheets on our bed in case we had visitors....and so on). He of course was always right by my side every five minutes to help me get through the pain. Have I mentioned lately how lucky I am? I folded some laundry, put it away, and finished putting last minute things in our hospital bag.

At 2:20 am, we were loaded in the car and headed to Bloomington Hospital. Mark may or may not have run about 3 stop lights, but only when the coast was clear:) We walked into labor and delivery at 2:50 am. Mark insisted on taking a picture after we got our room and I can't believe that I am posting this. But, we do want to use this blog as a journal for Asher to enjoy, so here we go...
During my first check at the hospital I was 2 1/2 cm dilated and 75% effaced. We knew we had a long road ahead of us, who knew how long it would be. At 7:30 I was examined again and had progressed to 4 cm. Dr. Cook (our doctor who was on call until 8 am) went ahead and broke my water. We also decided to get an epidural at this point. The epidural slowed my labor, so they started me on a pitocin drip. Now, pitocin is good at what it does which is speed your labor and make your contractions stronger, but not fun to experience when the epidural wears off. The next 12 hours are a bit of a blur. We were checked about every 2-3 hours. Progress was slow. We went from 4-5 cm, 5-6 cm, and then stalled. At 6 cm, they decided to remove my epidural and try it again because it was not working. (The next one worked for about 30 minutes...) Miraculously I was checked shortly after this and had jumped from 6 to 9 cm, 100% effaced and Asher had dropped! Everyone was very excited because we were so close! The nurses started preparing the room for delivery and our parents left the room for Mark and I to experience the delivery as a family of 2. 4 hours later, we were still in the same spot. No progress. At this point the doctor came in and checked me again. She(Dr. Trippel) decided Asher was not going to come on his own and we didn't know why. I was having strong, consistent contractions, just not making progress. The doctors were also having some trouble keeping my blood pressure high enough and Asher's heartbeat where they wanted it. A c-section was our only choice.

Everything sped up at this point. Mark put on his awesome scrubs...They prepped me for surgery and wheeled me to the operating room where they gave me a spinal tap. Thankfully, it did not affect my respiratory system, so I was awake the whole time and very very numb. When everything was ready, they brought Mark in and made the first cut. Within 5 minutes, Asher was finally here! At 1:27 am on January 20, 2010 our beautiful boy joined the world at 10 lbs 2 oz and 22 inches. Everyone was shocked at his size! This definitely explained the need for a c-section.

So, after 25 1/2 long hours we had our baby boy. He is perfect and the love that we feel for him cannot be expressed in words. We know we couldn't have made it through without the countless prayers that were prayed on our behalf. We definitely needed them and felt them. God is so good.

Feeling more blessed every minute,
Mark, Allyson, and Asher!