Avery's Birth Story

And she's here!!!!

An exhausted little girl

One of my favorite movies .. Pirates of the Caribbean... was playing during Avery's birth.  Definitely a plus!

It took me awhile to write this in Avery's journal and even this has taken awhile to write.  Part of me doesn't want to acknowledge that it's over because I really loved the deliveries of my children.  Granted, I was lucky to have easy and healthy deliveries.  Each delivery was special in it's own way but this was really gets me choked up, probably because I know it's our last. Regardless, I am writing this down to remember it while I can because I realize how quickly time flies and how so many of the little details disappear!

As we headed in to the hospital on Sunday, Feb. 16, knowing we were going to be induced, part of me was sad because I had really hoped that labor would begin naturally.  I always loved the surprise of when labor began (although, I admit being early was way more fun than being close to the due date!).  We had decided on an induction because I was super sore after several days of contractions, not getting any sleep and the knowledge that my previous two babies were big so we knew this one wasn't going to be tiny either.  After we checked in and were escorted to our room (which was HUGE!) we were informed that many women had checked in during the previous half hour so there was a possibility that our induction would be delayed and we'd be sent home.  UGH!  I was so ready to have this baby and I didn't want to lose our room!  Plus, we had it all figured out with the other kids at home so this would mean replanning everything.  The waiting game began.  Thankfully Downton Abbey was on so I watched that while Luke played games on his phone.  After the show was done, they came in and announced that the induction was a go!  I was ecstatic!  They hooked me up to the monitors and realized that I was contracting too much to proceed as we had planned so they began plan b.  Then it was time to sleep while my body took over and began the process.  Of course sleep wasn't easy to come by so a small sleeping pill helped with that.

At 5am, Dr. Z came in to check on me and broke my water at that point.  The waiting game continued.  With all of my deliveries, it took FOREVER for me to dilate.  Luke and I joke about how it works out okay because he gets to enjoy an entire day of eating at the hospital because it takes so long for our babies to arrive.  This time started out being the same.  They kept upping the dose of pitocin to try to speed it up but my babies must just love being inside!  At about 10am, I had the epidural because they kept telling me that at any point the labor could speed up and then it'd be too late to do the epidural (which would be really bad for me because I have a super low pain tolerance!).  Throughout all of this, our good friend Marc was there to stop in and talk to us or to head to the cafeteria with Luke (such a blessing so Luke could get a bit of a break from sitting there).  At noon they had me lay/sit in different positions and WOW, things really got rolling.  At one point, the baby's heart rate really dropped so they had me hooked up to oxygen.  They rolled me over to the other side and the heart rate improved but she also decided to move ... quickly!  Within 15 minutes, I went from a 6/7 to a 10 and had really big urges to push (which was wierd because I didn't have that before with the epidural).  The quickly called Dr. Z and got everything read.  He entered the room, whipped the bed apart and gowned up.  Then it was time to push.  One contraction ... two pushes and I was told to look down.  THERE WAS A BABY!  And, as they held the baby up, they showed me the girl parts!  I started laughing and crying at the same time.  We were so excited and felt so blessed to finally meet our healthy little baby.