new addition

We’ve made a new addition to the School of Worship!  Go check it out.

Register today before it’s too late.  Last day to register is August 26th.

“and she called his name Asher…”

In case you were wondering…  we had a baby!

Picking up from where I left off below,  we ended up waiting another 4 hours before we began pushing.  Once we did that, he came out with 4 or 5 pushes…  Super fast!  We didn’t know it at the time but it appears that one of the reasons it was taking Asher so long to get here was because his umbilical cord was keeping him from crowning like he needed to.  Eventually he pushed through it, cord and all.  As his head popped through Dr. Salzetti casually reached down, grabbed his forceps, scissors and calmly cut the cord.  I thought to myself (selfishly), “Well that sucks, he didn’t even ask if I wanted to cut it”.  He had been so cool, calm and collective that I didn’t even realize the gravity of the situation until it was over.  He then proceeded to unwrap the cord which had been wrapped twice around Asher’s neck.  The next thing I knew he was placing little Asher on Staci’s chest.

Asher Ray Beeman

Asher Ray Beeman
Born: 8/6/2010
Weight: 7lbs. 13oz.
Length: 19 1/2 inches

After things settled down, they moved us into another room where there were two beds!!!  Not that we got much sleep, but it was nice to have a place to lay my head every once in a while.  Asher has been a fairly mellow baby so far.  In fact, he probably would have slept through the night if the nurses hadn’t kept coming in and waking him (and us) up every 2-1/2 to 3 hours! One benefit was that he got his first bath and I got to play with his hair…  He’s got a ton of it and it actually has natural hi-lights.  You can vote on your favorite hair style at my facebook site.

He slept most of the day.  He even slept through visiting hours.  A big thanks to Grandma Lynn for watching the boys through all of this.  I don’t know how people do this type of thing without family.  It must just seem impossible!  We’re so blessed to have so much support.  I was trying to count and it looks like there were over 400 posts on my facebook site within the last 2 days.  One person (Janice) even called it her, “first virtual birth”.  Who says that the iPhone and facebook haven’t revolutionizing the world!

my three sons

Grandma brought the boys by to see their new baby brother just after lunch yesterday.  They each got a chance to hold him.  They were so gentle and so excited at the same time.  That’s a huge feat for two boys under the age of 7!  They dropped off the Build-a-Bear Teddy Bear that they made for Asher.  He’s been hanging out with him since they left.

It’s taken him a little while to get the whole feeding thing down.  I had asked for some of you to pray that he would start feeding (via facebook).  Almost immediately the nurse came in, burped him real good and informed us that his stomach was full of fluids due to the quick delivery (pushes that is).  I proceeded to burp him consistently and the next feeding went tremendously well.  He spent the majority of the day sleeping and then of course was up all night.  The night nurse Dawn called it cluster feeding.  She was probably our best nurse yet (all of them have been great with the exception of one).

We were hoping to be discharged by the evening, but the nurses insisted that we stay at least 24 hours.  I believe that put us past the possible discharge time.  Needless to say, Staci didn’t get much sleep last night as she was feeding Asher most of the time.  I tried to give her a couple of 90 minute breaks, but Asher was excited about this new feeding thing.  He passed his hearing test with flying colors and the Pediatrician said he’s a perfect little boy.  It looks like we’ll be out of the hospital by noon today!

Staci is feeling pretty sore and could use your prayers.  Asher is doing great with the exception of his little spit-up routine.  He looks like a dog coughing up a bone which freaks us out.  The doctors and nurses assure us that it’s not only totally normal but that he has to be the cutest baby in the whole maternity ward.  Yeah, right…  I’ve heard that before! 

In case you were wondering, Asher is Hebrew for “happy”.  It is first used in the book of Genesis as Leah names Jacob’s 8th son Asher.

And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher. Genesis 30:13

And that’s what we are today, so happy that God has blessed us with a beautiful family, Joshua, Micah and now baby Asher.  And we’re doubly blessed to have our supportive parents our Chorus Church family, neighbors, facebook family (I know that sounds weird but it’s true) and all of you reading this now.  How blessed are we!  Thank you once again for all of your support.  This has been the best pregnancy and delivery yet and that’s in large part due to all of you!

In the midst of all this I’ve been following Emily’s story.  It’s hard to read without tearing up.  I sit here rejoicing over the fact that my 3 boys are safe and sound while Bob and Ellen are agonizing over their wounded daughter.  Please pray for Emily and her family.  It appears that she’s recovering well, but she could use all of the prayers that she can get.  You might even go over and leave a nice comment on her site.  You can read about her plight here.

baby update…

I’m sitting here listening to the heartbeat of my baby Asher on the monitor, patiently awaiting his arrival. It’s difficult to wait. God says that “those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 But it’s hard to wait!

Some of you are joining us from facebook because it appears that the hospital has blocked all access to facebook and every other social networking site, it just took my iPhone a while to figure that out I guess. Others are just tuning in and realizing that I’m having a baby today!!! That being the case, here’s an update for all of you…

We arrived at the hospital this morning around 8:00am. This induction thing is kinda strange. Even though this is our 3rd go around it still feels weird. It’s like checking into a hotel. We’ve yet to have the real deal “Oh my! My water broke! Let’s race to the hospital!” ordeal (thank God!).

After they got her all checked in, paperwork filled out and nice pajamas put on they began looking for a vein to put the IV in. I say looking because it took three attempts before they found one. Needless to say, Staci’s arms are a little sore.

They began the oxytosin drip and right away the contractions started to come on strong. It still took until about 12:00 before Staci started getting uncomfortable (labor wise).

About 12:00 they came in to do the epidural. The 1st time round (with Joshua) the epidural and I didn’t do so well. I, being the supportive husband that I am, sat in front of Staci and held her hands while they inserted the needle. Not hearing the anesthesiologist share that Staci might get a slight twitch in her leg I sat straddling sed leg. When the needle hit its mark, her leg hit its mark and sent me down for the count. There would be none of that this time around as the nurse wouldn’t even let me near her during the insertion of the epidural!

It’s painful to watch your wife go through the kind of pain that is poking a needle in your spine. To make matters worse, the nurse chose to inform us after the procedure was done that if you sit up straight you’re more likely to hit the bone! Of course, natural reaction to someone sticking a needle in your back is to… “sit up straight!”

After the epidural was in place, Staci experienced some nausea and then tried to go to sleep while I grabbed a sandwich downstairs.

At about 2:30 the doctor came in and broke her water. It’s now 3:45 and the contractions are coming on stronger now. With the epidural however, Staci is barely even feeling them. She’s trying to sleep again, but we’re hoping that baby Asher will be here within a couple of hours.

It’s hard to wait, but we will do so until his arrival. I’ll try and keep you updated as well…

We’re having a baby!!!

register for school of worship via paypal today

Hey!  You can now register for The School of Worship at the Chorus Church paypal website (on theVenue page).  Just click here!  You don’t want to miss it!

wisdom of a 7 yr. old

Joshua: I wish they never made baths…

Me: Then you’d always be stinky.

Joshua: Yeah, but at least nobody would laugh at you because everybody would be stinky.

Me: True…

school of worship

Here’s the new promo info for this years School of Worship.  It launches August 26th!  Don’t miss it…

iTunes giftcard

Here we go again…  My mother-in-law gave me a $15 iTunes giftcard.  I always struggle knowing how to spend these things.  I never know if I should purchase some new apps for my iPhone, new music for my iPod or something else?  What would you do?

awesome weekend

matt papa

I have to say… Church today was pretty sweet.  Good teaching (Greg England), great announcements (Randy Josselyn), killer band/tech team and we got to leave the Church setup!  It doesn’t get much better than that!  This is our setlist…

Band:
me – egtr/agtr/vox
Beka – vox/synth
David – egtr/vox
Mike- drums/vox
Guy – bass

Setlist:
Stars (Switchfoot)
All We Need (Charlie Hall)
Let The Praises Ring (Brewster)
-welcome-
Open Hands (Matt Papa)
-message-
Here In Your Presence (Desperation)
-offering-
Here In Your Presence (Desperation)
-dismissal-
Stars (Switchfoot)

Tech:
Fred Shroeder – Audio
Josh Axene – Audio/Lights
Jessie – ProPresenter
Vanessa – I’m not really sure what Vanessa was doing today…  Just hanging out with Jessie I guess! 

I have to admit, I wasn’t real big on doing the song “Open Hands” but in the end I think it was a good choice.  We got some good feedback on that one even though it was just a bit outside of my range.  A big thanks to Mike and Dave for pushing that one through! 

lenny kravitz

We were messing around with “Let Love Rule” at Church this Sunday.  It just so happens that I ran across this video today.  Too cool!

Here’s another view with better audio…  Watch how the kit starts falling apart and Lenny just keeps playing without missing a beat…