First few photos of Asher

Because Asher was so early he had some lung issues and spent almost the first full week of life either on a ventilator or the CPAP (looks like snorkel gear).  The CPAP looks worse, but is actually "better"....It means his lungs were doing a good job functioning.   He also developed jaundice so he is under the special bilirubin lights in one of the pictures.    The tube hanging above his head in one picture is how they feed him.  I am pumping and they put the breastmilk in tiny syringes (1cc at a time - literally)  and use gravity to let the milk flow through his feeding tube, into his tummy.   

My body literally crashed after giving birth to Asher, so it was several days before I saw him and 5 days before I was able to hold him.  Andrew and my Mom would go to the NICU and take photos and videos of him and bring them back to my hospital room to watch/see.  Our good friend Allison was a blessing again, as she came to the hospital to photograph Andrew's first time holding Asher.   

Our Son is Born

On December 15th at 5:26pm our son, Asher David Anderson, was born.  He weighed 3pds 12 oz and was 16.5in long.  He was our little advent miracle born at 32weeks and 6days.  

He was born by "emergency" cesarean.   I went into the hospital on Saturday morning, the 13th with what I thought was heartburn.  Turned out I was having liver pain, because it was about to rupture.  I had developed pre-eclampsia in the month prior and now everything was spinning out of control. By the time he was born, my platelets had crashed, I had blood in my urine from my kidney's not working right, my liver enzymes were super high, my vision was having issues, not to mention the 30+ pds of fluid I had put on in less than a month.  Asher was also having some growth issues because of my kidney's not working right.   I went on to also develop HELLP in the last 48 hrs before his birth, which combined with pre-e, put me at risk for liver rupture, seizures, and a stroke.   They only gave me the 48hrs before the cesarean because they wanted to give me 2 steroid injections that had to be 24hrs. apart.  Because my condition was getting so bad though, it was literally an hour by hour thing for me to make it those 48hrs.    I was praying desperately that Andrew would make it home in time and he did.  By exactly 26hrs and 26minutes.  

Last 24 hours of just "us"

When Andrew arrived stateside, he had no idea I had been admitted to the hospital and that our son would be born 24hrs later.  The only reason we even had 24hrs to go, was because the Dr.'s were waiting to give the steroid injections they had given me at 2pm Saturday and Sunday, the time to work on the baby's lungs. (each shot needs 24hrs for the full effect to take place) Our friend Allison came to the hospital to take some photos of me, Andrew and the belly.    I am so thankful that we got those 24 hrs together and that Andrew got the joy of feeling the baby move and kick inside of me.  

My War Hero comes home!

December 14th at 3pm Andrew walked into my hospital room, home for good!  So much emotion and sweet relief!  Thanks to the Red Cross International, they got Andrew home in less than 60 hrs.  The call was placed by my OB on Friday morning to get him home and he landed state side Sunday at 5am (mtn time)  We had a minor snow storm that day, that delayed him a little bit getting into the Springs, but God was good and Andrew made it home before the baby came!

Here goes....

SOOOOO much catching up to do....Let's hope I can do it.