Asher's birth story

The story begins on Tuesday, June 10, when we had our final appointment with my doctor.  At this point I was 3 days past my due date, so they required me to have a growth ultrasound and biophysical profile to make sure that the baby was doing okay.  So I had the ultrasound first, then James and I went to the library and did one quick shopping trip before heading in for my appointment.  My doctor thought that they hadn't done the BPP, so they hooked me up to a monitor and had me do a non stress test in the exam room.  The results indicated that he was non reactive, so she said we could either go to the hospital to be admitted or do the BPP and then most likely be admitted.  We decided to do the BPP because otherwise she wouldn't let us go and get dinner before going to the hospital.  It ended up not mattering since it turned out they HAD done the BPP and the baby was great, so we went to Mr Chen's for Chinese food, stopped by Aldi for some snacks, and then got to the hospital around 6:00.

Shortly after checking in we talked with Dr. Jones who said that based on the BPP we could wait to induce until the morning in the hopes that I might go into labor that evening on my own.  I had contractions about every 8-9 minutes for a couple of hours, but they went away once I decided to sleep.  I slept pretty well, but was ready to go around 4:30.  Our nurse came in to start me on pitocin at 5:30 and the contractions slowly but surely got stronger and closer together.  At 7:45 Dr. Mills came in to see how things were going, and at that point she broke my water and things really started going!  I wanted to labor for awhile on yay own before getting the epidural again, and around 8:35 I buzzed the nurse to say I was ready.  She came in with the bad news that there was only one anesthesiologist available at the time and I was sitting third in line.  I decided that I wanted to use the bathroom while I could still feel everything, so I sat on the bedside commode.  The contractions were actually easier to handle sitting there, so I stayed there for awhile.  At this point they were coming every 30 seconds or so and lasting anywhere from 1-2 minutes, with the peak of each wave going off the chart.  The worst part was that the monitor also showed contractions of another woman that my nurse was watching, and her contractions were WAY calmer than mine...I got pretty jealous that we were essentially at the same point in our labors and mine was so much worse.  Eventually the nurse came back in and asked me if I was pooping, and I said yes, and she hurriedly rushed me back onto the bad, shocked that I hadn't told her I was feeling rectal pressure and feared I was going to deliver this kid on yay own on the toilet.  She checked me and I was at about 7 cm at this point, almost 9:30. She said that the anesthesiologist would be with me soon, and luckily he was.  The only epidural process seemed to take a lot longer this time and I felt like it didn't kick in as quickly.  It was still pretty quick once he got it in, and aside from one little spot near my pelvis on my right side, I couldn't feel the contractions- I guess the catheter was leaning towards the right so my right side was much more numb than my left.  I told the nurse that even with th epidural I was feeling a lot of  pressure, so she checked me again shortly before 10 and said I was complete!

Dr . Mills came in and checked the baby's head position through a contraction and said that it was time to start pushing.  Once they got everything set up we got going, and I probably pushed for a total of  5 rounds or so before he came out quietly at 10:23 am.  The whole process seemed so much calmer than with Cadence and obviously went a lot faster, too.  I didn't feel nearly as exhausted and luckily I only had a second degree episiotomy.  Dr. Mills attempted to avoid it, but after a few rounds of pushing she decided it was necessary.  Asher seemed so small compared to what I remember with Cadence, and although he was smaller, he was still pretty big-- 9 lbs 5 ox and 21.75 inches long.  He had SO much black hair and looks just like his daddy.  We were able to keep him for about an hour before he went to the nursery, so he got to nurse right away and snuggle with both of us for a little while.