2 weeks

I cannot believe it has taken me this long to update my blog, but I swear everytime Im not at the hospital, im sleeping or pumping. Asher is 16 days old today and now 28 weeks as well. on June 16th at 2:51am he decided that enough was enough and he was coming out! I had been dilated to 1cm at about 2am and the doctor left me be. Then, all of a sudden I felt a tiny bit of pressure, put my hand down there and Asher Van delivered straight into my hand. It took the NICU team 2 minutes to get to him. It doesnt really seem like a long time, but it was the longest 2 minutes of my life. I have never been so scared...in fact, talking about the delivery is still quite a dark place for me to go, so I try not to talk about details too much just yet. Nick got a lovely picture of me laboring on my own and ouch! I dont care that he only weighed 1 pound 13 ounces...those contractions are intense!
Asher was intubated to help him breath for only about the first 12 hours of life and doctors said he was trying to breath around the tube so they took it out and put him on a machine called CPAP. This machine allows the babies to breath on their own but constantly pushes pressure into their lungs so that their lungs dont lose volume and continue to stay inflated. He is already up to full feeds and recieves a fortifier added to my milk to help him gain weight. If you notice in pictures of him, he has a tube going into his mouth. This goes into his stomach and feeds him. He is peeing and pooping wonderfully even after a little scare where he decided to not make any urine for 24 hours. Being a kidney nurse, I knew this wasnt good. But, he is peeing great again (thank you for prayers). He was placed under "Bili lights" for the first 5 days of life because he was a little bit jaundiced and that is why he was wearing those weird looking sunglasses to protect his eyes.
Asher is now up to 1.14 in weight and he always opens his eyes when I talk to him or start to pray over his little incubator. Holding him is the greatest part of my day. He is an amazing little fighter and I truly believe God has something great planned for him. Thank you so very much for the continued prayers, please keep them coming. They say the NICU is like a rollercoaster with good days and bad ones and they were not lying. The good days can be so good that when a bad day comes it is a hard fall. Please continue to pray that Asher continues to breath on his own, that God would keep infection far away from his little body and that he would rest and grow! We've got a long road ahead of us and I hope you all will stick with us in prayer as we make this long journey before bringing him home. We love you.
~Nick and Kendall