Asher Kelley Brower

Hey everyone! I’ve managed to make it back on the blog. It’s only because the other 4 members of the house are all taking naps right now and I thought it would be the perfect chance to get my birth story down on the blog. Let me start off by saying how much I love my new little boy Asher Kelley Brower. He is so precious and so little and I feel such a deep connection to him already. It could be the fact that I have Gage so I know how much I’m gonna grow to love him or maybe because his birth experience was so wonderful, but either way I feel that this little guy is uniquely special and he’s going to do great things with his life. So now for the birth story. These are my favorite kind of blog entries to read so I’ll try to be thorough. 

Last Saturday was a busy one with a trip to the lake and maternity pictures that evening. I remember thinking that my energy level was incredibly good considering that the temperature was in the hundreds and I was super pregnant. Then Sunday came and I crashed. I was so tired, sick to my stomach and throwing up. That continued through Monday morning and I decided to go to my doctors appointment in hopes that they would strip my membrane and end this misery called pregnancy. Alas, I was one day short of 38 weeks and they wouldn’t do the procedure. Disappointed and dejected I headed home, still feeling like my stomach was acting up since it would occasionally ache something terrible. The happy news from earlier that day improved my mood by quite a bit. My sister in law had had her baby that morning and that made me feel like I was that much closer to having my own, since she was due two weeks ahead of me. Her husband jokingly told me to go into labor so they would be cousins born on the same day. I was happy to oblige. Like they say, the heart was willing but my body wasn’t feeling it. At least the doctor had told me I was at a 3 and 70% effaced. So I called my mom to share the info and she immediately asked if I was in labor. I assured her that I was not and talked for a bit. Not an hour later I was calling her back to just let her know that I wasn’t certain but some pretty strong contractions had started up. What I thought was a after effect of being sick turned out to be contractions. So I timed them for a couple of hours and when they got stronger I called a friend and had her take me to the hospital. I’m so lucky to have such wonderful people live around me cause this wouldn’t have happened without her! 

Cody met me at the hospital and we then spent a very long 4 hours in the triage room having them debate whether to admit me or not. I wasn’t progressing very quickly but the baby’s heartbeat would drop after every contraction which led them to believe the cord was around his neck. Finally they decided to move me upstairs (still with no promise that I wouldn’t be sent home at some point) and the wonderful doctor sang music to my ears when she decided to start pitocin and get me to have the baby. His heart rate started to do a bit better upstairs and I was so excited that I was going to finally meet this little baby. Granted, I wanted to be done with being pregnant but more than anything I wanted to find out who I had been carrying this whole time. At 5 centimeters I requested the epidural and had a fairly scary experience. After getting all set up with the epidural I suddenly felt very light headed. I told the nurse and then just a moment later told her that I really didn’t feel well. My blood pressure had dropped in half and they suddenly couldn’t get a heartbeat on the baby. The anesthetist gave me a quick shot to increase my heart palpitations and the nurse, with a worried look on her face, searched for the heartbeat. Finally the little beat was found and after being on oxygen for several minutes I began to feel better. The doctor explained that sometimes your body just reacts in weird ways to the medicine and that I would be fine. The funny part is that Cody was kind of oblivious to the whole fiasco (maybe he was on his phone or something) but he was surprised to hear that I was so worried and didn’t even notice them give me a shot or the look for the baby’s heartbeat. 

So after an hour or so I was measuring at a 7 and pretty discourage to be going so slow. There was only 2 hours left in the day and as silly as it was at the time I really wanted the cousins to have the same birthday. It was just a minute later as I was dozing off that a water balloon popped in my belly. They hadn’t broken my water to this point because of the stressed condition of the baby so it came as a total shock when it went on its own. It made me nearly jump out of my bed and scared Cody half to death. I rang the nurse and while waiting for her to arrive began to have incredible pressure and pain. In just two contractions I felt like my whole lower pelvis was trying to separate from my body. The nurse entered to me shaking and grunting through a contraction, holding Cody’s hand. When she checked me she looked up in surprise and said I was at a 10 and that the baby was coming out. I was so surprised because just 5 minutes earlier I was at a 7 and now I was about to have a baby.  Quickly she called the doctor and began to prep the area, all the while telling me not to push because the baby’s head was already on its way out. Not pushing was so hard and barely had an effect anyway. The doctor barley got her fingers in her glove before she gave the go ahead to push. 7 seconds into the first push his head came out, quickly followed by the rest of him. Certainly not the hour and a half pushing experience of getting Gage out! The bed hadn’t been dropped in front and there was no set up to help in the delivery but that didn’t matter to Asher. Out he came with the cord around his neck and screaming from head to toe. Such a good feeling cause Gage never did cry anything more than a pitiful whimper. Asher was pink, beautiful and he was all mine. Both times delivering a baby I’ve been struck with amazement that I would have this baby to love all my life and I was so happy to be his mother.   This time was double the excitement and joy because he didn’t have any medical problems and I didn’t feel like I had been struck by a train. In fact I felt great! I only had the same tear open up from my labor with Gage and I felt like I could have done the whole thing again if asked to. I had prepped myself for at least 30 minutes of pushing and had less than 30 seconds. What a win!

 And the most amazing part to me is that Asher decided to latch on a nurse just 20 minutes after coming out. Latching is something I never could get Gage to do, despite the input and help from a handful of lactation specialists. Everything about this kid is wonderful. He truly falls under the second child syndrome of being easy going and laid back. My time in the hospital was like a vacation and I'm looking forward to having another baby just to get that wonderful break. Other than an episode with getting horribly and painfully engorged, nursing has been pretty neat. If only my breasts would quit producing so much milk! I guess it’s a good problem to have but man it’s painful!

Gage has been mostly indifferent to the baby with occasional moments of interest that usually result in the baby getting a little smashed. It's been a huge help having my mom here and I can honestly say that no one appreciates or loves a baby as much as grandmas do (other than the parents of course). It's just fun to have someone around who is just as in love with your little baby. Gage has been so happy to have Grandma around and even though she has to leave early she's been invaluable. My grandma suffered a stroke so my mom is leaving me a week early to tend to her own mom. We're all praying for you grandma and we love you so much! 

And that leaves me getting help from my ward to get through this time. I know I can do it and I feel better and better every day. I just hope that I can start getting out soon so Gage can have somewhere to play at. The house gets so boring. My dear sweet friend Clara sent a sign up around church to have people help watch Gage while I nap and rest and I think that's what is keeping the panic attacks from coming up. I'm kinda terrified of being a new mom with a very active toddler but I know that this too shall pass. Plus I've got the sweetest, cutest newborn to love and I can't wait to watch him grow up. So welcome to the world little Asher Kelley Brower. You are loved and you are exactly where God wanted you to be!