Asher's Birth Story

The day A-team was born, I was 41 weeks pregnant. We had a midwife appointment that morning, and in the afternoon I was scheduled for an ultrasound, just to see how things were going in there. I had dropped off Stu at school, and C-note at a friend's house. After the technician had done the scan, she hmmed and said, "I can't find any fluid in here... I can't even find a pocket of fluid." After scanning for a few more minutes, she told me that I could sit up, and she was going to page my midwife. I was concerned, thinking that maybe I wouldn't be able to have a natural delivery. I had to wait and try to keep the tears from falling. She came back and told me that my midwife was on her way, and that I had to go up to Labour and Delivery right now. Then the floodgates opened. With a concerned look in her face, she said, "What's wrong?" "I wanted to have a VBAC..." I sobbed. "Oh, it's ok, honey, they're just going to put you on the monitor to see if everything is ok with the baby." But I knew what was going to happen...

Up in L&D they put the fetal monitor on me to record the heartbeat and movements. Because he got a score of zero on the ultrasound (no fluid, no muscle tone [he was only sleeping]) they wanted to keep me on the monitor for a while and have a consultation with the obstetrician on call. My midwife and her student came and reassured me that everything is fine with the baby, there was just a concern because of the lack of fluid. Being a week overdue, the placenta had gotten tired and stopped working the way it should. The obstetrician came and had a visit with us and basically told me that the baby had to come out now. They don't induce mothers with previous c-sections, as it can lead to a rupture of the scar. So, another c-section had to be performed that night. Since I had eaten a chocolate while wating for the ultrasound, I has to wait six hours before the operation.

I had to borrow the midwife's cellphone to arrange pickup of Stu, C-note, and my hospital bag as well as all the stuff that we needed for C-note's few days away. Thankfully I remembered Stu's parent's phone number from our dating days! It's so great to have family nearby. Once Stu was there, it was a lot easier to deal with the news. The disappointment didn't last too long as we knew that everything was ok with the baby, he was healthy, squirming around, or, as the midwife put it, "he's having a party in there!"

Even though I had a caesarean section before, it was still nerve-wracking being on the operating table. Once Stu was by my side, he told me he just realized how often God had changed our plans. It was true and humbling. Also comforting that our lives are not in our hands and no matter what, we've always been upheld by His strength.

So the doctor pulled (pushed, manipulated, manhandled, or so it felt) the baby out and said "Congratulations, it's a boy!" I was confused for a moment as I thought during most of my pregnancy that I was having a girl! I measured smaller than when I was expecting C-note, so I figured I was having a girl, 'cause girls are smaller, right? Anyways, it worked out well since we were really firm on the boy's name, but not completely satisfied with the girl's name! We seem to be able to pick boy's names easier.

We are so thankful that despite the initial disappointment, and the post-partum hemmorraging which resulted in a terribly painful manual clean-out that I won't go into detail here...we have a beautiful, healthy baby boy who is growing like crazy. He just gave me his first smile on Thursday. Which made my sleep-deprived day.