Birth Stories

My older son will be 4 years old in a week and, like so many parents, each year I find myself looking back at pictures and reflecting on his birthday. What does his birthday mean to us? How has this day impacted us? How have we spent every birthday before this one? In June of 2014 we got the exciting news that we were expecting our first child. We went through the first half of our pregnancy thinking everything was perfect. At my 20 week anatomy scan, we were told that our son had a two vessel umbilical cord. Most babies have three blood vessels: one vein, which brings nutrients from the placenta to the baby, and two arteries that...

I opted for natural childbirth with my first-born. I never really questioned if I would be able to do it – that’s the stubborn in me, I guess. We took the Lamaze classes and I read all the books. Without really knowing what to expect, I was “prepared.” I just kept telling myself it was like running a race, mostly all mental. And it certainly was a mental game of focus. But it was obviously very physical, too. Nearly a week late, the little man wasn’t leaving his cozy home without a fight. Or at least a hand on top of his head to get him stuck a few times on the way out. It was nine hours of...

When my oldest son was born, everything happened so fast. I was only thirty-seven weeks gestation when he was born, and it was quite the experience. Outside of extra monitoring and progesterone shots, I had a pretty normal pregnancy, until my 35 week appointment. My ultrasound revealed a possibility of some type of blockage in baby's kidney, and the next thing I knew I was in labor and delivery.  Everything was fine but in the next two weeks, I was triaged two different times for high blood pressure. At 37 weeks, I was finally induced due to low amniotic fluid. After only an hour after my induction began, the baby's heart rate dropped and the next thing I knew I...

My husband and I were thrilled to start a family. My first pregnancy was incredibly smooth, with my OB literally saying that every appointment was perfect. Besides the normal morning sickness, there were no complications. I gave birth to a healthy 7 pound 12 ounce baby boy at 40 weeks. He was gorgeous! He even miraculously slept through the night a few times early on. Three years later when we wanted to try for another baby, I thought it would be just as easy. When I found out I was pregnant the next time, I didn't anticipate any complications. As soon as the pregnancy test was positive, I started thinking about baby names and going through baby things we had...

Unusual but not weird. This was my standard for determining whether a potential baby name made the cut (aka: the iPhone note created years before I met my husband).  If it was on the Social Security Administration top 1000 list in the last 10 years, it was out. If it was on the Social Security Administration top 1000 list in the 1920's, it was probably in. Before you question my methods, you must understand my madness. My maiden name was Ashley Anderson. As you can probably guess, I was born in the 80's. More than once, I was one of four Ashley's in my class. And heaven forbid, the teacher used the word 'actually' lest we all turn around at once. While...