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!