Oh boy, do I have news for you! The last weekend of January started out fairly normal. I was excited because my best friends were throwing us a baby shower on Sunday the 31st. My friends are so creative with shower decor, and I just couldn't wait to see it! That Friday at work, I had been feeling a little odd. The entire month of January was just so uncomfortable to me that I just didn't think much of it. I even went shopping on Saturday to do some last minute things to get ready for Asher's arrival. Little did I know, he was planning his arrival a few hours later!
My water broke as soon as I dozed off to sleep Saturday night/Sunday morning. I jumped up in the bed and let out a huge gasp...which I thought would scare Robbie, but he was surprisingly very calm about the whole situation. He immediately called the doctor just like we learned in childbirth class! I was frantically running around the house trying to figure out what I needed to throw in our "emergency" hospital bag. I'm such a procrastinator that I was even surprised I had a bag already packed. It wasn't the one I wanted, but it would do in case of an emergency! Doctor said to come to the hospital immediately, so that we did. We hopped in the car, called the parents and arrived at the hospital about 30 minutes later. Keep in mind, my due date was not until March 4, so we were really not expecting this to happen at all. I was worried the entire car ride there because Asher was four and a half weeks early. We just had him measured a week before at the doctor's office and he was measuring about 4 lbs 11 oz.
I had a very easy labor. I couldn't even feel my contractions at first. I only knew I was having them because the monitor showed me! I was in labor about 9 hours. Asher made his appearance at 10:48am on 1/31 weighing a whopping 6 lbs 3 oz (big for a preemie!) and 19 inches long. When the nurse told me his weight, I was shocked but very relieved! They take babies to the NICU if they're under a certain birth weight...I think it was 5 lbs. I thought we were in the clear, however, the nurses wanted to monitor his lungs. They took him to well baby nursery for a few hours and then decided to send him to the NICU due to some apnea problems he was having. Little did I know we'd be in the NICU for 12 days. That was the longest 12 days of my life. Asher had several apnea spells his first two days of life. He progressively got better, but he couldn't come home until he stopped having spells for at least 5 consecutive days. Every time he had one, my heart sunk a little. I knew he had to stay there to get better, but I just wanted to take him home with us. I never thought I'd have to leave the hospital without my baby. After what seemed like a lifetime, we finally brought him home on February 12th... the biggest snow day Mississippi has seen in quite some time!
Asher is doing very well now. I think he loves his new home. And his parents sure do love him! He'll be 4 weeks old this weekend. I cannot believe it! Seems to me like he should only be two weeks old. They do grow fast!
Thank you everyone for your prayers and blessings during Asher's NICU stay. We are very appreciative of all the love and gifts that were sent our way.
