These are our last pictures as a couple. Without a baby. When we returned we would have a baby to bring home. We could not have imagined how much our lives were going to change. Here is Avery's birth story...
We left for the hospital on Wednesday, October 26th with bags in tow. We excitedly went up to Labor & Delivery and immediately went to our birthing room. The nurse handed me a gown and I walked into the bathroom with so much nervous anticipation. I even locked the bathroom door, out of habit in a pubic place, not knowing that pretty soon an unlocked door would be the least of my worries.
The nurses were great and they started the Cervadil medicine pretty quickly. We had family visit us and around 8 pm I took an Ambien so that I could have a nice, last night of relaxing sleep. Which actually didn't happen. Even with Ambien I am the world's lightest sleeper and awoke every time the nurses came into check my monitors or do whatever nurses do during the night. I woke up around five and took a shower. Somehow I found it in me to blow dry and straighten my hair. My sister was going to come do my makeup, but truly I never even cared about how I looked five minutes into my induction. The makeup job was DOA.
At around 6:30 the doctor broke my water and very shorty after they started Pitocin. At first the contractions felt mildly like menstrual cramps. Within an hour they.hurt.like.the.dickens. Not having a very high pain tolerance, by 8 am I requested an epidural. There were six women in labor at the time and they said if I wanted the epidural then I would have to speak up because it would take a while. The contractions got to the point where I would close my eyes, put one hand up to my forehead and press on my temples while breathing. I can't imagine how it would feel without an epidural. The contractions were not for the faint.
Yes, here I am in all of my painful glory. And I was only three centimeters dilated. Wimp.Of.The.Year. But low and behold, my knight in shining armor (the anesthesiologist) arrived around 10:30 and quickly made me feel amazing. The needle hurt and stung but within ten minutes I felt like a new girl. I just remember saying over and over how great I felt. My feet were slightly numb and I was able to still wiggle my toes, which I was happy about. Epidurals are a God sent!
Here's where the story gets good. My sister and I started watching Days of Our Lives (an old favorite) together around one. Anything to keep my mind off of what was happening. I remember my mom, mother in law and husband all sitting around and talking. Suddenly, I felt this incredible pressure, like I needed to push. My mom freaked out a little bit and called a nurse in. She checked me and I was pretty much fully dilated. It happened quick y'all. This was around 1:30.
We waited a bit (I can't remember why) for the action to get started but I was in shock that this was actually happening. My L&D nurse, who was incredible, told me that she wanted to see how I could push. At this point everyone left the room except my mom and Justin. I started my pushes and immediately thought I was going to throw up. Somehow, the feeling subsided and I was able to start my good pushes. It's a bit uncomfortable to have two people holding your legs high in the air and you're laying back, completely awkward. I did have one spot on my left side that didn't take from the epidural, which was good because I could tell when I needed to push.
All of my coaches were so amazing. Justin was so enthusiastic with his chants of push, push, push. He could see Avery's head crowing and told me she had a full head of hair. Soon the doctor arrived and as soon as she got there I knew I had to push even harder. The excitement of everyone around me cheering me on was incredible. There was no screaming or grunting, yelling or rude words called out. In the words of my dear friend Ashley, I just put my chin to my chest and just did it.
Before I knew it, her head was out and seconds later the prettiest little thing I ever did see was laying on my chest. In a little under 45 minutes of pushing, our princess had arrived.
Here is my, "I can't believe I just had a baby" face. Wow.
I was able to hold her for a short while and remember asking the nurses if I could touch her. "She's yours," they exclaimed. She was mine! All mine. And Justin's too.
They took her to the warmers and cleaned her up and weighed her. She swallowed some fluid as she was born so they made sure they suctioned her out well. I kept asking if she was okay, and of course she was. They asked how much I thought she weighed and I guessed 8 pounds. I wasn't too far off because she was 8 pounds, 4.3 ounces respectively.
Justin and I decided that after she was born we wanted to have time to be a family of three. We had our family members wait a bit longer than they wanted to I'm sure, but we needed this time together. Within about thirty minutes I was able to nurse her and she fed for thirty minutes total. I was shocked! It was so natural and beautiful and I wondered to myself why breast feeding was ever so scary to me. It's a very special bonding time and I will never forget these moments with her in the hospital.
As soon as the family came in, tears of joy were shed. She was so adored from that first day by everyone. Her grandmothers were over the moon. It's a special kind of grandmother thing. My mom is on the left and Justin's mom is on the right. Nonni and Sugar love their sweet girl.
This pictures of my sweet daddy and Avery is one of my favorite pictures of all time. He is so in love with her. She'll have her grandfather's wrapped around her little finger. She may already. My sister and brother were there too. She is the first grandchild and first niece for everyone. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Matty love her so!
My good friend
Katy is a nurse at the hospital and she dressed up Avery's crib with lots of cute things. My favorite was the pumpkin that they had foot printed. All of the Halloween babies got a set of pumpkin footprints. Does it get any sweeter?
One thing that makes me sad is that we don't have any pictures of Justin, Avery and me together after she was born. I think because Justin was taking the pictures and I just didn't think about it. Here he is helping the sweet nurse give Avery her first bath. I sat in the bed and watched while snapping some photos. He couldn't have been more proud. I think he beamed all day long.
While she was getting her first bath, her Pops came to the hospital to meet her.
And let me tell you, girlfriend has some hair. It's slightly wavy when it's wet and then we brush it straight. She may have some wave in it yet, something we'll wait to see one day.
Later we were moved to the Mother/Infant unit and
Katy got to be our nurse. She was so great! We love nurse Katy. This is a shot from the next day after I had showered and cleaned myself up some. It felt so good to wash my hair and just feel like me. I will say I truly was not prepared for how I would feel after the delivery. These are things no one tells you. I'd like to do a post about that soon(ish).
We had such an amazing experience in the hospital. Our nurses were amazing. Our time there was amazing. I have no horror birth story for you. Even that part was amazing. My mom told me I was her hero.
Justin loves his little girl so much. He is so protective. I'm not sure if he knew he would be able to love this little girl so much. She has stolen his heart, and mine too. I won't tell you that it's easy, but anything worth having it worth working towards.
And here we are. Sleep deprived, excited and nervous all wrapped into one. With our little bundle of joy. Our lives will never be the same.
Headed home!
