Avery Grace's Birth Story

Wow I never thought I would get this post done. As you can imagine these past two weeks have been a little bit busy :O)

Our little girl made a very punctual appearance into this world. She arrived on her due date and her daddy and I could not be more thrilled to have her in our lives.

Contractions started the night of Friday, March 19th. That evening I got very little sleep as I was having back labor, but nothing consistent or timeable. Finally around 5 am I was able to fall asleep and I slept until about 9 am. Chad and I just kind of lounged around that day since I was exhausted and still not feeling great. Around dinner time I got up off the couch and thought my water might be leaking. It was not a big gush, but just a little trickle. Chad and I got some dinner and again I thought I might be leaking. I called the doctor on call and he said it was probably urine from the baby sitting on my bladder. He told me I did not need to come in. I got off the phone and felt a little concerned because I knew it was not urine. I decided to take a shower to try to relax and noticed I was continually leaking. Chad suggested we go to the hospital anyway to get checked to ease my concerns.

Around 11pm we headed to the hospital. I was convinced they would check me and send me on my way home. At this point I was also having very mild contractions about 5 minutes apart, but nothing very painful. We arrived at the hospital and they immediately got me into a room and checked me to see if I had any amniotic fluid. They said the swab would turn blue if my water broke and as soon as they checked it immediately turned blue. Chad and I were both quite shocked. We would be staying until I had a baby!!! At the point I was only 3cm dilated and they suggested I walk a bit to help get things moving. So from 2-2:30 am and 4:-4:30 am I walked the halls of Labor and delivery. At 6 am the resident on call came in to check my progress and I was still only 3cm despite all the walking. I should have just slept instead of walking. Because I was making no progress the doctor decided to start me on pitocin to get things moving.

Our last picture as a family of two!!

At 7am they started the pitocin on the lowest setting and increased it every 20 minutes. My contractions started picking up, but I was still able to deal with the pain until about 9 am. At that point the contractions were pretty strong and uncomfortable so the nurse offered me some nubain for my pain. That stuff was amazing within 5 minutes of receiving the shot I felt like I was drunk and my body was all nice and tingly.

After I got the Nubain

Unfortunately at 10am the on call doctor from my practice came in to check me and ruined the wonderful high I was on. This was the same bozo that told me I peed myself the night before. He decided to put and internal contraction monitor in me because they were having a hard time picking up the contractions with the external monitor. While inserting the monitor he also checked my progress and I was still only 3 cm dilated. The doctor was so rough with his exam that I thought he was going to kill me. The nurse even said to me after he was done that she had never seen anything look so painful. While he was examining me he found that my bag of water was still intact so he broke it. He said most likely I just had a high leak which was why I was losing amniotic fluid. He looked over at the nurse and told her to get me my epidural ASAP because with him breaking my water and me being on pitocin contractions were going to be insane.

Within 5 minutes I was shaking uncontrollably because the contractions were so strong. Chad helped me breath through them, but my entire body was still shaking. Luckily the anesthesiologist got there at 10:30 and I got my epidural, which was heaven. I did not even care that they stuck a needle in my back because within 5 minutes I was numb. I noticed right away that my right hand side was not as numb as my left so they had me lie on my side to try to even the distribution of the epidural in my body. That worked until about 12:30 when I could fully feel my right side and the contractions. Again they were so bad I was shaking. I asked the nurse for some help and she got the anesthesiologist back. At first the anesthesiologist tried to just give me a boost of epidural medicine. When that did nothing for me she said she would have to re-do my epidural. At that point I did not care what she had to do to stop the pain. The second epidural was a huge success, I was completely numb on both sides.

At about 2 pm I was feeling pressure in my bottom so I called the nurse. She checked me and I was 8 cm. I was excited that my doctor came on at 1pm so she would be the one delivering our little girl and not the jerk I had to deal with the night before. At 3pm I was having even more pressure and when they checked me I was 10 cm and it was time to push!

I was so excited because I figured I would be meeting my baby girl soon. Soon happened to come after two hours of pushing. When I first started pushing I really thought she would be out within a half hour. I developed my false sense of hope from all of my friends who have pushed there babies out very quickly. I only have one friend who pushed more than 30 minutes (she pushed 3 hours) so I figured that was the exception and not the norm. The doctor did tell me from the start that the average 1st time mom pushes for 2 hours, but I laughed at that I thought to myself I will get her out faster than that. Well I guess I am just your average 1st time mom because after 2 hours Avery Grace Holzer made her appearance. She arrives at 4:47 pm weighing 7 pounds 5 ounces and was 20 inches long. She was immediately placed on my chest and both Chad and I were so in love. From the moment I saw her I said I had just given birth to a mini Chad. She looks exactly like her daddy. Luckily Grandma Carolyn and Papa Ernie arrived at the hospital about an hour and a half after Avery arrived after driving 12 hours from NJ.

First picture

Being weighed

Grandma Carolyn, Mommy and Avery

A little less swollen

Because my water had been leaking for more than 18 hours before Avery was delivered we had to stay in the hospital for at least 48 hours so that they could make sure she did not have any infections. We were so excited when we got to leave the hospital on Tuesday afternoon and bring Avery home for the first time.

Ready to go home

First Car Ride