Mitchell Family: Meet Baby Asher

My sweet baby was born on August 2, 2011 at 12:21 pm.

He was a whopping 9 lbs 4 ounces 20 3/4 in long

He had red hair on his giant head!

He is absolutely perfect.

...The story...

At my 38 week appointment I was supposed to meet with Dr. B, but she wasn't there so we couldn't talk about induction. She called me on Friday July 29 and told me that my baby was in the 92 percentile and that she thought the best option would be a C-section. She told me to talk it over with Cameron and then call her back with my decision before noon. Cam and I talked about it and I felt pretty good about it, even though it wasn't my first option. I called her back and they scheduled a C-section for noon on Tuesday August 2. I started telling different people about my decision and got a lot of criticism. Its not like I'm the first person to ever have a big baby. I panicked. Monday, the day before my scheduled c-section I called the Doc and asked if I could get one more ultrasound to see how big he was. They said that was fine and off we went. He was measuring 8 lbs 9 oz give or take a pound. His head was measuring at 41 weeks and 2 days. I was only 39 weeks along. I decided to stick with the original plan and have my c-section the next day. I was okay with the decision and just hoped that people would start to support my decision instead of give me a hard time.

Tuesday - We got everything together and dropped Toby off at my parents house. We had to be at the hospital at 10 am to get ready for surgery. I was a mess. I was scared to death and couldn't stop crying. They started my IV and got me all ready to go. My blood pressure was in the 170/120 range. Not good. They kept telling me to calm down, but no matter what I did I couldn't get it to go down.

They took me to my O.R and had Cameron go wait in the other room while they gave me the spinal. That was at 12:01. It hurt, but not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. That kicked in quick! They laid me down, Doc came in and started cutting. They brought Cameron in and told him he could watch or he could just sit by my head. He chose to sit by me which I'm so grateful for. It was a nice distraction. I could feel them pushing on me and rocking me back and forth, but there was no pain. Then it was time to pull the baby out. Dr. B was grunting saying "His head is HUGE!" The other doctor was pushing from the top to get him out - talk about taking your breath away. It felt like someone was stepping on my chest and blocking my air supply! Then at 12:21 I heard him cry! Dr. B said she just delivered a 3 month old! Cam went over while they weighed him and got him all cleaned up! Meanwhile, I'm still laying on the operating table with my stomach cut open. Cameron took the baby to recovery while I got all put back together. Thats when the pain started! When they close up your tummy air gets stuck inside and it decided to hang out in my right shoulder. It killed. It wouldn't go away.

Finally at 12:50 I got wheeled into recovery to see my baby. Legs and belly were still completely numb so the only pain I had was my shoulder. The nurse put a shirt and diaper on the baby and his legs were purple. We figured out quick that newborn size diapers weren't going to work for his thunder thighs so we got some size 1's and his legs went back to normal! I got to nurse my baby. He latched quick and ate for about 25 minutes. They continued to monitor my heart rate which was a little lower because of the spinal, but was starting to go back up. We stayed in recovery til about 3 and were finally sent to a postpartum room.

Family were FINALLY able to come see our little guy. They came in and asked what his name was and if it started with a T. We said no and they were shocked! His name was supposed to be Trig. While in recovery we decided that it needed to be something different. Cameron had the final say and he chose Asher Cameron Mitchell. That was the one I wanted so I couldn't be happier. They loved the name and loved him. He is the cutest baby I have ever seen! I am a little biased though!

We finally got to go home on Friday Aug. 5th at about 6 pm! We stayed at my parents house for the next few days until I was feeling a little bit better. Its good to be home and doing it on our own, but I have on multiple occasions said that I wish I could just go back to my postpartum room and let the nurses take care of me some more. Weird I know, but I just felt safe!

Its been hard work having this little guy, but I wouldn't change it for anything. Almost 2 weeks later, I have been to 3 doctors and gotten blood work for my blood pressure. I am on 3 different medications to try to get it under control. I have been to the ER once and would prefer to never go back. ( The beds weren't even long enough so my feet were hanging off the edge). This has definitely been a challenge for me, but its teaching me a lot. I would do anything for my baby and I will do whatever I have to in order to get my health back where it should be so I can be the best mom to him!