8 lbs. 11 oz. and 22 in long
Born January 20, 2013 at 5:10 p.m.
We headed to bed on Saturday night with no idea that we would be headed to the hospital in a few short hours. I hadn't really been having any contractions and there was nothing to indicate that Avery was any where close to making her appearance.
I woke up at around 1:00 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. I headed into the living room to watch some TV and eat a leftover blueberry muffin from Mimi's. At about 3:00 a.m. I got up to go to the restroom. As soon as I sat back down on the couch, I leaned over to pet Shelby and heard a "pop". I knew immediately that my water had broken! I jumped up and went to wake up Adam. I think he was a little in shock that it was really time to head to the hospital.
The contractions started immediately and were much more intense than I expected. We grabbed a couple of things, Adam made a cup of coffee (can you believe it! :)) and we headed out the door. I gave mom a call to let her know that it was time. Luckily her and dad were at the lakehouse, so they didn't have a long drive.
I started timing the contractions while we were in the car and they were coming 3 min. apart. At that point I started freaking out a little. Not only were they hurting, but we had at least a 45 min drive to the hospital and the doctor had said to come in when my contractions were 6 min. apart. I was terrified that I was going to have her in the car or on the side of the road! Adam must have been scared of the same thing, because we made it to the hospital in about 30 min :)
By the time we arrived my contractions were 1-2 minutes apart and I was feeling pretty miserable. They started hooking me up to monitors and working on getting us admitted. Melissa, Mom and Dad had to wait for a little while before I made it into a room. I think it took about 1 hour to get admitted and I was very glad to get in my own room. The area that they had us waiting in was so hot that I had Adam fan me for the entire time that we were there. Between being hot and having contractions so frequently, I was pretty sick at my stomach too. My main focus was getting an epidural! :)
Once we were admitted, the anesthesiologist was there within about 15 min. to give me the epidural. At this point I had been having contractions every minute for the past 2 hours. I had been a little concerned about the epidural, but it was nothing compared to the contractions. The hardest part was staying still since I was having contractions while he was trying to do the epidural.
After that, I started feeling much better and we began the waiting game. Mom, Dad, Melissa and Adam were all there to keep me company. They started giving me pitocin after a few hours because even though my contractions were still every minute, they weren't progressing my labor. By around noon, the doctor said we should start to think about considering a c-section if my labor didn't progress within the next several hours. The increased my pitocin dose, but didn't want to increase it too much since my contractions were so frequent.
At my next check, I had made some progress but still wasn't where I should be. The doctor said that based on my contractions, he would have expected me to have had Avery within 2 hours of when I arrived at the hospital. At this point, we were going on 12 hours of labor. We decided that we would give it 1 more hour and if I hadn't made significant progress we would decide on if we should do a c-section.
I started feeling some pain at this point and I told the nurse that I was starting to feel some contractions. We increased my epidural medicine, but it kept getting worse. After a few minutes, I was feeling every single contraction. We called the nurse again and had her page the anesthesiologist. I was in pretty significant pain and starting feeling sick at my stomach from the pain. The anesthesiologist arrived and checked to make sure my epidural hadn't come out. He didn't think it had, but said that it could have moved underneath the skin. He gave me a large push of medicine to see if that would work. We waited 15 minutes for it to take effect and there was no improvement All of a sudden the anesthesiologist looked over and said "Why is her medicine clamped off?" Apparently our nurse (who had done several things already to make us think she wasn't very experienced) had changed my epidural medicine and forgotten to remove the clamp. I hadn't been receiving any medicine for over 2 hours! What made it even worse was that she never thought to look at it! So, after 1.5 hours of feeling everything, I finally got some relief.
As soon as I was feeling better, the doctor came in for his last check. Since I was still only at 7 cm, we decided to do a c-section. Avery was still doing great, but we didn't want her to get distressed by continuing with the labor.
Adam was so helpful during the c-section. He talked to me about everything but the c-section which really helped keep me calm. Miss Avery was so big that they had problems getting her out. At one point the nurse and doctor were practically standing on my chest trying to push her out and I couldn't breathe. Then after what seemed like ages, we heard her beautiful cry! The doctor showed her to me over the drape then Adam headed over to see her get cleaned up under the warmer. He did a great job of taking pictures and even remembered to take a pic with his phone and text it to my family.
Adam brought Avery over to me so that I could see and kiss her then they headed off to the nursery. I asked the nurse about how she was and she had an APGAR score of 8-9...she was perfect! :)
After what seemed like ages, the doctor had finally gotten me stiched up and I headed to recovery. I was finishing up surgery and in recover for about 1 hour after her birth. I was missing Avery terribly, but knew that her daddy was taking good care of her. It was wonderful to get to see her again when I was out of recovery and they finished up with her in the nursery.
As you can see from the pictures, her face was very swollen and bruised from being in the birth canal for so long. She also had gotten her feet tangled in the umbilical cord and it was wrapped around her ankles 3 times. I'm so glad that we decided to do the c-section when we did since she was so bruised up. Adam was such a help and just jumped right in. The first night , I wasn't able to get out of the bed so Adam changed all her diapers (and there were a lot!) and brought her to me throughout the night to nurse. On the second day, the nursery nurse brought her in and said they had to change her to size 1 diapers bc the newborn diapers were too small. :( All the bruising gave her a little jaundice, but after two days in the hospital we were able to take her home.
Once we were admitted, the anesthesiologist was there within about 15 min. to give me the epidural. At this point I had been having contractions every minute for the past 2 hours. I had been a little concerned about the epidural, but it was nothing compared to the contractions. The hardest part was staying still since I was having contractions while he was trying to do the epidural.
After that, I started feeling much better and we began the waiting game. Mom, Dad, Melissa and Adam were all there to keep me company. They started giving me pitocin after a few hours because even though my contractions were still every minute, they weren't progressing my labor. By around noon, the doctor said we should start to think about considering a c-section if my labor didn't progress within the next several hours. The increased my pitocin dose, but didn't want to increase it too much since my contractions were so frequent.
At my next check, I had made some progress but still wasn't where I should be. The doctor said that based on my contractions, he would have expected me to have had Avery within 2 hours of when I arrived at the hospital. At this point, we were going on 12 hours of labor. We decided that we would give it 1 more hour and if I hadn't made significant progress we would decide on if we should do a c-section.
I started feeling some pain at this point and I told the nurse that I was starting to feel some contractions. We increased my epidural medicine, but it kept getting worse. After a few minutes, I was feeling every single contraction. We called the nurse again and had her page the anesthesiologist. I was in pretty significant pain and starting feeling sick at my stomach from the pain. The anesthesiologist arrived and checked to make sure my epidural hadn't come out. He didn't think it had, but said that it could have moved underneath the skin. He gave me a large push of medicine to see if that would work. We waited 15 minutes for it to take effect and there was no improvement All of a sudden the anesthesiologist looked over and said "Why is her medicine clamped off?" Apparently our nurse (who had done several things already to make us think she wasn't very experienced) had changed my epidural medicine and forgotten to remove the clamp. I hadn't been receiving any medicine for over 2 hours! What made it even worse was that she never thought to look at it! So, after 1.5 hours of feeling everything, I finally got some relief.
As soon as I was feeling better, the doctor came in for his last check. Since I was still only at 7 cm, we decided to do a c-section. Avery was still doing great, but we didn't want her to get distressed by continuing with the labor.
Adam was so helpful during the c-section. He talked to me about everything but the c-section which really helped keep me calm. Miss Avery was so big that they had problems getting her out. At one point the nurse and doctor were practically standing on my chest trying to push her out and I couldn't breathe. Then after what seemed like ages, we heard her beautiful cry! The doctor showed her to me over the drape then Adam headed over to see her get cleaned up under the warmer. He did a great job of taking pictures and even remembered to take a pic with his phone and text it to my family.
Adam brought Avery over to me so that I could see and kiss her then they headed off to the nursery. I asked the nurse about how she was and she had an APGAR score of 8-9...she was perfect! :)
After what seemed like ages, the doctor had finally gotten me stiched up and I headed to recovery. I was finishing up surgery and in recover for about 1 hour after her birth. I was missing Avery terribly, but knew that her daddy was taking good care of her. It was wonderful to get to see her again when I was out of recovery and they finished up with her in the nursery.
As you can see from the pictures, her face was very swollen and bruised from being in the birth canal for so long. She also had gotten her feet tangled in the umbilical cord and it was wrapped around her ankles 3 times. I'm so glad that we decided to do the c-section when we did since she was so bruised up. Adam was such a help and just jumped right in. The first night , I wasn't able to get out of the bed so Adam changed all her diapers (and there were a lot!) and brought her to me throughout the night to nurse. On the second day, the nursery nurse brought her in and said they had to change her to size 1 diapers bc the newborn diapers were too small. :( All the bruising gave her a little jaundice, but after two days in the hospital we were able to take her home.
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