Today is my oldest
daughter's 20th birthday. Wow! This one is one of those that seems
like a big one. She was born at 6:34 on a Saturday night, and weighed a
whopping 6 lb. 7 oz. The night before we spent secretly timing
contractions between cheering at our local high school football game.
My parents sat next to us and never knew! Contractions has started
around 10:00 that morning. We went to the ER at about 3:30 the next
morning, but at about 7 they sent me back home--told me I was probably
in false labor. Later that evening around 5:30, we went back to the
hospital with contractions just a few minutes apart. (I was so little
when I was pregnant with Ashley--partially hidden by my height--that
they didn't believe me when I told them I was in labor. They asked my
due date, and when I told them last week, they got hopping.) I had not
been there long with the monitors in place before panic set in. Alarms
went off, nurses started running up and down the hallway, yelling to
page the dr. They flipped me on my side, put an oxygen mask on, and I
had a nurse on each side of me racing to see who could get the drip in
my rolling veins first. We had no idea what was going on. They began
to explain to us that her heart rate was dropping dangerously low, then
shooting back up. She was in what I believe they called tri-cardiac
arrest, possibly caused from the stress of trying to come for so long. I
had been having contractions for 32 hours, and was still only 3 cm.
Within minutes I was being prepped for an emergency C-section. We know
God's blessing has been on Ashley since the beginning. This had
actually happened earlier that morning when we had been at the hospital,
and we asked about it. An obviously untrained nurse told us it was
just the baby moving around and away from the monitor. Praise God that
He protected Ashley throughout the day until we could get back. She
came out screaming and didn't stop for about an hour. Her cries were
the talk of the nursery and ob floor! I guess she got it all out of her
system, because she has been my quiet child ever since.
She is such a joy and a
blessing. She has a beautiful, gentle, and quiet spirit. Her heart
for serving the Lord and others is an inspiration to me. Please go by
and wish Ashley a Happy Birthday! Check out her "What I Love" section in her sidebar to get a glimpse of my beautiful daughter.
By the way, if we look
awfully young in these baby pictures, it's because I was only 15 months
older than Ashley is now!! That's scary.
This is after 5 days in the hospital, and we're going home.
First ballet recital-4 years old
Senior ballet
Happy Birthday Ashley
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