Ava's Birth Story

The last few weeks have been dragging by! Since my last post, I've had weekly Doctor's appointments and even went back to hospital for (yet another, the third) false alarm when I thought that maybe my water had broken (it hadn't). Until my last appointment on Tuesday, I hadn't progressed any further than my 1.5 cm dilated and 50% effacement. The 13 days early that Addison was born, came and went with no action from Miss Ava other than the nearly constant, irregular, slightly painful, and very annoying (since they didn't do anything to get my baby here) contractions that I'd been having since 35 weeks. Needless to say as my due date got closer and closer, I was getting more and more impatient and antsy to get this baby out to love on!

So, as mentioned, my last office appointment was on Tuesday at 39 weeks 4 days with Dr. Miyazaki (one of my favorites). When he came in the room he asked if I had any questions or concerns. I immediately asked him at what point we could talk about induction. I really didn't think he would entertain the idea since I wasn't past my due date and didn't have any medical need to be induced. I was just uncomfortable and mental exhausted of waiting on baby to come! I did also have a slight concern that Miss Ava was going to be a big baby, much bigger than Addison was, so the thought of going up to or over my due date made me a bit nervous. Anyway, Dr Miyazaki didn't rule out the option of inducing depending on how much progress I was making so he proceeded with the cervical check. I had actually progressed to 3 cm and still 50% effaced, so that meant I was "favorable" for an induction. Then he asked me when I wanted to be induced. Without hesitation I replied, "Today??" I went into the appointment assuming that #1, they wouldn't let me be induced, or at least not anytime soon, #2, expecting to have not made any progress toward labor, and #3, fully expecting to get laughed at for be so impatient. So I was completely taken aback by him pretty much leaving it up to me and when he said he'd go call to see what he could make happen, Jordan and I just looked at each other and laughed giddily! A nurse came back in the room and told us to be at the hospital the next morning at 7:30 to start pitocin! I cannot tell you how excited and slightly nervous that made me. I know I was smiling like a fool when we left the office.

I went back to work, just to sign out for the day and wrap up all my loose ends. Then we came home and I nested and cleaned and basicly didn't sit down for the next 6 hours (which left me in lots of back pain, making me that much more grateful to have my induction appointment the next morning). We told Addison that Ava would be coming out the next day and that she would finally get to meet her baby sister. She was very excited and asked all evening when tomorrow was.

We got to the hospital 15 minutes early (neither Jordan or I really got any sleep) after getting some good Bojangles breakfast. I got in the room, met my wonderful nurse Missy and waited on the doctor (Dr. Helman) to order the pitocin.I had been having lots of contractions all evening and the night before, so I was half expecting to be told that I was in labor and didn't need to pitocin. Missy checked me and I was still at 3 cm and 50% effaced, so we got the Pitocin drip started at about 8:45. They told me that I could get my epidural at any point after that but I wanted to try to wait a bit before getting it, not to be brave or anything, just because I know it could have a tendenacy to slow things down. The pitocin works progressively meaning they start it low and up it every 30 minutes or so and moniter the contractions to make sure they don't get too strong. I could tell the contractions were getting more painful and closer together, but I still wasn't in a ton of pain yet.

Missy checked me to see if any progress had been made around 12. Sadly, I had only moved to a 3.5. I went ahead and asked for the epidural, knowing I didn't want to wait until I was in a ton of pain. Getting an epidural is a somewhat painful process but totally worth it. It kicked in pretty quickly but not to the point that I couldn't feel anything. I could still lift my legs and move them around to an extent. Mom and Kyla were in the room by that point and Jordan and Kyla left to get lunch.

While they were gone Dr. Helman came by (about 1:00) and told me she was going to go ahead and break my water to speed things up. I don't know if this will gross any one out or not but when she broke the membrane sack, there was a TON of water that gushed out. And kept gushing out. She and Missy were just amazed at the amount of liquid that came out of me. It took a full two minutes for the gush to stop and turn into just a trickle whenever I moved or laughed. Before leaving the room Dr. Helman predicted we'd have the baby here by 5 that evening. I think my stomach got noticably smaller after all of that water came out. We made guesses about what we thought Ava would weigh, Jordan said 7 lbs 8 ozs, Kyla: 7 lbs 9 ozs, Mom: 7 lbs 10 ozs and me: 8 lbs 2 ozs. Kyla and Jordan got back and Mom left to get her lunch. I started feeling like I needed to poop but didn't think much about it.

At 2:30 Missy came in to check on me. She inspected the chart that measures my contractions and the baby's heart beat and just said, "Hum, interesting..." Jordan and I were both asking "What exactly does that mean??" She said that I was showing signs of "earlies" which I had no clue what that was so she explained that it was when the baby's heartbeat was slowing with each contraction and that it happens right before the baby is ready to be born. I was thinking, "Umm, well that can't be right because there is no way that I've progressed that quickly..." So she did the internal and said that I was at 9.5 cm. That's right, 9.5!! In just an hour and a half I went from 3.5 to 9.5. She asked if I could feel any pressure or urges to push. I realized that I had indeed been feeling both but I just thought I needed to poop! We decided to move my bed up so that I was sitting and gravity could take care of getting me the rest of the way to 10. I was feeling enormous pressure and big urgesto push with each contraction, which were about 1.5 to 2 minutes apart. she told me that once I felt the pressure and urge constantly than it would be time to push. It did not take long at all.

I had my epidural, of course, but I was feeling lots of discomfort and some pain. I didn't ask to up it though, because with Addison I was so numb that I couldn't feel any thing at all and the pushing lasted a bit longer, probably because I didn't have a clue what I was doing. So Dr. Helman arrived and we started pushing. Even with my epidural it was a pretty painful delivery for me. I could feel myself tearing with each push as she was coming out. But within about 10 minutes, Miss Ava Elizabeth Cline was born at 3:09 PM!!

She weighed 8 lbs 4 oz, 21 inches long. She is a beautiful baby with a dusting of short, straight, medium brown hair and dark blue eyes. We're trying to predict how she will change and what she'll look like as she grows.

I don't really think she looks much like Addison at all, and even being 1.5 pounds bigger, Ava has a much smaller face and head than Addison's. There are moments where I think Ava looks just like Addison did, mainly while she's sleeping. It is amazing to be experiencing the high of being a new mom and holding that sweet little baby for the first time (and trying to figure out what to do with her!).

Ava has been a great baby, nursing wonderfully, sleeping pretty well (and a lot during the day, not quite as much at night), and really doesn't cry a whole lot. She spends lots of her time in laps or arms, and not as much in her little bed. She is taking a paci well, much better than Addison did as a newborn. I'm feeling good and normally not in too much pain.We should be getting discahrged to go home to Big Sister Addison soon!

Addison came to meet her baby sister on Wednesday evening when Ava was just a couple of hours old. As soon as she came into the room, she announced to everyone, "I'm a Big Sister!!!" She was so excited and immediately had to hold her baby sister. From that point on, Addison was very intent on keeping Ava and didn't want anyone else to hold her. Addison was super intrigued with Ava's "itty bitty teeny tiny hands and feet" and kept wanting to kiss them. She is a great and loving big sister and I hope that she stays that way as she realizes that Ava is going to be stealing away quite a bit of her attention.

 

We are so excited that Ava is here and healthy and thriving! I've been waiting for so long to be starting this journey and am just beyond thrilled and super thankful to be here!!