Asher ‘’Fortunate, blessed, happy one’’

This day still seems like a dream. The day my Sonshine arrived and said hello to the world was the best Mother’s Day gift I could ever receive on May 13, 2018. The day before Mother’s day I felt fine as one would feel 26 weeks into their pregnancy. This was my first and although I was still midterm we decided to celebrate the time as my first Mother’s Day. Joeseph and I were celebrating the night before and as I was opening my gifts I experienced a sharp pain, granted, I wasn’t feeling 100% but who does when you have a little human growing inside of you. The pain felt only like mild cramps and being that it wasn’t crazy painful I blew it off and we continued with our night. None of the books I had read up until this point mentioned the type of symptoms I was experiencing. It wasn’t until the pain started to increase that I remember calling my mom at midnight crying. We tried everything from a warm towel to cold peas from the freezer. We were trying anything to self-remedy and Google will suggest some crazy stuff and depending on your level of pain you might just try it. Remember, this was my first so not once did I think it could be contractions that I was feeling. I hadn’t even reached that chapter in my what to expect book. That was actually in the chapter I planned on reading next. I mean, I was just about to start my third trimester. I had just celebrated finding out my little peanut was a boy. I still managed to open up my gifts in-between the pain of course, lol.

Around 2:30 am I told Joeseph I couldn’t tolerate the pain and we needed to go to the hospital. That was the longest car ride EVER, we had to stop for every bump in the road because I could feel them in my stomach. We made it to the hospital in Katy at 3:20am and minutes later I was being prepped for labor and delivery. Still not connecting the dots of what was taking place, the nurse came in and asked me for a urine sample. I tried but felt a strange pressure that made it increasingly difficult to stand. I yelled for Joeseph to come in and the nurse followed right behind him and instructed me to get up. I told her I couldn’t and that sitting was the only position I felt comfortable. She said I had to get up because she was not delivering a water baby. Now replaying this moment it all adds up, but at the time it was just words running together. I was quickly placed in a triage bed and in a matter of seconds the room was filled with people and paperwork to sign. I looked up and didn’t see Joeseph and immediately started to panic. I screamed his name and he peeked from behind a doctor assuring me he was right there. At this point it’s becoming clear that my SONshine was on his way. I started asking about an epidural thinking about the pain that was about to take place. The nurses continued to give me the run around until my doctor arrived. My nurses never informed me that I was not only in labor but too far along for an epidural. Suddenly my doctor appeared in the room, and so did even more people than before. None of this was how I had envisioned it, there were no legs in stirrups, no Joeseph holding my hand nor my mother on my other side and I never even made it to the actual delivery room. My SONshine was ready and refused to wait any longer. The best Mother’s Day gift EVER made his grand entrance into this world at 4:00am. He weighed 650 grams and was 33 cm. I couldn’t believe what had just took place. I had seen a million movies of babies being born and my experience was nothing of the sort. Then the panic set in, not even a second after him leaving my body, I was waiting for the moment where I would hear that sweet sound of him crying…

Silence.

I started freaking out because I hadn’t heard a cry, nor was he in the arms of a nurse as they walk over to me so I can hold my baby boy. I thought this should be where things calmed down, but there still seemed to be chaos. There were a lot of people remaining in the room, but there was no sign of Asher. My heart sank, where is my baby? but the lead nurse assured me he was okay.
Once all the drama started to calm, my Doctor explained her concern with waiting so long to come into the hospital and she shared how things could’ve gone a lot worse. You know, it wasn’t like I knew I was in labor, but all of that aside, moments later this little nugget comes into the room all wrapped up, one eye open, and tubes connected to him everywhere. He came to tell his mama and daddy hi. They explained the next steps and what was going on and being that he was delivered at 26 weeks, 14 weeks premature, he would have to be transferred to the Medical Center. Joeseph gave me a kiss and before I knew it my two favorite men were on their way in the back of the Kangaroo Crew ambulance starting our family journey together until mommy could join them a few days later.