Asher's Short Birth Story

A little later, when we are all home and settled, I will come back to share Asher's full story.  Until then, here are the fun basics.

Asher Riley was born peacefully, quickly and a little early at home on Sunday, January 22 at 8:11 am.  He was so quick, in fact, my midwives almost didn't make it.  When he was born he had trouble breathing and wasn't as quick to pink up.  The midwife did mouth to mouth and he began to breathe but wasn't crying or engaging.  They decided to call an ambulance to transport him to the local hospital.  As we waited for the ambulance to arrive Asher began to stabilize but still wasn't quite as stable as we would like, so Asher and I were transported together.

At the hospital we learned that Asher weighed in at 10 lbs 2 oz.  We also learned that he was suspected to have Down syndrome.  They took some blood and ordered a chromosomal study, we would find out the results in 72 hours.  They also found he had an elevated white blood cell count and needed oxygen.  They wanted to put him on a 48 hour antibiotic.  We asked them to transport him to Children's Hospital.  We had already decided if he needed to be in the hospital for longer than a day we wanted him at Children's.  

He has been there ever since.  And he does, indeed, have Down syndrome, the 'fluke' kind, the doctor tells us.

We have lots of hope that someday soon he'll be headed home.