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Hi Everyone! My name is Heather. I'm 33 years old and live in a small town in north central Minnesota. I have a 13 year old son whose name is Wes and I Ashton was born on October 1, 2007. I also have a 7 year old doberman mix dog named Tasha who is GREAT with kids! I work in Minneapolis at a law firm.

UPDATE:

Ashton is doing really good now and growing up so fast. He was born tongue tied - where the little thing under his tongue is connected to his gums and to the tip of his tongue so he can't stick his tongue out. He is getting it clipped on Friday, February 22, 2008, so I'm kinda nervous about that. Ashton has his two front bottom teeth now and is so happy they are finally thru. Luckily Ashton hasn't had as hard a time as my first son did. He got a fever with every one of his teeth. Well, I guess Ashton has quite a few left to go, so there's still time for the fevers! At Ashton's 4 month appointment he was 17 pounds and 27 inches long! He's a big baby! Wes is getting so good with Ashton. Ashton just loves him and Wes always finds a way to make Ashton smile and giggle - even when he's crying! Wes even picks Ashton up and helps so much with Ashton (voluntarily) you wouldn't believe. He's so great with him and I'm so blessed!

BIRTH STORY:

On October 1st I went into the hospital to be induced at 7:30 a.m. The doctor wanted to try to break my water first and see if that did anything. Two hours later, after walking around and bouncing on a labor ball I hadn't dialated past the 3cm I was for the past 2 weeks. They decided to give me Pitocin. They started it off slow and I didn't dialate real fast. I decided to get an epidural as the pain was getting worse, so they gave me that. It was hard feeling the epidural go in and getting contractions at the same time. The epidural only ended up working on my right side. I could feel everything and more on the left side into my hip and my back and front. It was awful. The pain was so bad. The contractions went way off the paper. They tried giving me an increased dose in the epidural twice and it didn't work. They said they should take it out and do it again, but I didn't want to do that if it might mean no improvement. They offered me some narcotics thru my IV and I said okay, but I got the urge to push before they could bring it in. I pushed as hard as I could cuz I wanted that pain to go away, two pushes and I got his head out, but then his left shoulder got stuck and the doctors and nurses started getting really worried. Two more pushes and I got his shoulder out and he came out. The doctors were concerned that he might have a fractured shoulder and watched him very closely to see if he was using his arm. Everything turned out okay, he didn't get hurt, but did have some achiness for a day and a half afterwards because of him being pulled out and squeezed and having a rough labor. He was a little fussy and not feeling good, but since then he has been a great little baby. He has had to be poked and proded so many times but took it like a trooper. He had an elevated bilirubin count so we had to stay a day longer than normal, but that came down after spending a night and day under the blue lights. I even got to keep his little sunglasses from the treatment. Ashton Michael was born at 7:15 p.m. on October 1, 2007, and weighed 9 pounds and was 21 inches long!

Picture on right = 12/15/07 - 10 weeks & 5 days old

12/09/07 - Ashton grew an Afro over night last night.

12/08/07 - 9 weeks old

11/11/07 - 7 weeks old 11/25/07 8 weeks old (weighs 14# 1 oz & 24" long)

Ashton Michael - two days old Wesley and Ashton

Mom and Ashton - 4 days old Tony (daddy) and Ashton (10/01/07)

This is Tasha.