One Month Old

Asher is now one month old. We can't believe how fast this month has gone by. At his last doctor's appointment he weighed about 9.5 lbs and he has definitely gotten taller, too. He is outgrowing some of his newborn clothes and starting to look even cuter in the 0-3 months clothes. He is a very content baby, he doesn't cry very much and he likes to sleep at night. In fact, last night he slept from 10 pm to 5 am. Roger and I were very excited!
Here are some pictures from Asher's first month.

Asher's Birth Story

I'll try to keep this short, but it was an amazing day and pretty hard to sum up.

3:00 am
Woke up with contractions about 7-8 minutes apart, at one point they were only 4-5 minutes apart.

8:00 am
Went to the hospital for the scheduled induction, internal exam showed I was still only 1 cm, contractions had slowed down to 15 minutes apart, spent the next several hours prepping for the induction and doing a non-stress test.

11:00 am
Pitocin started and contractions picked back up to 6 minutes apart and not too painful. Dr. Pujo stops by to check on me and says he will be back later in the afternoon.

12:30 pm
Internal exam showed I was at 3 cm and could get the much desired epidural, contractions were becoming more and more painful, pitocin was stopped.

The rest of the times are pretty fuzzy...

1:00 pm
Contractions are coming one on top of another Roger is helping me breathe through them and try to relax, our friend Raegan was also there to show me how to breathe and to translate for us and generally try to encourage us.

Maybe 1:30 pm
Another internal exam and I am now at 6 cm, but still waiting for the epidural.

Sometime Later
The anesthesiologist finally arrived and began the epidural, I had to curl up on my side and try not to move during contractions, it was excruciating. Roger was amazing and ended up with some wounds from my fingernails.

An Hour After That
I can tell something is going wrong with the epidural and I'm starting to doubt whether or not I can make it through the pain, Roger continued to breathe with me and do everything he could to help me get through each contraction. At this point I was only getting about a 1 minute break between contractions. The epidural was actually not painful at all, just scary. Finally the epidural is finished and I start waiting for some relief.

10 Minutes Later
The epidural didn't work, I'm getting no relief at all and after waiting another 10 minutes the anesthesiologist decides to try again.

Maybe 15 Minutes Later
Sweet relief! The contractions had mostly been in my back and I could finally feel them start to lessen. I could still feel my legs, I was only numb around my waist, but it was wonderful. It was at this point we took a picture. I remember feeling so good for about 10 minutes...

As soon as the epidural started working the nurse did another internal exam and I was at 8 cm. I was looking forward to a little rest before the pushing.

3:30 pm
I start feeling the overwhelming urge to push, but I'm not completely dilated yet. The nurse checks and I'm at 9 cm and Dr. Pujo is called, I have to pant to keep from pushing every time I have a contraction. The poor nurse keeps telling me to stop pushing in Indonesian, I keep telling her I can't help it in English.

4:00 pm
Dr. Pujo arrives and suits up, I'm completely dilated and I can start pushing. Raegan and the anesthesiologist coach me on how to push and I feel like I am making good progress. Even with the epidural I can feel the contractions and feel the urge to push.

4:40 pm
Dr. Pujo announces that Asher is stuck and that he wants to do a C-Section. We are all shocked because Raegan had actually seen the top of his head a few pushes before and Asher's heartrate was still great. He gives us the choice of vacuum extraction or C-Section, I'm beyond being able to process anything, but definitely don't want to have a C-Section. Roger says we can try the vacuum extraction and Raegan gets Dr. Pujo to agree to 15 more minutes of pushing.

5:00 pm
Dr. Pujo starts the vacuum extractor , but it doesn't work, he is now telling us we have to have a C-Section. Praise the Lord Raegan was with us, she told him no and told me to keep pushing. A few minutes after that he decided to try to the vacuum extractor one last time.

5:18 pm
With Dr. Pujo using the vacuum extractor and all of the nurses and the anesthesiologist pushing on my belly Asher's head finally started to come out. One more big push and an episiotomy his head was born. With the next push he was out and Dr. Pujo put him on my belly and Roger and I got to see our son for the first time. As soon as he came out he gave a good cry to let us know he was okay.

This is our favorite picture. It was taken just seconds after Asher was born. I just love the look on our faces as we meet our baby boy. There were definitely some tears and some big goofy smiles.

And this is one of our first family photos. We were so happy and so tired and glad to finally have our baby boy with us.