Welcome Avery! -birth story

It has been a month already, I can't believe it.  I am sorry for not posting more about her.  We have had a very busy summer.  I just wanted to tell the story of how Avery got here for those who are interested.  Just a warning, this is the full detail version so if you don't want to know all the details don't read this post.  Talk to Tyler, he can give you the short version.  :)

Her due date was July 15th.  My last day of work was June 29th, so I figured I would have a chance to rest and catch up on some things before she came.  I got a lot of resting done but I realized there was not much I could do to prepare for her in our one bedroom apartment that we were planning to move out of.  Maybe that was just my excuse to rest more.  :)  In any case I never got that urge to deep clean accompanied by a surge of energy that I hear some women talking about.  As her due date got closer I had to work harder to not get my hopes up for an early delivery.  I tried to tell myself that she would come when she was ready, but I didn't listen to myself very well.  I caught some kind of respiratory infection the week of her due date so that slowed me down and took a tole on my spirits as well.  But I figured it would be best if I recovered from that before I had to deal with a new baby and recovering from the delivery.

On Sunday the 15th I was sick enough that I stayed home from church and slept all day.  That helped a lot and I was feeling much better by the evening.  My brother had told me that they had been eating popcorn the night his wife went into labor.  We eat popcorn a lot and it had not started labor yet but we had popcorn that night anyway.  I figured it couldn't hurt.  At about 1am I felt a sharp kick and made a dash to the bathroom.  I made it just in time because my water broke.  I was not sure what to do at first because I wasn't having any  contractions so I tried to go back to bed.  As soon as I started having contractions I woke up Tyler to ask him what he thought about it.  (mostly I woke him up to calm me down)  We started timing the contractions and realized that they were pretty close together.  I called the doctor's hotline and they told me to come in to the hospital.

We got to the hospital by 2:30.  They checked to make sure my water was really broken.  It was, but I was not dilated.  So they put something in my cervix that would encourage it to dilate.  That was the worst part of the whole thing because I had to stay laying down for two hours without the epidural.  By the time the two hours was up I was having regular contractions and was dilated to a four so it was time for pain killers!  They sent Tyler out to eat breakfast while I got the epidural.  That was about 5am.  Once I had the epidural in I was pretty happy.  The rest of the morning we just dosed and chatted with our nurse.  She was awesome and really made the experience pretty enjoyable.  We didn't get much sleep but everything was progressing as it should.  By 1:30 it was time for me to start pushing.  I was so excited to be able to start doing something but it took a lot longer than anyone really expected.  Apparently I am not very stretchy or something because it took about two hours for her to be in position.  When it was finally time to bring the Doctor in they had pretty much decided that she would need a bit of encouragement to come out.  The doctor use the vacuum extractor but he still had to give me an episiotomy because she just wasn't getting through.

Finally they told me to push once more and look down.  I didn't really get what was going on but I looked down just in time to see them pull her out.  She was tiny and blue and all slimy.  They gave her a quick rub down and handed her to me just as she started to cry.  It was so neat to finally hold her, of course I was crying like crazy but it was wonderful.  We had several minutes to bond while the doctor was finishing up with me.  Those were amazing moments, to realize that I recognized her movements and she recognized my voice or at least my smell.  :)

She was born at 3:37pm and weighed 7lbs 8oz and was 20 3/4 inches long.

Eventually they had to take her to run test and weigh and measure her.  Tyler got to go with her and see what was going on for most of it.  When they brought her back she was ready to eat.  The nurse gave us a quick tutorial and it seemed to go pretty well.  She was a really strong eater.

After that they had to take her to the nursery again.  That was about the time that the nurse broke the news to me about my tear.  She said that I had a fourth degree tear, which she said, "was bad" I guess there is no fifth degree.  But it had stitched up pretty well.  I couldn't feel anything yet because of the epidural though.  They decided to leave the epidural in for pain medication over night because of the tear.  The moved us into the recovery area and we got settled for the night.  I sent Tyler home to sleep because I figured at least one of us should be well rested.  We had the nursery take Avery overnight and asked them to bring her back when she was ready to eat.

We stayed in the hospital that night and the next.  It was pretty rough I didn't sleep well for some reason, I was just jumpy.  I would be about asleep and then I would just jerk awake.  The nurses said it was probably from the pain medication.  It was a rough night and I was relived when Tyler got back.  I slept better with him there and he got to bond with Avery.  I still couldn't get her in and out of her crib by myself so we sent her to the nursery again the second night and Tyler went home to sleep.  That night my milk came in which was pretty uncomfortable.  I felt guilty for letting someone else watch my baby but I still couldn't do it myself.    Plus I had a cough still from the week before and coughing was very painful.  I was exhausted but I couldn't sleep, that was probably the lowest point of the whole experience.  By the time Tyler got there I had come to terms with things again, but I was ready to go home.  When we left the hospital Avery was 7lbs 4oz

Once we got home things were much better.  Avery was sleeping well and eating well.  She would wake up to eat about every three hours and then would sleep some more.  My sister Alexis came from Utah to help out.  It was nice to have her there, hopefully she wasn't too bored with just eating and sleeping all the time.

We went back to see the Pediatrician when Avery was 9 days old.  By then she was 8lbs 4oz and 21 1/2inches long!  The doctor was very impressed with her which was nice to hear.  Since then she has continued to grow and is doing really well.  I will post pictures soon.