Friday, September 27, 2013

September

 Asher so obviously loves all of the kisses and love Emma gives him! As soon as Em wakes up in the morning or from her nap the first thing she says is "BABY? HI!" and will run to the bassinet to give Asher kisses. I love when she walks into the room because the minute she enters she starts saying "HI! hi.. hiiiii!" in a little sing song voice. She is just so excited to see Asher again!


 Claires first day of Pre-School. When I dropped her off, she ran over to her new teacher yelling "Hi teacher Brandee!" and gave her new teacher a big hug.
 we are really loving all the boy clothes! They are so cute and manly!
 Asher is still LOVING his binky. If it weren't for his binky he would cry... A LOT! If he's not sucking on his binky he is either asleep or nursing. He can go about 15 minutes without before he starts crying. The girls love to 'save' him and run to put his binky in the minute he starts his crying.


 On this day I was nursing Asher while Emma was in the bath. She decided bath time was over and jumped out herself. She grabbed her favorite blanky and wrapped it around herself! It was so funny to see her running around naked with her little blanky and mermaid doll.
 Snuggle time while watching TV. We watch a lot of TV when we have new babies. There is not a whole lot else we can do easily while nursing. Emma can only watch for about 5 minutes before she runs off to get into touble. She seriously loves getting into trouble. She is busy busy busy!

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Naming Baby Boy

There was MUCH debate over what to name this little man! It has taken months, years really to decide on a name. Ever since we were pregnant with Olivia we have contemplated boy names (before we knew the gender). We have never come to agreement on a boy name! Some other names that were on the top of the list were Camden and Carter. There were many others that were also debated like Jacob and Zachary, but they never quite made it to the top of the list. The day Asher was born he was Mr no name. He came out, and everyone asked "what's his name!?" We just stared blankly and shrugged our shoulders saying we weren't decided yet! Claire kept telling me not to worry  that when the baby is born it comes with a name. So- we waited until he was born to see what name he came with. I guess he forgot his name tag because we just didn't know! I kept contemplating the name Camden, but I kept looking at him and it just didn't feel right. I really liked the name, but he didn't look like a Camden to me. When I looked at him the name Asher felt right, but I was hesitant about the name. It is different, and I knew a lot of people just didn't seem to fond of it. In the middle of the night around 4 am I had all but decided on the name Asher. When Brett came to visit that morning he had pretty much accepted the name Camden! That night Brett took the girls to Chinese food. Brett's fortune cookie said "happiness is right next to you. stop searching." The name Asher means "Blessed, Happy". That is when Brett knew we had found the right name! Brett is rather superstitious!

When Brett was in college he had a Chinese room mate who told him that Brett was "happiness" and gave him a little happy symbol necklace. Brett's favorite scripture is also on happiness. So, with the name Asher meaning "happy" it just seemed right. Also, we felt very blessed to have been given a boy on our last baby. So, Asher meaning "blessed" made sense too! Other reasons the name felt right was because I wanted something unique, and not too common since we have the last name Peterson, but I also wanted it to be some what traditional and normal. Asher is actually a biblical name. In the Old Testament Asher is the son of Jacob and Leah's handmaid Zilpah and one of the ancestors of the 12 tribes of Isreal. Anyway- I liked that it was tradition and a biblical name, yet not so common like the names Jacob and Zachary. When you have the last name Peterson you don't want a super common name! And since he is a boy his name will never change, so it made it that much more difficult to name him!

And that is how his name came to be! It is on his birth certificate, so there is no going back now! Quite honestly I am glad it's over! It is stressful trying to name a baby!!

Sunday, September 08, 2013

Family Pictures






















Sunday, September 01, 2013

Family Time with Asher







We are all quite in love with this little man. Fights break out about who gets to hold him and how long.  Claire and Emma love to put his binky in his mouth. Emma hugs him so tightly half the time I can not pry her hands off to get him back.And Olivia always comes home from school straight to Asher hoping to get to hold him. I think Brett has only held him like 3 times in the last week just because he doesn't join the line up of wanting to hold the baby. So much love for little Asher :)

Asher Brett Peterson




 

Born August 21, 2013

9:05 pm

7 lbs 3 oz

19 inches long

 Baby Asher is here! We are so happy and excited to have a baby BOY in the house! Here is the story of the labor and delivery:
       On August 19th I woke up worried and scared. I was scared I wouldn't make it to the hospital when I went into labor, scared Brett wouldn't make it home in time. I was scared that the baby would have blood sugar issues since I had diabetes. I asked Brett to give me a blessing. In the blessing I was blessed that I would know the right time to leave for the hospital, etc. The blessing eased my mind and I felt less scared and that whatever happened I would be blessed.  I went in to the Doctors office that morning and they checked me, I was dilated to a 4 and 100%effaced. I asked the Dr to strip my membranes. Well, he supposedly did, but it did not hurt and took him a total of 2 seconds. I knew that what he had done was not going to help get labor started and I left feeling very depressed and mad that he didn't do a better job of helping my labor get started! By this point in pregnancy it is just SO uncomfortable. It was painful to do just about anything and I was ready to have him out! I was starting to feel like he may never come out. The morning of August 21 I decided to go back to the Dr's office and have them check me again. The Dr had told me that if I had dilated to a 5 they would admit me to the hospital and get labor on its way. I was really hoping that maybe I had dilated that 1 cm more. Well, I had not, so I asked him to strip my membranes again. This time I could tell that he had actually done something since I had blood an hour later. I was so happy to see signs that maybe the baby was coming! I decided to stay as active as possible that day to hopefully encourage labor. I took all of Emmas clothes that were getting too small and packed them away in a box and pulled out the new boxes of Olivia and Claires old clothes and hung them up. This meant hauling big diaper boxes full of clothes up and down the stairs to the basement. I carried about 6 different boxes up or down the stairs to switch them out. So, it was a little strenuous and hard, but I didn't mind since it gave me contractions. Although it isn't fun to have contractions, it meant that the baby could be coming, so I was all for it! At about 5:30 I became aware that I had been having quite a few contractions and I thought MAYBE this was the night. I decided to call Sherri- Bretts mom and asked if she could stay the night just in case. She asked if she needed to come quickly and I said "no, I may not even have the baby tonight. I just feel like maybe it will happen, so it would be nice to have you here just in case!" Well, about 20 minutes later and some timing of contractions I knew I WAS indeed in labor. It was dinner time and no one had eaten, but I decided to start packing and getting ready to leave. I took a quick shower and finished packing my bag. The girls ran around and Olivia asked "So your falling into labor now!?" looking confused at why I didn't look any different. I said yes and that they would go to the neighbors until Grandma and Grandpa arrived. By about 7:00pm we were out the door and headed to the hospital. I was in moderate pain, but it was bearable. We arrived and checked in. After all the questions and changing into hospital gowns, etc they finally checked me. That was at about 7:50ish. I was only dilated to a 5. So I decided I would get an epidural. It was getting to be very painful and I was starting to freak myself out thinking of having these pains for hours. I kept saying "I don't know how any one can handle this sort of pain for hours and hours! It hurts SO bad!" They put my IV in after hitting a valve which left my hand and arm in tons of pain (it still hurts over a week later). Then the anesthesiologist came in to start the epidural. It felt like forever and ever waiting for the pain to stop. By the time he had gotten it in it was about 8:40. I kept waiting to go numb. Finally about 10 min later I start to feel numb, but only on ONE side! I was really freaked out. Now my left side and my vagina hurt like CRAZY but my right side was numb. I flipped over hoping to get the medicine to the other side. It wasn't working. The Dr came in and checked me. He said "well, you are complete and ready to go!" I started crying, because I was NOT ready to go! I wanted the pain to be gone and it wasn't! The anesthesiologist came back in and hit me up with a faster dose of medicine. The Dr proceeded to break my water and have me start pushing. He said we would go "nice and slow" so that I wouldn't tear. Well, it hurt like crazy and nice and slow was the last thing I wanted, but I reminded myself it was almost over and I would rather not tear or have an episotomy if at all possible. After about 5 minutes of pushing and a last minute small episiotomy our baby boy was here! There was no more pain and just a sweet baby boy in my arms! It was so un-real and hard to imagine that he was really inside me and now here a full grown healthy baby. He cried and cried. He was quite the screamer for the next hour until we requested a binky. I tried to nurse him, but he wouldn't latch on. When he finally got his binky he settled right down and fell asleep. I was finally numb after all was said and done and feeling a little annoyed that it didn't set in until AFTER he was born, but at least I had no pain after he was born! All the nurses kept asking his name. We were still undecided so we had no answer. We finally decided a day and a half later. We are so happy and feel so blessed that Asher is here and healthy. He had no blood sugar issues. He really didn't have any health issues at all. He is just perfect and we love him!



Comparison of babies

Olivia
 
Claire

 Emma

Asher