Jonathan Perry Ashworth

This picture was taken right after my water broke at home before we went to the hospital. This is our last picture as a family of 3. We were so thankful to have Grandma Shirley and Papa Dale here to care for Trey while we were at the hospital with Jonathan. They are a very dear couple to us - they are from Kansas, but they have come to UIM the past several winters to help with the orchard. They stay in their camper just steps away from our place, so it worked out so nicely to have them here to stay with Trey. Trey loves them.


Our sweet friends Bill and Sandee Abbott came to the hospital to be with us while I was in labor. They came the morning after he was born and brought me flowers. Sandee took this picture of me and Jonathan doing some skin-to-skin.


God has blessed us with another baby boy. Jonathan Perry Ashworth was born December 10, 2009. He weighed 8 lb. 7 oz. and is 19 1/2 inches long - he weighed over 1 1/2 pounds more than his big brother. I was 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I was 5cm for a couple days before my water broke at home. My doctor had stripped my membranes a couple times to try to get labor going. I was contracting irregularly before my water broke, but once my water broke, my contractions subsided a bit. My labor with Trey went pretty quickly once my water broke, but my labor with Jonathan went a bit slower. It may be because he was so much bigger than Trey - my doctor also thinks he was turned a bit sideways early on in my labor. My water broke at 5:30pm on Wednesday December 9 and I gave birth about 11 hours later. I only pushed about 15 minutes, so I am thankful for that. I had planned to try to do labor this time without an epidural because my epidural with Trey hadn't worked very well. But after they started Pitocin at the hospital because I wasn't contracting very much, the contractions were too intense for me to handle. My epidural worked wonderfully this time, and I was so thankful for good pain control. My friend Mary was my labor nurse, and I received excellent care when I was in the hospital. I had another nurse friend in the room to take pictures for us. When Jonathan came out, my doctor left his umbilical cord attached and placed him up on my chest. I can't tell you how amazing it was to hear him cry for the first time. He was absolutely perfect. I couldn't get over the size of his cheeks and his little dimple in his chin that is just like my Dad has.



Jonathan is a sweet baby. His big brother Trey adores him (sometimes almost too much). We can hear him talking his crib at night saying "baby" and the first thing he asks for in the morning is "baby". It's challenging to teach a 2 year old the meaning of "gentle".

We chose the name Jonathan because it means "God has given; gift from God". When I was 16 weeks pregnant, an ultrasound revealed cysts on the baby's brain. We were told that this could either be nothing of concern or it could be a indicator of a significant genetic abnormality. The name Jonathan came to David and me separately, and even though we considered other names, this name stayed with us. We believed that no matter what the outcome was with our unborn baby, that he was indeed a "gift given to us by God". The name Perry was chosen as his middle name to honor my family as it is my maiden name. By the way, Jonathan was born perfectly healthy with no evidence of the cysts.




The gift of a baby near Christmas time causes me to ponder much more on the birth of Jesus - what must his mother Mary been thinking and experiencing as she held her newborn son? We have so much to rejoice in!

I had to share these 2 pictures with you - one is Trey right after birth and one is Jonathan right after birth - they both sucked the same two middle fingers just on different hands. I thought that was so amazing.

Trey

Jonathan

Dale and Shirley with Trey and Jonathan

Bill and Sandee Abbott with Jonathan

A little time to rest

Since I have been taken off work by my doctor until the baby is born, my body has been able to rest. I am so thankful for that. Sleeping all night long is such a blessing. I was so concerned about working all night, going into labor, and delivering him while sleep deprived and then going into the newborn phase the same way. I believe this time off work enforced by my OB (I see all of them in the group - they are all great but primarily see Dr. Mayer and Dr. Hebets) is a gift from God. I found out the other day that it doesn't cut into my maternity time either. My maternity time starts when the baby is born - this time off before he is born is categorized as medical short term disability. So God is also providing for us financially during this time of rest (why am I surprised at this provision?).

What I am most thankful for right now is this extra time I have had with Trey. I thought I was in labor last Tuesday, and I was pretty emotional about it being my last night with Trey as my only child (not that I don't consider our new baby to be our child yet but you know what I mean). I wanted to savor every moment with him. So on Tuesday night, while contracting regularly, I gave him his bath and read to him. I was able to rock him to sleep. I was so happy for the time with him. I have had all this past week to spend with him, and I am so grateful to God for this special time where I am not in a zombie-like state from staying up all night working. The contractions come and go - nothing regular. I am okay with that. For being almost 39 weeks pregnant, I feel remarkably well.



I went to Dr. Hebets on Friday and am now 4 cm dilated. I am almost halfway there and not even in labor yet - how cool is that! Pray for David - he is so stressed that we will have the baby in our car.

38 weeks

I am now 38 weeks pregnant, and I am so thankful for a healthy pregnancy where I have been able to continue to work full time night shift (which is no easy task even when not pregnant). I haven't called in sick one time this entire pregnancy, but that is only because God has continued to give me physical and mental strength and also because I have an incredibly supportive husband who does most of our cooking and housework for us.

Overall, I feel pretty good. I worked last night and went to the doctor today. Dr. Hebets said I was 3cm and 80% effaced. So that's a pretty good start. I've been slowly changing each week that I've been at the office. I also had a couple of high blood pressures, some generalized swelling, and had protein in my urine which she was concerned about. Initially, she talked to me about cutting my hours back but then she decided that she wanted me to not work the rest of the week. She wants me to rest. I will say that I am relieved a bit - I didn't feel like I could just say I didn't want to work, but having my doctor say I couldn't work right now made the decision easy for me. The plan is that if I am not delivered by next Tuesday when I am 39 weeks then they will induce my labor. I really prefer to labor on my own and not be induced. After the exam today and Dr. Hebets stripping my membranes, I started to contract more regularly and intensely. I waited a few hours - the contractions continued. I thought for sure we would be going to the hospital - I was even texting a couple of nurse friends at work tonight to tell them how I was progressing. But then the contractions spaced out. So I guess it's not time yet - I'm okay with that. I am still having contractions but they are irregular. I go back to the doctor on Friday, so I guess I will see if I have made any change and how my blood pressure is.

We are ready for our new baby to come. I am so blessed to have had 2 baby showers for him - one by the girls in our Sunday school class and one by the girls at work. We already have a lot of things for him because we are reusing almost everything from Trey, but it is always nice to have new things too. I still need to go get him an outfit for when he is first born - I may do that in the morning. I am so excited to meet him, hold him, and smell his sweet newborn softness.

We are doing some things different this time around. We have decided we are going to cloth diaper him. I have been the grateful recipient of 33 small and size 1 cloth diapers by BumGenius and FuzziBunz diapers - each one costs about $16 new, so that is a huge savings for us. A girl I work with used them with her baby, and she has given the ones to me her baby has outgrown. I must say that we haven't received a ton of support in this cloth diapering endeavor (most people think we are a little crazy to give up the "convenience" of a disposable diaper), but I am really excited about it. It will be a tremendous cost savings to us as well as better for our baby's bottom. David is totally on board with this - I don't think I could do it if he wasn't. We may do a little of both - maybe disposable while we travel, but cloth when we are at home. It will be a change for us, so I will keep you posted on how it goes. By the way, we will wash them at home - not use a diaper service.

I am most excited about my Moby wrap that I just purchased. I hope to do more babywearing with our new baby especially with having a toddler to chase around and play with. I've been wanting one of these since Trey was a baby, but I just never bought one. I received it in the mail the other day and have been practicing using it. I can't wait to hold our new little one in it.