Our birth story...

I'll start with the point I want to get across: may all credit be to God for our beautiful son, from his miraculous conception to his perfect birth. The name Asher means “blessed” or “joy” and he has been all that his first 3 days of life.

On Monday the fifteenth, 4 days after his 'due date,' Faye had an ultrasound and it was discovered that his amniotic fluid level was a 3, where it should be between 5-8. This gave the doctors some worry and starting throwing around the 'I' word: induction. If you didn't know, we have planned to have a natural childbirth, hoping to honor the natural process of birth without human intervention. But with low amniotic fluids his risk of dying was 1 in 100. We didn't like this statistic, so we fervently prayed for wisdom in decision making. We decided to take things one day at a time, since Faye's body was already showing progressive signs of early labor and we were confident of his health. We tried every natural induction technique we have read about (less the castor oil), all the while praying for him to come.

Because of the doctors concern, each day we went in to get his vitals checked, and thankfully he looked “gorgeous,” as Dr. Cole put it. His heart rate was just fine. On Thursday, however, we had another ultrasound bearing more grim news: his fluid level was now a 2. We discussed options with Dr. Cole and she recommended induction but left the decision up to us. While we did want a natural birth, our utmost desire was an end result of healthy mother and baby. We did not want to be ignorant, risk our child's life for the sake of an ideal. So we took the first, what we thought was very minor, step to induction: strip the membrane. As we left the office, I told the ever friendly staff at 7 Hills that we would not be seeing them tomorrow. They smiled in agreement and we went home.

A couple hours later we were laying in bed after a short walk, with hands on Faye's belly begging God to bring him. We prayed for wisdom and guidance and for Him to intervene on our behalf, recognizing the situation we were in was completely out of our control. Mid-sentance, before our Amen's announced our desire to “let it be,” Faye moaned with the onset of the first contraction, 10:18 am. She described it as a distinct drop in her uterus, like slipping off the rung of a ladder. After it subsided, she said “you are not going to work, this is it.” 10:27, the next 60 second contraction. This pattern continued until 11:00 am, then it shifted to every 2 minutes, lasting 45 seconds each, like clockwork. The last recorded one at home was at 11:26, then off to the hospital we went.

After a short drive across the street, Faye stepped outside the car and had a contraction on the sidewalk. Valet man took the car and up to 3rd floor of Fort Hamilton Hospital we went: maternity ward. Between contractions the nurse, Charlene, inputed information in the computer. Contractions were on top of one another at this point, and before we knew it she dilated from 5 cm to 9 ½ and her body began to push. After 2 hours of pushing, Asher Nelson was born at 4:15pm, a beautiful, healthy baby boy.

A story began on that day, a story I believe God is writing for us and our son Asher. I recognize things in this world go wrong, more often then we would like, but every now and again I think God can't hold back anymore, that He allows Himself to intervene for His children. So may this story bring joy to you as Asher has brought to us. (more pictures)