Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a very low key Valentine's Day this year. My mom flew in to town that morning to come help us with the baby. So we spent the day just hanging around the house and relaxing. Andrew and I did go out quickly that night to get hot fudge sundaes from McDonalds. Romantic, I know. 

Andrew was great and made sure to get something for Gavin before the baby came because he knew we would be a little preoccupied after. Gavin was very excited to open up his Valentine.

When I found out my due date everyone kept saying that I was going to have a Valentine's baby. I definitely did not want to have the baby on Valentine's Day. I thought that would be a very difficult birthday for a girl to have. So luckily she was not born on that day. But since she was born close to it, I can still call her our Valentine's baby! The colors pink and red are destined to be a big part of her life! One of my swimmers had given her this "My First Valentine's" outfit. It's super pink and ruffly, but I thought it was okay for this occasion!

I love this pose. I'm pretty sure she is flashing some sort of gang sign!

Making Cookies

Gavin has recently discovered the joy of making cookies!  He has started to bring us the shortening and vanilla and says "please?" How can you turn him down? We have also taught him that he always brings mom a spoonful of dough before you bake them. Good boy!

What's in a Name?

As soon as I found out that we were having a girl, I knew immediately what I wanted her middle name to be. There was never a question in my mind. It was going to be Camille. 

She was going to be named after this lovely lady:

Camille Jorgensen.

Camille was my roommate the year after I graduated from BYU. We lived together for a year. We had a lot of fun and I learned a lot from her. But the one thing that I owe Camille for the most is introducing me to Andrew! If you don't already know the story, Andrew and I met when Camille invited him and another friend to meet us at Lagoon. Camille had gone to high school with Andrew and they had remained good friends. We had a lot of fun that day at Lagoon and the rest is history!

Camille is such a great friend to both of us. We are so grateful that she is in our lives and that she is now a big part of Avery's life. We will always make sure that Avery knows who she is named after and what an awesome person she is!

We love you Camille!!

Hospital Days with Avery

Our hospital stay with Avery was much different than it was with Gavin. Not having the epidural made the recovery much quicker. It was nice to be able to get up and walk around right away. I also felt a lot more energized and emotionally put together. It was great to be able to really enjoy those first few days together. 

(This post is really long, but I want to record everything that happened while we were in the hospital so we can remember it all!)

I love this picture. Her face is still pretty swolen from the delivery.

Here are a couple of videos from those first few hours.

One story I forgot to include in the delivery post was that Andrew really wanted some Haribo gummies to eat while we were at the hospital. He was planning on going to the store to get some on Thursday while Gavin was napping. But Gavin never went down for a nap. Then we ended up going to the hospital and Andrew never got a chance to get his gummies. He complained about it the entire time I was in labor!! So as soon as we were in our room, he went to the car to get our bags and took a little detour across the street to get some gummies. He was finally happy. He now had a baby girl and some Haribo.

When we had Gavin we used the nursery at the hospital. He stayed there at night and they would bring him to our room every couple of hours to eat. It was nice to be able to get some sleep and to not stress about how he was doing. I think I would have stayed awake the entire time just staring at him, making sure that he was breathing and doing okay. It worked for us. We definitely planned on doing the same thing this time around. But sometime in the last 2 1/2 years the hospital switched to a room-in philosophy. When they did all of Avery's tests in our room and then told us to call them if we needed anything, I was a little surprised. When I asked her about having Avery stay in the nursery she gave us a "oh, you're one of those terrible parents that don't want to stay with your baby" kind of looks. She said that she wasn't going to say that the nursery was not available, but that they strongly encourage you to keep your baby with you in your room at all times. Partly out of guilt, we agreed. It ended up being really nice to have her in the room with us. She slept so well that we were also able to sleep. I also was a lot more relaxed and didn't feel like I had to hover the whole time. I knew she would be okay.

We received these beautiful flowers from one of my favorite swim team families, the McCrarys. It was so nice to have something to really brighten up the room!

Annette made this cute hat for Avery to keep her warm in the hospital. 

I tried to do a little photo shoot with her, but she was less than cooperative. She just covered her face the whole time. I'm afraid it's a sign of things to come. I can just see her in 10 years not wanting to ever have her picture taken!

I finally got her to cooperate a little bit.

I love this super chubby face! She really isn't as chubby as the pictures make her look! (I am hoping that is the same for me!)

We spent all of our time at the hospital relaxing, sleeping, eating and watching TV. For some reason the show "Phineas and Ferb" was on all day long, every day. Andrew loves that show so he was so happy! We also watched the movie "Notting Hill" and "Airbender."

When we had Gavin we spent a majority of our time in the hospital trying to decide on his name. This time we had decided on Avery's name within the first 12 hours. We didn't know for sure what we were going to name her when we went in to the hospital. We had it narrowed down to about 4 or 5 names. But Avery was always the front runner. Once she was born we both just decided that we really wanted that to be her name and so we made the decision! It was great to not have to stress about it but to be able to relax and know that she had a name that we loved.

I took this video of Andrew with her. So sweet.

One of the things that I love about our hospital is the room service! I am able to order breakfast, lunch and dinner and they bring it all to my room. It's nice because they have a pretty extensive menu and you can order as much as you want!! We would always order enough for Andrew and I to share. The second night we were there we went to order dinner at 7:15 and they had closed at 7:00!! Who ends dinner at 7:00? Luckily our good friends, the Devere's had ordered a pizza for us. They had brought us a pizza at the hospital with Gavin so I guess it is now a tradition! We were also able to finally convince the charge nurse to give Andrew a voucher to go to the cafeteria and get more food. They had given us one the night before because we didn't get down to our room from the delivery until about midnight. But this nurse did not want to give us one. She made Andrew go with our nurse assistant and really limited what we could get. The next night the nurse called us at about 6:00 to remind us to order our dinner. I guess we really made an impression on them! That night the Eckersley's had also brought us some food from Rubios. We have the best friends!

The Eckersleys: Avery's first visitors!

We were supposed to go home sometime on Saturday. That morning they did the bilirubin test for jaundice. The results were a little high so they ordered the blood test and were waiting to hear back from the pediatrician as to what she wanted to do. We went to the discharge class where they teach us how to take care of the baby, etc. While we were there the nurse came and pulled me out. She told me that the pediatrician wanted us to keep Avery there an extra day/night. Because I was being discharged that day we would have to go home without her. They immediately took Avery to put her in the bilibed to help with the jaundice. I had to go back in to the class and sit there, trying not to cry. I knew that jaundice is a very common thing and I knew that she would be okay. But the thought of having to go home without her, having to leave her there at the hospital, just tore me apart. It was everything I could do to not break down in the middle of that room. Luckily I did make it to the end of the class before that happened.

After the class we went back to our room and they brought Avery in with us. She had to stay in the bed at all times, except when I fed her. They said that even if she started crying that we couldn't take her out. Luckily she never cried because I don't think I could have just left her there being sad. We had to be out of our room by midnight that night. So we were planning on staying until midnight and then coming back first thing in the morning.

Because it was Saturday, Dr. Matsuda was off and one of his partners was supposed to come discharge me. She came earlier that morning and I was in the restroom. She told Andrew she would be right back. We waited for her to come back and she never did. Finally about 6 hours later the nurse called her and she said that she forgot to come back! She said that I could just go home. It made me glad that she wasn't my doctor!

We enjoyed the last few hours that we had in the hospital with Avery. We were so tired and wanted to go to sleep, but we wanted to stay as long as we could with her. I fed her one last time at about 11:00. Then the nurse came in and took her and began all the paperwork for us to leave. We were finally ready to go at 11:40pm. I was exhausted and just wanted to go home. Because of hospital policy I had to wait for them to get a wheelchair to take me out. Andrew left so that he could carry all of the bags out and pull the car out to the front. I sat in the room and waited for the wheelchair. I waited and waited and waited! After 30 minutes I started to wonder if they were ever coming. I didn't want to be annoying and bother them, but I felt like it had been way too long! I was so tired and just wanted to go home. About 5 minutes later someone knocked on the door, but it was the cleaning crew! I told her that I would happily leave and that I was capable of just walking out. She said she would go see what was going on. I followed her out in to the hallway. She was at the nurses station and then I see my nurse come rushing down the hallway. She was super apologetic and said the charge nurse had told her that she had called transportation and that it was taken care of. Again I told her that I could just walk out by myself. She said she would do it herself. So she grabbed a wheelchair and took me out. So 40 minutes later, I was finally leaving the hospital. I was so tired, frustrated and sad to be leaving Avery. I tried to not cry until I got in the car, but I only made it about half way there. The nurse was reassuring me that Avery would be okay, and I tried to tell her that I knew that she was fine, that wasn't the issue.

Everyone told me that the silver lining in all of this was that we would be able to go home and get some good sleep. I knew that was not going to happen though. We came home, had to get situated, and then I had to wake up every few hours to pump since they would be supplementing Avery in the hospital. We called the nursery when I would wake up to make sure that she was okay. They told us that she was doing great, so that was reassuring. We planned to be there for her 9:00 feeding the next morning. We had told the nursery that we would be there. When we spoke to them before we left the house they said they had redone the test and that her numbers were now in the intermediate low risk so that was good news. They were just waiting for the pediatrician to come do her rounds to decide what she wanted to do, but it looked like she would be able to come home that day. I was so relieved. I did not want to spend the day in the hospital waiting room, only seeing Avery long enough to feed her. When we were about 5 minutes away from the hospital the nursery called us and said that the Doctor had checked her out and was ready to send her home!! We told her that we were almost there so she said she would wait for us to talk to us.

We got to the hospital and it was so great to see Avery again! She never really looked yellow so we didn't notice a big difference in her. I fed her while we waited for the Pediatrician. She came and gave us instructions and told us that she was very happy with the progress that Avery had made. We were so happy!! I wanted to get pictures of getting Avery ready to take home. Because we were in the nursery with other babies we weren't sure if we could take pictures, so I had Andrew try to take them very discretely with the cell phone.

I was so completely exhausted here, but at the same time so incredibly happy!!

We wrapped up our little baby girl, put her in her car seat and we left the hospital, together!

I am so grateful for all of the wonderful doctors, nurses and everyone else at the hospital! We were all very well taken care of. We had great care and we knew that Avery was safe and loved by everyone.  I am always impressed by health care workers and their dedication. Thank you to all of you!!

Boy Meets Girl

We were very blessed to have our good friends Brittany and Dave take Gavin the whole time that we were in the hospital. Gavin loves to go play with Betsy so we knew that he would be okay. It was so nice to not have to worry about him and if he was okay. 

The day after Avery was born, Andrew went and picked up Gavin and took him to breakfast. He talked to him about coming to visit the new baby and Mom. He was very excited to come. When he brought him in to the room he was noticeably excited to be there. He became very excited to see the baby. He started saying "hold baby." We had him come sit up by me and then put Avery in his arms. After about 2 seconds he was done. He just put his arms out to the side and was all done. I guess it was not as exciting as he thought it would be. It was still a very sweet moment to have the two of them meet for the very first time.

We had brought gifts for Avery to give Gavin each time he came to visit in the hospital. So when we gave him his gift from the baby he was very happy. He spent a little bit of time with us in the hospital and then Brittany came and picked him up.

Later that day they brought Gavin back to spend a little more time with us. Again, Gavin was initially excited to be there, but the excitement quickly wore off. We had another present for him so that made him happy.

We were able to take our first new family pictures. Gavin was eating an apple which he wouldn't put down, and he really wouldn't look at the camera. There was something on the TV that he wouldn't look away from.

I finally took the apple away.

It was so nice to have our little family together. It was a little overwhelming to think that we would have this brand new little one to take care of, as well as a very active 2 1/2 year old. But I know that Gavin is going to be such a good older brother. He is going to take such good care of Avery. We are so blessed and I am excited for our new little family!

Another huge thank you to Brittany for taking Gavin. It definitely could not have been easy to have him for 2 1/2 days. I don't know what I would have done if I had to be worrying about Gavin being okay. It was also nice that Andrew was able to stay with me the whole time and help me with Avery. We are blessed with great friends!

Avery's Birth Story

After my doctor appointment on Thursday we went and picked up Gavin and then went to lunch at Panera. I wasn't feeling great, but I thought it was all in my head since Dr. Matsuda had said that maybe things would happen that night. We came home and put Gavin down for a nap. I knew I needed to rest so I just tried to relax. At about 2:00 I started having contractions. They still weren't really painful, but they were definitely different than they had been. They were a lot more uncomfortable and I also started cramping a little bit. I started timing them and they were consistently 5 minutes apart. Over the next couple of hours I just kept debating whether or not I should go in. Everything I heard and read said that you should go in when the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart for an hour or more. I think I knew that this was real, but I just didn't want to go in too early. I didn't want to be stuck in the hospital, not progressing, and have to be put on pitocin.

I didn't tell a lot of people, because I always felt like they were judging me, but I wanted to have this baby natural, without an epidural. I had wanted to do it with Gavin, but ended up being pressured in to having the epidural by the nurse. I always regretted it. I have nothing against epidurals. I think they are wonderful and safe and a great option. This was just something that I have always wanted to do. I wanted to have control over the situation. So that was one reason why I didn't want to go in to the hospital "too early."

The contractions were staying pretty consistent. 4-5 minutes apart. They weren't necessarily becoming any stronger, but they were staying strong. I realized it had been about 3 hours and it was 4:55. I thought that maybe I should quickly call my doctor's office before they closed at 5:00. I called and spoke to the nurse, and she said that Dr. Matsuda wanted me to go ahead and go in to the hospital to at least be checked.  We gathered all of our stuff and headed out the door! We dropped Gavin off at Dave and Brittany's place. It was difficult to leave him there, knowing that the next time I saw him, everything would be different. I knew that he had no idea what was going on and I was just worried for him.

Driving to the hospital. I love the big heart that they had out front.

I don't know if it was because I was busy and focusing on other things, but I seriously felt like from the moment I called the doctor, the contractions stopped. I felt like they were just going to send me home! But I knew since we had already called that we needed to go in. We got to the hospital at about 6:00. They have valet but I told Andrew that I wanted to just park and walk in. I really didn't want to rush things! We went in to triage and checked in. I kept telling them that I didn't know if I needed to stay or not, that the contractions felt like they had actually stopped. They hooked me up to the machines and checked me. I had progressed to a 5 (I was at a 4 at my appointment earlier that day) and was 100% effaced. When I told the nurse that I didn't want to have an epidural she suggested that we didn't stay there at the hospital. She said that we could go back home and come back when things seemed to be progressing more, or we could even just hang around the hospital grounds. I didn't feel good about going home, but thought that walking around the hospital and going to get something to eat sounded like a good idea. (I hadn't eaten anything since lunch. I knew I should have eaten before we left, but with Gavin I threw everything up and I didn't want to do that again.) So that nurse then turned me over to another nurse. Unfortunately this new nurse was not very supportive of me leaving the room. When I told her that I didn't want an epidural she was clearly very annoyed. She tried to tell me all of the reasons why I should get an epidural. She told me that if I were to leave that when I come back it might be too late to get an epidural if I changed my mind. I told her that I wasn't going to change my mind. So then she said that I could only leave after she did all of my paper work and blood work and everything else. This took forever! My doctor came in and checked on me. He told me that once I was ready that he wanted to just go ahead and break my water. At this point the contractions were becoming a lot more painful and more frequent. Most of the time I felt like it was just one continual contraction. They said that they were only a minute and a half apart so there really wasn't time to relax in between.

Here I am in the labor room.

Andrew wanted an action shot.

Finally they finished everything and they took me to my delivery room. I got settled in there and Dr. Matsuda came in and broke my water at about 8:10pm. I was a little nervous about how this would feel. My water had broken on it's own with Gavin so this would be a new experience for me. Immediately after, the contractions became extremely painful! I couldn't believe how quickly they changed. This is when I had to seriously consider whether I wanted the epidural or not. I knew that I would progress quickly and I wanted to just push through it. Every contraction was more painful than the last one. Because I wasn't hooked up to the epidural I was able to stand up and walk around a little bit. That seemed to help. Andrew was super supportive the whole time. He told me that he would support whatever decision I made about the epidural. He was awesome through the whole thing and helped me focus on my breathing through each contraction. I seriously could not believe how painful the whole thing was! I knew it wasn't going to feel great, but I don't think I was prepared for what it actually felt like. The biggest problem I had was that I couldn't relax in between contractions and I wasn't getting enough oxygen through my body. My hands cramped up completely and I could not relax! Andrew and the nurse were trying to massage my hands but they would not relax. That was definitely the most frustrating part. My leg muscle also started to cramp up but I didn't want to tell anyone about it. I'm not really sure why. I think I was afraid they would tell me I had to get an epidural to relax me or something. I then started feeling like I was ready to push. I asked my doctor to come in and check and he said that I was at a 10 during contractions so I was definitely ready. He said that one or two more contractions and I would be ready to push.

At about 9:00pm I began to push. I can't really think of the words to describe how the whole thing felt. It was such a different experience than with Gavin. I could literally feel every movement that she made as she descended. Everyone was so supportive and so great. There was just me, Andrew, my nurse, the baby nurse and Dr. Matsuda in the room. I felt like I had my own personal cheering section! They were all encouraging and telling me I was doing great (even though I felt like I wasn't!). The pain was so intense and so incredible. I kept saying (yelling?) "I can't do this!" I seriously just wanted it to stop. I kept thinking that I didn't want her to come out. I just wanted it to be over. I told Andrew that this was the dumbest decision I had ever made. I was completely exhausted. One funny thing was that I was so hungry! I didn't think I would notice the hunger, but I did. In between contractions I would just look at Andrew and tell him how hungry I was! I kept drinking water but it wasn't good enough! Luckily the pushing didn't last too long. Just when I felt like I literally could not do it anymore, her head came out. I remember hearing the nurse say "...cord around the neck ..." and that made me want to push harder to get her all the way out so that I could hear her cry and know that she was okay. One more push and I felt her slide all the way out. She let out a little cry and I felt so relieved! She was born at 9:16pm. I immediately felt all the pain go away. I then felt this overwhelming sense of excitement. I had done it! I had given birth with no pain medication at all! I had a beautiful healthy baby girl and I had done it! Andrew said that he would now call me "champ" (although he hasn't). He also said that I yelled really loudly. I think he might have been embarrassed! But I was just so proud, I didn't even care!

They took Avery to get her cleaned up and checked out. I could see her and see that she had a little head of dark hair. She was crying pretty loudly, which was good to hear. They weighed her and she was 8 lbs. 4.5 oz. She was 21 inches long. While they were cleaning her up, I had to deliver the placenta. I was so nervous that it was going to hurt and I really didn't want to do it. But my doctor assured me that after what I had just done that it would be super easy. It wasn't that bad. It was still weird to me that I could feel everything! As soon as she was all cleaned up they brought her over to me to hold her. That made the whole thing worth it. She was so sweet and so warm and just cuddled right up to me.

She calmed down quickly and stayed that way. She was super cuddly and just wanted to be swaddled and held.

I had to stay in the delivery room for about an hour. I was tired and hungry, but we were loving the time we were able to spend with Avery. After that hour we went to our room and settled in. I thought she would want to sleep but she was so alert and awake.

We are so grateful that everything went smoothly. I could not have asked for a better delivery! She is absolutely perfect and we were immediately in love!

She's Here!

She's here!!

Avery Camille Jarvis

Born Thursday, February 9th at 9:16pm

8 lbs. 4.5 oz., 21 inches

I think it's safe to say we are all in love!