Kaden Asher's Story

Kaden Asher was born Jan 30th 2004. 8lbs 3oz 20inches and VERY healthy. He has a unilateral cleft lip & palate.

Friday, January 30, 2004

Welcome to the World Kaden Asher

Again writing this in 2008, but this is about the best day in my life I can't NOT write about it :)

Finally !! got to meet my handsome little man. He waited an extra 5 days, I was due January 25th 2004, Kaden decided to join us on January 30th 2004 @ 6:57pm. He was 8lbs 3oz and 20 inches. The most beautiful baby I've ever seen (all moms say that) but he was....

I went to the dr just a few days before, I was dilated to about 2.5-3. Although I wasn't contracting my midwife said I could either go in & be induced tomorrow (Friday) or wait until next week. Heck yeah a Friday so I can have the weekend to recover... She also stripped my membranes to see if that would kick start things. So I was set to be at the hospital @ 8 to check in. I could NOT sleep that night. So we all go to the hospital (Laurie, Trish & I) Carrie, & Shannon meet us there. I get into my room change wait for my midwife to come in.

My midwife came in and broke my water around 9 if i remember right. We were all hungry so we walked down to the cafe in the hospital and got some breakfast. Well towards the end of eating and the walk back i was starting to feel my contractions. After a few hours I finally got my epidural the first injection didn't work so the anesthesiologist had to come back up and give me another starter, that did the trick. While the anesthesiologist was in there giving me my epidural the arm in which my IV was in the vein had exploded, my armed swelled up a lot ! it was kind of scary. There was a newer nurse in there who was going to do my IV over in the other arm but the anesthesiologist saved me and did the IV himself.

At some point when my midwife came to check on me someone had asked what her estimate size for Kaden was she guess around 7 and a half pounds... sometime around 6 i was pushing I pushed for about 45 minutes, once he was ready he was ready to come! He didn't crown just came right out my midwife barley had her gloves on to catch him! He weight 8lbs 3oz 20 inches born at 6:57 pm. not too bad for a first born!

They had the NICU team outside the door waiting but thank goodness they weren't needed. But when my midwife announced the presence of a cleft palate my heart sank and it was like just finding out about his lip. With the cleft palate it is soo much more than just a cleft lip. Luckily we had a great Lactation Specialist at the hospital who had left 3 different bottle, nipple options. He was healthy as could be, they gave him to me as soon as he came out. He never left my room which i loved! I was soo dazed though I was exhausted form not being able to sleep the night before and I didn't nap at all during labor. Alot of things are a blurr or I don't remember at all but I guess I remember the most important things :o)

When it came time for the feeding Kaden took right to the Pigeon Nipple which I was happy about because that is one of the least expensive options. We tried to breast feed but with out surprise he didn't latch.. We stayed in the hospital for 4 days total I was released on day 3 but they kept him admitted because they wanted to make sure he was eating well.

At some point we had to go into the NICU to have his oxygen tested while he was in his car seat... that was hard sitting in there for an hour those poor babies and parents unsure of the future..

That's about it for his delivery ... the most beautiful baby in the world. I do miss his wide smile and his chubby little cheeks that went along with it...

Thursday, January 01, 2004

When I found out.....

Ok so this one is long over due. My website got erased because I didn't keep up on it, so the story of Kaden is no longer out there... until now..... I'm writing this now in 2008 but putting an earlier date on it so it shows up as the first post.

So I had my ultrasound in October this was my first one are you a boy or a girl! So my best friend came to my appointment with me, we got through the whole thing IT'S A BOY, the tech went and got the Dr and he took a look for a minute then he said meet me in my conference room... umm what does this mean, is something wrong, does he do this with everyone? Soo we go into his room sit wait for him to come in. He sits down and says do you / did you do drugs drink smoke... umm no.. do you know of any family member's with birth defects again no.... Your son has a cleft lip OMG, I just remember I cried, I knew what a cleft lip was but did i know alot about it? No I didn't. So he wrote it down for me on a bright pink sticky note cleft lip infact i still have that to this day!

So Laurie & I go to lunch and the back to work, yes I was and still am a work aholic. :) I go tell people it's a boy and act as if nothing is wrong. I was afraid to tell people because I didn't want to be judged or talked about. Oh she must have done something wrong. No parent wants to go through that.

I continued to have ultrasound after ultrasound not that I didn't enjoy them I love all my ultrasound pictures and my video. They tried to tell if there was a cleft palate in womb but they were unable to determine it. So i wouldn't find that out until he was born...

That's it for now.....