Hi friends! Missed y’all. I’m getting back into the blogging swing of things, and wanted to share Asher’s birth story and the baby announcement cards we sent our beloveds with all y’all.
When I last posted, I’d been admitted into the hospital in preterm labor. They stopped the contractions that day, but they continued regularly for weeks. I spent a night at the hospital at 37 weeks as well, and at 38 the contractions stopped on a dime. I went from constant irregular contractions to nothing at all, and it made me crazytown. I was so swollen and it was so hot and we were just beyond ready to meet our baby. After all the activity, we’d so expected an early arrival that there was nothing left to do but wait, and that bored me to tears. I had been taken off modified bed rest once we hit the safe zone at 36 weeks, so I started going back to events and making plans to fill my time. My best friend had planned to fly in to support us in our transition to parenthood, and Erin had changed her flight a handful of times already. By 39.5, we were talking about scheduling an induction at my 40 week appointment, which fell on my Friday due date.
On that Wednesday, there was an event I was so so excited for. It’s a privilege to be part of the Samsung family, and I truly think my friend Ellen Bennett is a visionary. They partnered together to create the dream test kitchen at Hedley and Bennett, and I knew I did not want to miss celebrating that partnership- events at the apron factory are always THE BEST. So I waddled my swollen self downtown for one last date night- a spectacular dinner party to distract me from the fact that I was still pregnant and so uncomfy.
I ate dozens of charbroiled oysters (I’d been craving them all pregnancy!), helped make pies in that magnificent Samsung kitchen, toasted to the dreams I want for myself and beloved others over a magnificent meal alfresco, and ended the night with a killer dance party. I enjoyed shocking people by responding to their inquiries with the fact that I was due momentarily, and I have a distinct memory of saying loudly to Ellen that I was trying to dance the baby out… the instastories corroborated that.
Famous last words.
Once home, we watched a Game of Thrones episode and went to bed. Contractions woke me up at 4 am. I went to the restroom before curling back up and trying to get a little more rest. I dozed, but the contractions woke me again, and I decided to get in the shower, figuring they’d slow if it was a false alarm. But by the time I was drying off, I was holding on to the counter to breathe through them, so I knew it was the real deal. I went and woke David up, and he went from groggy to WIDE AWAKE in a millisecond.
He made some breakfast (I was hellbent on scrambled eggs and then could barely get them down), I braided my hair (which took sooo long since I kept getting hit by contractions and letting go), and we put the last few items in our waiting hospital bags. We’d planned for me to labor at home for a while, but by 9 am the contractions were coming hard and fast, and we were enroute to the hospital. We’re only a few miles away, but morning commute traffic was harrowing in my state and I was so relieved to be greeted with a wheelchair and rolled into admitting.
The benefit of my multiple prior visits to the labor and delivery ward (besides knowing all the nurses) was that my paperwork was already done. David updated our nearest and dearest, and Erin made plans to get on the next available flight from Houston. There was a delivery room ready for me, so we moved with speed- things were feeling really intense and I was getting anxious. We settled into the room as quickly as we could, but I needed breaks to hang onto David and pant through the contractions. I got into a robe and bed for monitoring and some tests, and the nurse informed me that I’d already dialated to 5 cm. I’m sure I responded snarkily- I was nearing my max pain threshold and ready for relief, so I asked for an epidural. I had to wait until I had absorbed a bag of iv fluids before the epidural, and frankly things were getting pretty dicey toward the end of that drip. David was using an acupressure ball on my lower back and I was vocalizing through the contractions, which were rolling back-to-back, and I had just started to cry when my anesthesiologist arrived.
He deftly and painlessly threaded my epidural, and I felt relief almost instantly. Three cheers for the miracle of modern medicine! I have every respect and awe for women who conquer unmedicated childbirth but that is simply not the path for me.
Within a few minutes I was totally comfortable. I sent some update texts, worked from my phone for a little (I know, I know), and had progressed to 6.5 cm by my next check. I knew I needed to rest while I could, so I took a short nap, and when I awoke for another check around 2 pm, I was at an 8. David and I both napped, and I was grateful to be relaxed and able to do so. I was still at an 8 at my next hourly check, and my heart rate and Asher’s had been acting up during the checks… I was on oxygen and was ordered to try and rest, because progress was coming. My following checks were more of the same- a few minutes of crazy numbers at each check and then a simmer, but no progress. I kept doing my best to snooze in between, which wasn’t hard since we’d gotten nearly no sleep the night before.
After my 7 o’clock check, things changed. My nurse had called my doctor over at her office, and she was worried, and thought it was was time to call it and move towards a cesarean. Things started to move so fast- it was under 30 minutes from the nurse’s return let us know my doctor was on her way to Asher’s delivery. My doctor arrived to explain- Asher’s heart rate kept dropping, mine was rising and even with pitocin, I’d been stalled at 8 centimeters for 5 hours. She suspected he’d wrapped his umbilical cord around his neck (which was in fact the case- he’d also flipped sunny side up). I panicked for a second- with childbearing hips like mine, this was totally unexpected, and I don’t like deviations from a plan. But David reminded me that my birth plan was binary based on a healthy baby, and I readjusted my perspective and got ready to meet my son.
I was whisked to the OR and prepped for surgery- I was shaking so hard I was practically vibrating, and until they brought David in to be with me, I was so nervous I was babbling incessantly at my poor anesthesiologist. My whole medical team was efficient, calm, and kind, but they turned on the speed to get Asher out right away. Once I was prepped and draped and ready, my doctor and David came into the OR and it was surgery time. Of course, David looked over the drape and watched Asher be born- I just watched the amazement and love break over his face as he saw our son for the first time. So. Many. Tears.
The first words out of my doctor’s mouth were “he looks just like his daddy.” So true. Daddy was on duty to clamp and cut the cord, stay with him while they did the brief necessities, and loudly reassure me that he was healthy and perfect while the delivery team kept working on me.
And then David brought me our precious son, my dream come true, and put him near my collarbone. Asher nuzzled in instinctively, I sobbed, and promptly fell head over heels in love with his pink cheeks and pouty lips. We snuggled down, skin to skin, and started to get to know each other on the outside.
Once I could wiggle my toes, the staff moved us into our room for the reminder of the stay. David’s dad brought by dinner and Erin arrived from the airport to be introduced to our nugget, and we all just marveled at the tiny perfection that was our boy.
As far as introducing him to everyone else, we skipped sending holiday cards this year because I wanted to do birth announcements instead. Let’s be real- Asher is the highlight of our whole year.
I procrastinated a bit because the idea of the process overwhelmed me, but it turned out so be so much quicker and easier than I imagined! We partnered with our friends at Mixbook to share the news of our sweet boy, and the interface of their editor made that super easy. We uploaded a handful of pictures we were considering and then could try them in any of the gorgeous layouts. We chose the Simple Diamond Baby Announcement– I liked the clean geometric design and gold foil accents. It felt classic, and worked well with the image we decided to use (I’m such a sucker for a baby bow tie). We were even able to include a family picture on the back without an upcharge!
Asher approved.
I had Mixbook print our return addresses- one less thing to do! You could even have them do all the addressing for you, but I didn’t have the addresses organized to do that when I was ordering. Regardless, I was so pleased when they arrived- such good quality and the perfect way to introduce our precious son to our closest family and friends.
I swear, y’all. If Heaven is a place, its filled with sleepy newborn babies. Asher is a dream and a wish and we are beyond obsessed. As I posted on Instagram shortly after his birth, I’ve wanted the same two things in this life since I was a little girl… a great love and a family. Now I have both, and so much more.
This post was brought to you in partnership with Mixbook, but as always, all opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make LoveRavayna possible.
