Asher's Birth Story

The morning of November 28 I had an appointment with Dr. Berry Fleming, my OB-GYN. He said I was dilated 4 cm, which was how far I was when I entered the hospital to deliver Reese... so quite a head start this time! That night, Dana stayed up very late working. He came to bed around 2 AM and we chatted for awhile before he fell asleep. At 2:30 AM on November 29, I started having contractions. They weren't too strong or painful (more like cramps you'd have with your period), but they were consistent and I knew that false contractions weren't supposed to be painful, so I started tracking them immediately. Thankfully I found a handy little iphone app that helped me do this, so I didn't have to do math or think too hard about this in the middle of the night while half asleep! My contractions quickly got closer and closer together and by 3:30 AM I knew for sure that we were heading to the hospital. I finally woke Dana up and told him to take a quick shower. Luckily we had JUST packed our bags for the hospital after procrastinating for weeks... so we were pretty ready to go. At 3:50 we gave Dana's parents, who were staying with us to help out with the baby's arrival, a heads up that we were leaving and they were now officially in charge of Reese (who was 15 months old at this time). We arrived at Baylor Frisco hospital around 4 AM, just as my contractions took a turn and decided to get PAINFUL! Thankfully, I had my epidural about 90 minutes later so I didn't have TOO much pain (I know, I know... I was very lucky. But at the time, it didn't feel like it!). After the epidural took effect, we relaxed and tried to nap for a couple hours since things seemed to slow down. Just like he did with Reese's delivery, Dana tried to make the delivery room as comfortable as possible with dim lights, (flameless LED) candles and soothing music. It was quite nice. Around 8 AM Dr. Fleming decided to break my water. At 8:30 AM he and the nurse told me to start pushing. I couldn't feel a thing due to my awesome epidural - just the way I like it : ). I pushed for about 10-15 minutes and little Asher was born! We stayed 2 nights and enjoyed yummy food (they have a 5-star chef) and sweet visitors (the Cavins, the Wannemachers, Emily from our church small group, Dana's parents... and possibly others that I've forgotten in my sleep deprived, epidural fog). All in all, it was pretty easy. I'm thankful that we have an amazing hospital pretty much across the street and that epidurals are readily available in the U.S.! Most of all, I'm thankful for a healthy baby. Thank you God : )