Ava's Birth Story :)

On Tuesday, March 12, I had finished up some thank you notes from my baby showers, put Addie to bed, and come back to the couch to prop my swollen ankles up for a while. I was relaxed because I had scheduled the next day off for a prenatal massage, OB appointment, Addie's well visit, and a haircut... it was around 11:15 (I fell asleep with Addie :), and much to my surprise, my water broke! I was so confused because I was in no pain whatsoever. In fact, I was feeling the best that I had been feeling in a while!

So Eric calls the on-call doctor to let him know what has happened. We inform him that I already have a scheduled appointment the following morning, so he says that it could be a build up of fluid that has come out (HA!) or that if it's my water breaking, then to keep track of contractions as they come. If they get to be close and consistent, then I should head to the hospital! Otherwise, I would just go to my appointment as planned and go from there.

We called my mom since they would need a little more notice than anyone to get here (they are 7 hours away). We just told them to be ready so that if I was indeed in labor, they could just hit the road!

That night was a whirlwind. Eric shifted into overdrive while I rested and prayed that contractions would wait! He cleaned and cleaned and cleaned! It was hilarious... he knew that my family would be coming in town soon, so he had to get the house ready. Plus, he washed and packed our hospital bags since we were not prepared for that (we were still over three weeks before my due date). All I could do was sit there and watch (and laugh!). :) We finally fell asleep about 1:30 and we were actually able to rest until Addie woke up around 8.

I remember not being scared at all. I had such a peace this time around... I knew that my water had broken and that I was going to meet my girl in less than a day! I was beyond excited to get to the hospital! Praise Jesus!

We brought Addie to school on our way to the appointment. When we arrived, they got me right in to another doctor who was free (mine was still with another patient) so he could go ahead and check me. It didn't take long for him to say that we would be having a baby today! :) Cra-zy. We made all of the phone calls, picked up our stuff from the house, and headed to the hospital to get checked in!

I finally got to my room around 1:30 and they started pitocin. I still had not felt a single contraction! Praise Jesus! :) Naturally, the pitocin changed that and I got the epidural after a couple of hours. It was not all that bad.. I don't know why people are so scared of it! Actually, at this point in the process, the thing that hurt worst was the penicillin they put in my IV! It burns like crazy! Thankfully, it only burns for like a minute, but I'm a pansy, so that minute was loooong! :) I had to take it since I never got the Strep B test and I'm very prone to infections anyway, so I was glad to take it to make sure I didn't infect Ava. 

Family started to arrive after work. My parents got there around 8:00. Addie spent the afternoon with Eric's brother and sister, so she was in Heaven! They brought her up there around 10:00. She was way too excited to sleep! Sweet little night owl... 

I got frustrated around 6:00 when the nurse checked me and I hadn't progressed very much. My epidural started to wear off a little in my side, so apparently I tensed up or something when she checked me and I would still be a 3 or 4! Boooo! I know this because it happened again right before Dr. Thomas came in around 6:30 after the epidural boost calmed me down, and I was a 5! Holla! :) My epidural did the stupid wearing-off thing again around 10:15 when she checked me again. She said I was still a 5... epidural boost, enter Dr. Thomas around 10:30, I was a 7! :) Around 11:15, Dr. Thomas came back in and before he checked me, I told him I was ready to push... he checked and I was right! I started pushing shortly after that, and at 12:16 a.m. I heard the sweetest cry from my new baby girl! Eric got to help deliver Ava and cut the cord, etc., and it was so great to watch as we got to keep our baby in the room with us this time! :) One of our nurses grabbed our camera and got some of the sweetest pictures of our new addition! 

My nurse, Betty, was this sweet lady from Belize who was SO excited because we ended up being Thursday's Baby! The local new station highlights the first baby born every Thursday on the news and in the hallways of the hospital! Betty had never delivered a Thursday's Baby and apparently it's pretty competitive among the nurses. :) So glad we could help! I'll put the Thursday's Baby pics in the next post.

Ava weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces. She was 19 1/4 inches long. She was a great size for being three weeks early! I'm glad she decided to go ahead and make her debut! :)

After Ava was cleaned up, Eric got to go and tell everyone that she was here! This was so special because the family could actually come back and see her! Addie was elated (as was everyone else) and couldn't wait to kiss her baby sister! It was such a great moment to see... our family was now complete! :)

Such a sweet sister!

Our family of four! 

I love this one... :)