Our birth story...

Here's our birth story...

I was not due till Friday but kept it no secret I was hoping for several reasons that Ava might come on her own before that. Much to my delighted surprise she did just that!

Sunday night (really Monday at 2:00am) I woke up with contractions, they felt very different than the braxton hicks ones I had before. They were pretty mild but consistent every 10 minutes and uncomfortable enough that I couldn't sleep through them, I let Ryan sleep and kept track of them. I checked in with Ryan after a few hours but they hadn't grown closer together and not really more intense. So I was up the rest of the night and they stayed that way. Ryan and I stayed home Monday from work I was just waiting for them to increase in frequency or intensity but they kind of stalled out mid day going to about 20 minutes apart and being mild enough I could sleep, or I was tired enough I got to sleep about two hours.

Here's Rory keeping me company during that time:

I had some girl friends come by that evening around dinner time. The visit was nice to distract from the growing discomfort of the contractions getting closer and more intense. I got to eat a yummy dinner Ryan made us and a friend brought me a Sonic Blast. At about 10:00pm the contractions really picked up speed, moving to about 5-7 minutes apart. Ryan has to start really helping relieve some pain but putting counter pressure on my back with his fist to get through the contractions. We decide to head to the hospital as they were about 5:00 minutes apart. (We were following the guidelines from our child birth class and had wanted to labor at home with early labor as long as possible).

We head to the hospital and no joke we get pulled over by cop on the way for speeding. Ryan says, "I'm sure you hear this all the time but my wife is actually in labor and we are on our way to the hospital". We got out of the ticket but this interaction of course took longer than I thought it should. We arrive at the hospital they check us out in triage part of labor and delivery. They said they would monitor me for an hour to see if I made progress and then would admit me if so. Well that one hour made lots of "progress" contractions got highly intense. Ryan's poor wrist, all the pain was in my lower back during contractions so I would have him push on the middle of my lower back to help to give some counter pressures and sometimes the contractions were coming on top of each other, hard to get much relief. After an hour I had made "progress" and was admitted, got my IV and hour after that we were in our room and the epidural doc came. Love love love the epidural doc. Procedure went great, I did not feel one moment of pain from that time on. So wonderful, pain free! that time was so nice, Ryan and I talked, listened to music, spent time in prayer, he got some shut eye, I got some here and there but was really just too flooded with emotions to sleep much of any time. I slowed down a little on labor after the epidural but not much, each time they checked me after that I made progress.

At about 11:10 am it was time to start pushing. Pushing went great and she officially was born at 11:47am. Ryan cut the umbilical cord. They put her on my stomach right away so I got say hello for a moment before they took her to get cleaned up and finish working on me. She got a 10 out of 10 on her Apgar score.

I asked Ryan ahead of time to stay with her even though it was the same room, I wanted him to be there for her. He got to hold her for about half an hour before I was recovered enough to hold her. Ryan did really great through all of it, he puts up a big front sometimes of being a tough guy and his sarcastic humor but he supported me in every way. After she was born I also got a sweet surprise, my "push present" a pair of diamond earrings, lucky me that Ava's birthstone happens to be diamonds!

One the roughest times was right after delivery they had a bit of trouble stopping my bleeding. I was really woosy and couldn't stop shaking uncontrollably. It took a bit of time and some shots of meds but they got me all done and bleeding controlled. I tried to sit the head of my bed up to fast to try to hold her and then ended up throwing up 3 times. They kept a check on my blood count the next day and it was low but up enough to not need any transfused blood.

This pic is where I couldn't hold her yet because I was too weak and was having hard time staying awake and was about to throw up:


Finally! the moment I get to hold her in my arms and love on her:



It was a crazy few days I would be up for most this day too happily visiting with family and just getting to know her! Total was up most of the last 40 hours before got some sleep. Some of the most memorable 40 hours of my life. I spent so much time in prayer throughout this process, so grateful for this tremendous blessing and all the ways I know God's hand was in this. Can't believe how much I already love this girl!