Avery's birth

I'm not sure where to start Avery's labor story.  Perhaps it was 2 weeks ago when I started getting irregular contractions regularly.  They were quite the tease and by this weekend, I was ready to be done with contractions, pregnancy, and the well-meaning questions of family and friends.  Friday night I woke up around midnight with contractions.  I slept fitfully (with some crazy dreams including tornados and having to say goodbye to Brady in anticipation of my imminent death) until 3 when a strong contraction woke me up. I had a bowl of cereal and woke Eric up, breaking the news that today was the day we would have our baby!

I was wrong.

My goal was to make it until the morning before having to call for backup.  I packed me bag and read my book.  And was surprised when I woke up at 6:30 am.  Thankful to have gotten some sleep, but realizing that those two hours of sleep meant birth was a bit further off than I expected.  I had contractions all day, but not consistently and not super strong.  Just super annoying, especially when trying to figure out plans.  Will this baby come today? Tomorrow?  Where are the boys going to go? Should Eric's parents come?  Then just as my contractions were amping back up, I got word at 5 pm that the other Amy and Eric (my brother and his wife), just had their 3rd baby boy!  What fun it would be for the cousins to share a birthday!

Birth finally was on the horizon and we planned to drop Brady and Jackson off with our neighbors for their first sleepover.  They were very pumped to sleep at Micah's house.  I put them to bed together around 9:30 and my contractions were pretty strong at that point.  Brady couldn't understand why I couldn't immediately answer his every questions or respond to his every request for the last few hours and I didn't feel it was necessary to explain that in order to get his sibling out of my stomach, mommy had to feel a whole lot of pain.

So the short story is the boys went down, we went to the birthing center and had a baby 4 hours later.  The longer story is Brady cried until Gracie (age 11) and Micah (age 9) came to sleep with him and Jackson in their bed and I felt like crying until Avery (age 0) came to join us in the world.

The birthing center experience was great (or great under the circumstances).  It was so nice to just pull our car out front and walk right to our room. I remember filling out forms and checking in to the hospital with Jackson and being given a sticker with my name and "Labor and Delivery" typed on it for the person sent to come fetch me.  Like their might be some ambiguity about what I was doing there.  Eric has concerned about the longer drive to the birth center, especially if I was in labor during rush-hour.  At 10 pm, rush hour traffic was not a problem, but football game day traffic was.  After sitting at flashing yellow light for 5 minutes, Eric got out of the car, ran to the cop and asked him to flip the switch because his wife was in labor.  Only so many times you can legitimately use that card in your lifetime.

I did feel like having 2 previous children without medication helped a bit this time, at least I knew what to expect.  Contractions were painful, but I knew the stronger and closer they were, the closer I was to pushing.  Of my three kids, laboring with Avery was the best.  Until I got to the pushing.  "The third one just pops out!" people tell you.  I pushed only twice with Jackson, so I bought into this myth.

I'm not sure what made this one so challenging or why I struggled to push her out, but I'll just say that I am SUPER excited to know that my labor and delivery days are behind me.  I remember being in the bathtub (which felt really nice between contractions), and the midwife giving Eric instructions on how the birth was going to go down, since he was going to be the one to catch the baby.  I think he said something like, "this seems like a lot of work," to which he got the stink eye from his wife.

After some moments I wish not to relive, he pulled her out of the water, wander her to me, at which point I was able to make the assessment that "it" was a her!  Truly, I was just so happy to be done and holding a healthy baby, that the girl part wasn't as exciting as you might think.  But it was so wonderful to just hold her since it was my first baby not to be whisked away for suctioning.  We transferred to the bed, she nursed right away, Eric cut the chord, and we just hung out.  I really appreciated not being in a hospital because with the exception of quick and unobtrusive checks, they just left us alone. She was awake for over an hour, then we all fell asleep on the bed from 4-5, exhausted for different reasons.  I've never felt like I've needed sleep as much as I did for that hour, and woke up feeling refreshed.  We left a few hours later and swung by the Davis house on our way home to show Brady and Jackson their new sister.  We'd left our house at 10 pm and returned at 8 am.  Eric, the baby, and I all took a long nap before the craziness returned home (in the form of a 2 and 4-year-old).

I was a touch nervous about returning home so quickly, but I loved it, especially since back up arrived (in the form of Grandma and Pop) to entertain the boys that afternoon.  I'm feeling great and Avery is doing great as well.  Knock on wood, but she seems to be a fairly chill baby (pleasestaythatwaypleasestaythatwaypleasestaythatway).

Here are some pictures of her first days on earth!

 

Daddy!!!!!!! Daddy why can't you hear me?????