Asher's Birth Story

Things have been a little busy around here as we get adjusted and situated. I'm finally getting around to updating on Asher's birth, so here goes:

Monday morning around 1am I started having a pretty bad constant pain in my lower belly then a few hours later pretty regular contractions started. They weren't bad contractions, but regular until 8am when the contractions stopped. The constant pain, however, didn't stop. I made Chris stay home from work thinking the contractions might start up again. The pain wouldn't relent, though and was followed with aches and chills. I spent most the day on the couch, because just walking was incredibly painful. Chris went and finished cleaning out our old house (yes we had just moved 2 days earlier--more on that later). When he came home we decided to go to labor and delivery and be checked out. At this point, I really just thought I had pulled a muscle or was having major round ligament pain.

We got checked into the hospital about 6pm and I was having regular contractions. The dr said it was very early labor. However, Asher's heart rate was in the 190s which was not a good sign. Eventually his heart rate came down to the 150s and 60s. Then I spiked a fever and that coupled with my belly pain and his high heart rate made them diagnose me with an infection of the amniotic fluid. They hooked me up to iv antibiotics and said the baby would be coming soon!

The drs talked about giving me plutosin (sp?) to speed things up, but I really wanted to avoid that if at all possible. So I talked them into waiting and seeing how my body progressed. When they checked I had progressed a little so they let me be. At around 11pm, at the next check, they went ahead and broke my water and really got things moving. Things progressed steadily from there. The hospital was great about letting me do whatever I needed during labor. They even let me labor in the shower since all the baby monitors are water proof!! I managed to labor completely natural with no pain medicine of any kind! I started pushing around 630 am and at 6:46am our handsome Asher Zhu-En Liu was born!

Asher was 7lbs 2 oz and 21 inches long. He is completely healthy and perfect!! As a precaution, they started him on iv antibiotics and told us he would be in the hospital for 7 days since I had the infection. However, we were so happy that all his blood tests came back clear and he was able to come home with us after the regular 2 days!

Since my due date wasn't until Saturday, June 11 (and you usually are over due with your first) my sister Allison and friend Erin were set to fly in the 9th so they'd be here for the birth. Allison set out as soon as she found out baby Asher was coming and road tripped it 14 hours! She got here when he was just a few hours old! Erin had to wait until Thursday, but was able to be at our house waiting when we got home from the hospital.

All in all, it was a great experience. Labor isn't any fun, but totally doable and sooo worth it!