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