Team Zahrte: Team Zahrte 4.0!

The newest member of Team Zahrte is here! Our sweet Asher Robert arrived on Friday, March 16 at 10:45am, weighing in at a whopping 8lbs 11oz and was 21in long. Yes, that's right, I birthed a 6 week old!

I had been in for my regularly scheduled check up on Monday, and the midwife determined that I was subconsciously waiting for my mom to arrive from Florida on Wednesday. So, I called and told her not to miss her flight! On Wed. night I was sure I was going to go into labor - not because I was having contractions, but because JZ and I were up all night with a sickie Caden. Poor kid threw up 6 times in 3 hours. It was awful and he was so pathetic. I took Thurs. off because I was going to take full advantage of him wanting to snuggle with me. It ended up being a good idea because "stuff" began happening and I knew Asher was close. I did have to go into school that evening for conferences, and I made some lesson plans -just in case. To be on the safe side, my mom spent Thurs. night with us because she said she'd rather do that than get a phone call at 3am. Good thinking, because at 3:00am my contractions started! I woke JZ up around 3:30 to help me time them. At 4:00am we called the doctor and started getting ourselves ready. Unfortunately it took about 45 min. for them to call me back because the midwife was in a delivery. By the time they called back I was READY to go. My contractions were about 50 seconds long and 5 min apart at that point. In the car on the way there they consistently went to 1 min. long and 3 min apart. Wow! I was praying that I was dilated to at least 4cm so I could have an epidural. When we walked in with all of our stuff the admitting lady said, "Wow, you guys are prepared!" I said, "If anyone tries to send me home, I'm revolting!" By 6:00am I was in the bed and they checked me - 7.5cm dilated and 80% effaced. Holy cow, get me an epidural NOW! It took a little over an hour to get the blood work done, and to get the epidural in. It took two times to get the epidural catheter in, but at least my blood pressure didn't drop as far as it did last time and I didn't throw up! By 8:00am I was a happy camper again.

When they checked me again at about 8:30am I had not progressed any. We decided that since I already had the epidural and was not interested in a natural delivery (more power to those of you that do, wow!) they were going to speed this process along. So, they broke my water and gave me a shot of pitocin. That did the trick and by 9:30am I was ready to push!

This was my birth plan - labor, push baby. Sounds good to me!

Once again, Emily, the labor coach of the century was there! She didn't have to do as much this time during the labor part, but she stayed with me for HOURS afterwards while everyone else was able to go home, shower, take care of Caden, etc. Love you Em!

Let's do this - we're ready to meet our boy!

I pushed for an hour before he crowned - that big 'ol 13 1/4 in. head just did not want to get under my pelvic bone. They let JZ put gloves on and catch Asher just like he caught Caden. So cool! 15 minutes after he crowned he was here!

Absolute pure joy - welcome to the world little love!

In case you're not up on your grams to pounds conversion, that is 8lbs 11oz!

Unfortunately, on his way out, Asher sucked in a little fluid and a little meconium. The nurses were a little concerned that he was not "pinking up" like he should and that his breathing was a little labored, so they called in a baby nurse from the transitional nursery ( a step down from the NICU). She looked him over, gave him some pressure in his lungs to help pump out the junk, and then decided that although he was going to be fine, she wanted to take him to the transitional nursery just to monitor him for a little while. JZ was able to carry him down there, so I felt good that he was going to be alright.

I told him not to come back without that baby!

He was in there about an hour while they monitored him and then gave him his first bath.

Then we were all together again and ready to be moved to the recovery room

Then Asher was able to meet (almost) all of his "people"

When Papa heard that things were moving along on Thursday, he changed his flight to come in on Friday instead of Tuesday. He arrived at 11:30am, but because Asher had to go to the transitional nursery, no one got to hold him for a few hours. Papa was actually the first one to hold him once we arrived in the recovery room.