avery's birth story

People say that it's good to record major events in your life for posterity sake, and I have already forgotten different parts of the delivery, so I'm going to record it here, and maybe never think of it again! :)

Ken and I had our 40 week check up, and we went to see Dr. Morris and had very strong intentions of getting Indian food for lunch after the appointment. That was pretty much all we were thinking about. Funny how things were different! They took my blood pressure and it was really high, much higher than it had ever been. Avery was fine in my tummy- great heartbeat, good amount of fluid. Then they sent us upstairs, and we weren't too clear as to what we were doing next, and for a brief time, they didn't know either. I was on a blood pressure monitor for about an hour, they took some blood, tested some other things and concluded that I wasn't leaving the hospital, I was going to have a baby.

Dr. Morris said we could eat some food because he knew that this was going to be a looooong day/night/day/night... They moved us to the delivery room. I had no idea what to do so I sat at the table, in my clothes and a nurse comes in and goes, "you need to get on the bed, we need to get started." This is about 2:00pm on Wednesday. I get settled and then they hooked up the IV which took 3 nurses because my veins apparently suck. IV set up, and then came this really cool (sarcasm) blood pressure machine that squeezed the crap out of my arm every 15 minutes. Sequence is foggy here, but they put a cathiter in, and set up the magnesium sulfate drip. Apparently, I was not doing too well here. 5 hours later, my doctor comes in and he wasn't his chipper self that we are so commonly used to. He was worried about me, and we had no clue what was going on. But when Dr. Morris said, "I'm sorry you have to be on magnesium, you're going to feel terrible on it," I knew that something was up. He doesn't exaggerate. And as the hours slowly passed, I started to feel like I had been sick for weeks with mono, and that I was hungover. I started to itch on my chest, I was sensitive to light so I only had one eye open, and I was so thirsty. Ken saw me go from just fine to pretty crappy. They wanted be to sleep because the following day this baby was coming and I needed a lot of strength. A combination of some other medicine that put in me to start contractions (not pitocin) the magnesium, and the fact that some nurse or doctor was coming in the room every 30 minutes, and that this blood pressure machine is getting tighter with every 15 minute squeeze- I couldn't sleep.

But morning came and with that came the pitocin. That kinda makes you feel crappy too, but I was so excited to have some contractions, I was okay with it. I had been having them since the night before, but I didn't really know what with all the things flowing through my body. So I was laboring for about 20 hours and I finally got to 5 cm. And I got the epidural at that point. Crazy procedure, but it did lessen the pain of the contractions but I still could feel them which was a good thing- almost liked it because I knew a baby was getting closer to arrival!

Hours later, at 6:00pm on Thursday, I was getting really close to 9 cm and they decided it's pushing time. Yikes! What was great though was that Ken's mom got to the hospital at noon, and then my mom showed up around 5:00pm; right off the plane from CA. I had a lot of support fro family which was a blessing. So, trying to push out a baby sucks, no one was lying when they said this was hard. I wanted my mom in the room so Ken and her were holding my legs as I pushed, and pushed, and pushed. This was the hardest part of it all. I could feel the contractions cause at this point the epidural had worn off. There were a lot of nurses in the room too, it was weird. Dr. Morris then came in and saw that I hadn't dilated any more, that Avery was not dropping down, and that I was losing blood. He then said I could be pushing for 3 more hours before she'd deliver and he was worried about the a lot of factors so it was decided to have a c-section. Not what we wanted, but was what needed for Avery, and for me. In the end, a healthy baby was what we wanted so off to the OR.

This was a real fog, but hearing Ken's voice and Dr. Morris' voice through the whole thing was really comforting. I was pretty much all numb and really confused. I thought I was laying on the floor and all the voices I was hearing were muffled. But then I heard the her first cry. "Is that really her? Is that my daughter?" I thought to myself. I couldn't hold her right away, but Ken saw her come out and said she was perfect. I asked if she was healthy, and he said yes. For a better part of half the pregnancy, we were made aware of a small chance that Avery could have down-syndrome because of some things the doctors saw on her 5 month sonogram. Even though the chances were slim, I still knew it was a possibility. So when I asked Ken, as he's standing over me looking at her emerge, if she was healthy, to hear, "yes" was a huge answer to prayer. Ken brought her beautiful little face up to mine and I couldn't believe that was my little girl. Ken went with her to the nursery as they finished up my surgery. I got to hold her a couple hours later, and I was instantly in love, and blown away with how pretty she was. We spent the next few days in the hospital marveling at this creation and the work of God's hand, while I fell in love with Avery and more in love with Ken. He instantly became "dad" and I could not imagine going through this whole experience without him.
As I write this in between feedings, my precious angel is sleeping next to me. I look at her and I melt, tears form, and I pray that God will enable us to be amazing parents to her. I have never wanted to be better at something in my whole life. Without words this girl has already changed many people's lives, and Ken and I are thrilled to journey with her through life and she continues to make her mark on the world.