Well, Ava is one month old tomorrow and I can't believe it. She's growing so fast and is getting more and more advanced every day. She's getting so much better at things like picking up her head and smiling... it's amazing. I better not blink, she'll be 18 before I know it (so scary).
Becoming a mom is the best thing to ever happen to me - despite the large lack of sleep. Rich and I feel so blessed to have her here. Despite the "surprise", we wouldn't trade it for the world. We just adore her and Rich says that she's too cute, she'll end up getting away with everything ;)
So much has happened lately, with her birth and the passing of Mom (as Dad calls the circle of life), I wish I could be at home. I miss my family and am so ready to go back (Christmas, I can't wait!).
Ava's sleeping right now - she always looks so peaceful. She'll be keeping me up in no-time and I've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning. lol. She'll have her one month check-up on thursday as well.
I finished my master's degree in education on sunday and I'm very, very happy with myself. Poor Rich had to put up with me saying I'd quit every week. Luckily he threated to not help pay my loans back if I quit, so I decided to stick with it.. lol, no but really, I'm so glad I didn't take time off like I said I was going to - Now I'm finished!! Whoohoo!
Anyway, I hope everyone's doing well and i can't wait to see everyone soon
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The story of Ava's arrival
Being she's a month old tomorrow, I know I'm a little late, but here's a copy of her birth story. I hope you enjoy and I promise to try to keep the blog up more now ;)
Alright, here's the story :) It'll be long, I'm sure.I woke up at 9am Saturday morning (the day before her due date) with cramping and other signs that I was in labor. But, since I had a false alarm 2 weeks before, I didn't hold my breath and went on with my day. My sister-in-law Heather (thank you for EVERYTHING) came into town on Friday to help out with things, so on Saturday, we headed out to town at around noon or so to go walking in the mall (it was nasty outside) to see if it actually would get things moving. So we were there around half an hour, then went to lowes to pick out a new color for the baby's room since we moved, then went to walmart to find Heather a reading lamp for her room since we didn't have one (this lamp officially caught on fire about 2 weeks later).. After that, I was hungry, so we decided to take a trip to Dairy Queen (nutritious right?). I got a chocolate covered strawberry waffle bowl sundae and Rich and Heather laughed at me b/c I'd said before that that I wanted a milkshake. lol. After that we headed home because I felt the need to rest and my contractions were picking up.
We got home at around 4, I went and napped for about an hour, still feeling them. I didn't sleep much and when Heather came in around 5 to see how I was doing, we decided it would be best to head to the hospital.We got to the hospital and got checked into a room at around 6pm. I was dialated to a 4 and contracting regularly, so they decided to keep me. I was thrilled, although quite uncomfortable. At around 9pm, the anesthesiologist came in and did my epiduryl, which felt pretty good at the time. They also broke my water around 9 too. The contractions starting becoming painful around midnight, I got a break at around 3:30am for an hour or so (didn't sleep) At around 5am, my contractions starting getting really painful, but I wasn't quite progressing fast enough and was in a lot of pain. They gave me pitocin to get things moving along and WOW the contractions really started to hurt. Finally, at around 6, they decided to let me push since I was at 9.5cms and nearly fully effaced. Well, I pushed for 3 hours, she moved down to a +1 station and eventually jumped BACK up to a 0 station.. WELL CRAP..After me BEGGING for it to stop (the pressure was unbelievable, especially w/out an epiduryl b/c it ran out), they talked to the doctor and he told them to let me labor down for a while.. so after pushing for so long.. NO MORE PUSHING. well, HOLY CRAP THAT HURT. So at that point, I didn't care about the screaming b/c I was in so much pain. Finally at 10am, (25 hours later), the doctor comes in and informs me that he thinks the baby is too big and that she's NOT getting past my tiny pelvis. The recommendation: C-section. Rich was a little nervous, but at this point, I was so ready for it to end and so exhausted that I was welcome to see a light at the end of the long, long tunnel.They got me prepped (anesthesia is a fantastic thing) and I was numb from the upper chest down, in order to not feel any pain from the procedure. Eventually, Rich and Heather joined me in the OR for support. Once they started cutting, I felt absolutely NO pain, only pressure and tugging (THAT WAS WEIRD!). About 10 minutes later, I hear some suction (which apparently came from trying to get Ava out of the birth canal) and wala! They pulled Ava out and I immediately heard her cry. I've never been so happy in my life. They brought her over to me, I kissed her on the head and they whisked her away to the nursery for her assessment. They had Rich and Heather go with her since I needed to be sewn back up. The anesthesiologist (different from the one who gave the epi) gave me something to take the edge off of the pressure of being sewn up (once again, it didn't hurt). Whatever it was, it was AWESOME. lol. I didn't sleep, but definitely relaxed a lot more. After putting me back together (lol) , we got the call that she weighed 8lbs, 11.5oz - A BIG girl for my size, definitely takes after her daddy. The dr. then came around to talk to me and told me that she would have definitely been too big for me to push out and he's very confident in the decision to have me have a c-section. That was a relief. They put staples in me, that's definitely interesting.
Ava had some fluid in her lungs, which is common in c section babies, so she was put on oxygen and given an APGAR score of an 8 (out of 10), after being pulled off oxygen, she was a 9 (no baby is a 10). Perfect!They sent me to recovery for an hour while Ava got weighed, assessed and her footprints done (she has big feet). I then went up to the post partum rooms where both Rich and Ava joined me and I breastfed for the first time (it was AMAZING). Although frustrating at times, it definitely is worth it.
We stayed a couple days while I recovered, got walking around and was able to walk to the bathroom on my own (wow, humiliating). We were sent home on the 14th with a bili-blanket since she started to jaundice. We took her home, wrapped her up in it, fed her lots of fluids (even supplementing with formula) and hoped for the best - we were to return to the hospital lab in the morning to test her again and see if her numbers were lower. We went in the next morning at around noon, got her heel pricked and went to lunch. At around 2pm, Rich got the call from Dr. Luu (the pediatrician) that her numbers were still climbing and that she needed UV light trreatment. I cried like a baby b/c I couldn't stand the thought of something being wrong and my hormones are all over the place right now.. We went into the drs. office, he told us to go over to the hospital and that we would stay 2 days at most in order to flood the jaundice out of her body. We got here around 4pm and have been here ever since. We did get word that after only about 45 minutes under the light, her numbers went from a 17.8 to a 16.2. We're hoping for even better results in the morning (she needs to be a 12).
Anyway, that's our story :) In the end, the c-section was definitely the best choice for both of us and even with the soreness, I couldn't be happier :)
Written while we were still in the hospital for her Jaundice. Of course, it's 4 weeks later and she's very, very healthy :)
Alright, here's the story :) It'll be long, I'm sure.I woke up at 9am Saturday morning (the day before her due date) with cramping and other signs that I was in labor. But, since I had a false alarm 2 weeks before, I didn't hold my breath and went on with my day. My sister-in-law Heather (thank you for EVERYTHING) came into town on Friday to help out with things, so on Saturday, we headed out to town at around noon or so to go walking in the mall (it was nasty outside) to see if it actually would get things moving. So we were there around half an hour, then went to lowes to pick out a new color for the baby's room since we moved, then went to walmart to find Heather a reading lamp for her room since we didn't have one (this lamp officially caught on fire about 2 weeks later).. After that, I was hungry, so we decided to take a trip to Dairy Queen (nutritious right?). I got a chocolate covered strawberry waffle bowl sundae and Rich and Heather laughed at me b/c I'd said before that that I wanted a milkshake. lol. After that we headed home because I felt the need to rest and my contractions were picking up.
We got home at around 4, I went and napped for about an hour, still feeling them. I didn't sleep much and when Heather came in around 5 to see how I was doing, we decided it would be best to head to the hospital.We got to the hospital and got checked into a room at around 6pm. I was dialated to a 4 and contracting regularly, so they decided to keep me. I was thrilled, although quite uncomfortable. At around 9pm, the anesthesiologist came in and did my epiduryl, which felt pretty good at the time. They also broke my water around 9 too. The contractions starting becoming painful around midnight, I got a break at around 3:30am for an hour or so (didn't sleep) At around 5am, my contractions starting getting really painful, but I wasn't quite progressing fast enough and was in a lot of pain. They gave me pitocin to get things moving along and WOW the contractions really started to hurt. Finally, at around 6, they decided to let me push since I was at 9.5cms and nearly fully effaced. Well, I pushed for 3 hours, she moved down to a +1 station and eventually jumped BACK up to a 0 station.. WELL CRAP..After me BEGGING for it to stop (the pressure was unbelievable, especially w/out an epiduryl b/c it ran out), they talked to the doctor and he told them to let me labor down for a while.. so after pushing for so long.. NO MORE PUSHING. well, HOLY CRAP THAT HURT. So at that point, I didn't care about the screaming b/c I was in so much pain. Finally at 10am, (25 hours later), the doctor comes in and informs me that he thinks the baby is too big and that she's NOT getting past my tiny pelvis. The recommendation: C-section. Rich was a little nervous, but at this point, I was so ready for it to end and so exhausted that I was welcome to see a light at the end of the long, long tunnel.They got me prepped (anesthesia is a fantastic thing) and I was numb from the upper chest down, in order to not feel any pain from the procedure. Eventually, Rich and Heather joined me in the OR for support. Once they started cutting, I felt absolutely NO pain, only pressure and tugging (THAT WAS WEIRD!). About 10 minutes later, I hear some suction (which apparently came from trying to get Ava out of the birth canal) and wala! They pulled Ava out and I immediately heard her cry. I've never been so happy in my life. They brought her over to me, I kissed her on the head and they whisked her away to the nursery for her assessment. They had Rich and Heather go with her since I needed to be sewn back up. The anesthesiologist (different from the one who gave the epi) gave me something to take the edge off of the pressure of being sewn up (once again, it didn't hurt). Whatever it was, it was AWESOME. lol. I didn't sleep, but definitely relaxed a lot more. After putting me back together (lol) , we got the call that she weighed 8lbs, 11.5oz - A BIG girl for my size, definitely takes after her daddy. The dr. then came around to talk to me and told me that she would have definitely been too big for me to push out and he's very confident in the decision to have me have a c-section. That was a relief. They put staples in me, that's definitely interesting.
Ava had some fluid in her lungs, which is common in c section babies, so she was put on oxygen and given an APGAR score of an 8 (out of 10), after being pulled off oxygen, she was a 9 (no baby is a 10). Perfect!They sent me to recovery for an hour while Ava got weighed, assessed and her footprints done (she has big feet). I then went up to the post partum rooms where both Rich and Ava joined me and I breastfed for the first time (it was AMAZING). Although frustrating at times, it definitely is worth it.
We stayed a couple days while I recovered, got walking around and was able to walk to the bathroom on my own (wow, humiliating). We were sent home on the 14th with a bili-blanket since she started to jaundice. We took her home, wrapped her up in it, fed her lots of fluids (even supplementing with formula) and hoped for the best - we were to return to the hospital lab in the morning to test her again and see if her numbers were lower. We went in the next morning at around noon, got her heel pricked and went to lunch. At around 2pm, Rich got the call from Dr. Luu (the pediatrician) that her numbers were still climbing and that she needed UV light trreatment. I cried like a baby b/c I couldn't stand the thought of something being wrong and my hormones are all over the place right now.. We went into the drs. office, he told us to go over to the hospital and that we would stay 2 days at most in order to flood the jaundice out of her body. We got here around 4pm and have been here ever since. We did get word that after only about 45 minutes under the light, her numbers went from a 17.8 to a 16.2. We're hoping for even better results in the morning (she needs to be a 12).
Anyway, that's our story :) In the end, the c-section was definitely the best choice for both of us and even with the soreness, I couldn't be happier :)
Written while we were still in the hospital for her Jaundice. Of course, it's 4 weeks later and she's very, very healthy :)
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