In case you were wondering…  we had a baby!

Picking up from where I left off below,  we ended up waiting another 4 hours before we began pushing.  Once we did that, he came out with 4 or 5 pushes…  Super fast!  We didn’t know it at the time but it appears that one of the reasons it was taking Asher so long to get here was because his umbilical cord was keeping him from crowning like he needed to.  Eventually he pushed through it, cord and all.  As his head popped through Dr. Salzetti casually reached down, grabbed his forceps, scissors and calmly cut the cord.  I thought to myself (selfishly), “Well that sucks, he didn’t even ask if I wanted to cut it”.  He had been so cool, calm and collective that I didn’t even realize the gravity of the situation until it was over.  He then proceeded to unwrap the cord which had been wrapped twice around Asher’s neck.  The next thing I knew he was placing little Asher on Staci’s chest.

Asher Ray Beeman
Born: 8/6/2010
Weight: 7lbs. 13oz.
Length: 19 1/2 inches

After things settled down, they moved us into another room where there were two beds!!!  Not that we got much sleep, but it was nice to have a place to lay my head every once in a while.  Asher has been a fairly mellow baby so far.  In fact, he probably would have slept through the night if the nurses hadn’t kept coming in and waking him (and us) up every 2-1/2 to 3 hours! One benefit was that he got his first bath and I got to play with his hair…  He’s got a ton of it and it actually has natural hi-lights.  You can vote on your favorite hair style at my facebook site.

He slept most of the day.  He even slept through visiting hours.  A big thanks to Grandma Lynn for watching the boys through all of this.  I don’t know how people do this type of thing without family.  It must just seem impossible!  We’re so blessed to have so much support.  I was trying to count and it looks like there were over 400 posts on my facebook site within the last 2 days.  One person (Janice) even called it her, “first virtual birth”.  Who says that the iPhone and facebook haven’t revolutionizing the world!

Grandma brought the boys by to see their new baby brother just after lunch yesterday.  They each got a chance to hold him.  They were so gentle and so excited at the same time.  That’s a huge feat for two boys under the age of 7!  They dropped off the Build-a-Bear Teddy Bear that they made for Asher.  He’s been hanging out with him since they left.

It’s taken him a little while to get the whole feeding thing down.  I had asked for some of you to pray that he would start feeding (via facebook).  Almost immediately the nurse came in, burped him real good and informed us that his stomach was full of fluids due to the quick delivery (pushes that is).  I proceeded to burp him consistently and the next feeding went tremendously well.  He spent the majority of the day sleeping and then of course was up all night.  The night nurse Dawn called it cluster feeding.  She was probably our best nurse yet (all of them have been great with the exception of one).

We were hoping to be discharged by the evening, but the nurses insisted that we stay at least 24 hours.  I believe that put us past the possible discharge time.  Needless to say, Staci didn’t get much sleep last night as she was feeding Asher most of the time.  I tried to give her a couple of 90 minute breaks, but Asher was excited about this new feeding thing.  He passed his hearing test with flying colors and the Pediatrician said he’s a perfect little boy.  It looks like we’ll be out of the hospital by noon today!

Staci is feeling pretty sore and could use your prayers.  Asher is doing great with the exception of his little spit-up routine.  He looks like a dog coughing up a bone which freaks us out.  The doctors and nurses assure us that it’s not only totally normal but that he has to be the cutest baby in the whole maternity ward.  Yeah, right…  I’ve heard that before!  😉

In case you were wondering, Asher is Hebrew for “happy”.  It is first used in the book of Genesis as Leah names Jacob’s 8th son Asher.

And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher. Genesis 30:13

And that’s what we are today, so happy that God has blessed us with a beautiful family, Joshua, Micah and now baby Asher.  And we’re doubly blessed to have our supportive parents our Chorus Church family, neighbors, facebook family (I know that sounds weird but it’s true) and all of you reading this now.  How blessed are we!  Thank you once again for all of your support.  This has been the best pregnancy and delivery yet and that’s in large part due to all of you!

In the midst of all this I’ve been following Emily’s story.  It’s hard to read without tearing up.  I sit here rejoicing over the fact that my 3 boys are safe and sound while Bob and Ellen are agonizing over their wounded daughter.  Please pray for Emily and her family.  It appears that she’s recovering well, but she could use all of the prayers that she can get.  You might even go over and leave a nice comment on her site.  You can read about her plight here.