Saturday, June 11, 2011

Great is Thy Faithfulness


We have a new baby!

Asher Knox Church was born yesterday at 8:11am after a whirlwind labor. He weighed in at 8lbs 12oz and 20in long. So far he is a very, very content baby, so any of you that followed us through our experience with Aed can praise the Lord with us for that! He does resemble his brother, but has his own sweet face with dimples that make me ache every time he shows them off. Aed is doing great so far with the transition and is very interested in ‘baby’ and what baby is doing at any given moment.

Some of you will want the birth story :), so I’ll start with that, and then a few pictures of our new little guy.

After about a week and a half of contractions coming on and off, I had given up. I had gotten to the point where I didn’t really care when he came, and was actually really grateful for the extra time we’d been given to get a few more things done before his arrival. My only hope was that those contractions were somehow being productive and not just annoying :)

I woke up at about 3:30am to go to the bathroom on Friday morning and felt a little gush. I thought it might be my water breaking, but it was such a small amount I figured it was nothing to worry about and went back to bed. I was awoken two other times within the next two hours by a couple of contractions, but went right back to sleep figuring if I could sleep through it, it was nothing to worry about.

I woke up again a little after 5:30am to more little gushes and thought I should probably pay attention to what was going on. I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed I was having pretty regular contractions that seemed to be about 3-4 minutes apart. I woke Ian up and told him we were likely going to have to find someone else to pick mom up from the airport later that day. We both took showers, got Aed’s caretakers informed and ready, called the hospital to get their advice on when to come in, and left the house at about 10 after 7am.

We were chatting on the way about how we should be preparing ourselves to be sent back home because even though my contractions were regular, I was dealing with them just fine. As we crossed the bridge into Dundee, we both realized it was highly unlikely that we would be sent home, and far more likely that we were going to have a baby very soon! My contractions intensified like fire in dry grass, and before I knew it I was just hoping against hope that I wouldn’t feel the urge to push while we were still in the car.

We were really close to the hospital when I suddenly got the urge to vomit. I had no choice but to let it go, but apparently (I am told) did an awesome job at keeping it just on myself and not the (borrowed) car. So now I am having ridiculous contractions and am covered in puke trying not to have a baby in a car. The midwives had no idea what to do with me when we showed up, but got me stripped down and semi-cleaned before trying to coax me into the shower. I was willing to oblige, but really wanted to get into the birthing pool and was getting the urge to push, so I was very focused on the pool and not the shower. I proceeded to push through each contraction while they tried to get the pool filled as fast as they could. I felt the sweet relief of warm water for about two contractions before our little chubbster came shooting out into the shocked hands of the midwives.

They didn’t have the chance to read my medical notes, confirm much of anything with us about our wishes for the birth, or even check to ever see how dilated I was. One of them just kept saying, ‘My, you’re a quick worker!’ as she scurried around trying to get things taken care of.

Somewhere in the range of 20 to 25 minutes after we arrived, we met our son. And we were so thankful that we had made it! :) I apparently had given the midwives something to talk about that morning, and when I came back from being stitched I got a big, ‘Corrie’s back! And she’s walking already!’ from the midwives in the unit.

We wanted to get home as quickly as possible to see Aed and my mom, so left the hospital as soon as we were allowed. We were home by about 5:30 yesterday evening, enjoying our sons and trying to keep our eyelids up. Asher has been amazing and is doing everything he’s supposed to be doing. I am feeling great, with no complaints aside from those stitches :)

Today has been a day of thanksgiving as we reflect on the Lord’s perfect timing in all of this. We are amazed at the community of friends that helped us during labor and our absence yesterday, and have celebrated with us since. There have been so many things that we had worried about that have worked out wonderfully, it is yet another reminder of the truth in the needlessness of worry.

So we our enjoying our boy, being patient in recovery, and looking forward to the visiting of family and friends over the coming weeks. Here he is..


DIMPLES!!!!

May I introduce you to Asher's elf ears? Aren't they cute! :)

Asher (left) and Aed about the same age.. brothers, but different.
I should mention too why we chose the name we did. Asher means ‘blessed’ or ‘happy’ and was one of the 12 sons of Jacob. We really wanted to give this baby a name that would lift him up throughout his life, and so far we can say he is living up to it well! Knox is for John Knox, the Reformer that attended St Andrews University and was an active preacher in this area of Scotland. Being the Calvinists that we are, that Reformed faith is important to us, and we like the extra link to St Andrews and Scotland that the name provides as well.

We are just overflowing with gratitude and love for our family and God’s goodness to us. Praise the Lord!

6 comments:

  1. Well done, Corrie! Glad you made it to the hospital!! I can't believe you were even trying to take a shower or get in the pool with such intense contractions. We are rejoicing with you all at the birth of Asher!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Corrie, he's gorgeous!! Thanks for sharing your birth story - you are a trooper! I think a lot of St Andrews mums have feared giving birth on the Tay Bridge! Enjoy your new little man and his big brother. Praise God!

    ReplyDelete
  3. He's darling!! And those dimples are SO cute!! What a great birth story, too. Thanks for sharing. I may have checked your blog about 30 times today, hoping for a post :) So glad for all 4 of you. Sweet, sweet family. Love you guys!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulations from us! I love! the dimples :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Congratulations!!! I'm so glad to receive this news! And what an amazing birth story! It sounds like everything worked out - now you can just settle in and enjoy being a family of 4. Miss you!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a precious little guy - I can't wait to meet him. Well done with such a fast labor... was it painless? Hmmm, probably not, but at least it was quick ;o)

    ReplyDelete