Avery's Birth Story

Avery's birth story actually started a week before she was born on Friday, March 29th- my due date. On my due date, my dad went in for an EKG because he felt a few chest pains. He had quadruple bypass surgery my senior year of college, so naturally, we were all a little worried. It turned out that he needed to have an immediate procedure that following Tuesday morning to identify what the problem was in his heart. I spent all day with my mom at Gwinnett Medical Center during the procedure on Tuesday, waiting to find out the next steps. It was pretty scary when they came back after the procedure and told us that it was bad- and that they didn't know what to do. The doctor then came back in 30 minutes later and told us there was another procedure they were going to try the next day (placing three stents using an impella device) to fix the blockage they found in one of his main arteries that the bypass wasn't able to correct. They told us it was extremely high risk, but it was our only option. There was even a chance that he could have a heart attack during it. Wow- I couldn't believe that all of this was happening...my whole family was very distraught and worried. I didn't sleep AT ALL that night and went back to the hospital at 6am on Wednesday morning before the next procedure. Jason took the day off work to be with us all at the hospital. We spent all morning praying and waiting until they were done with the procedure around 11am. THANKFULLY, it went way better then even the doctors thought. It was extremely successful and he was going to be released from the hospital the next morning (Thursday)- he could even walk out of the hospital and they expected almost no recovery time! Thank the LORD!! 

Well I was beyond exhausted- both physically and emotionally at this point. So Jason and I left the hospital around noon and went home to sleep. I laid down, having never been that tired in my life, and right away my water broke! I was in shock and disbelief. Was this really happening right now? How could I make it through labor? Wait, are we about to meet our little girl?!?! So we called my doctor and they told me to head to the hospital. I asked if I could shower because I hadn't since Tuesday morning, but they said no. I felt so nasty and did not want to start labor on that note, so I quickly showered before heading out =) We drove to the hospital and checked in at 3pm. This is when the adrenaline kicked in...and thank the Lord it did!! As much as we wanted to call our parents and tell them I was in labor, I couldn't bring myself to do it. My dad was just recovering from his heart procedure and my mom was by his side in the hospital and staying overnight. I didn't want to add the anxiousness/excitement to my dad's recovery and I didn't want my mom to feel like she needed to come be at the hospital- I wanted her to stay with my dad. So we decided to go into this ourselves and we didn't tell a soul until much much later...

My contractions hadn't started by 7pm and I wasn't dilated at all so they gave me some medicine to jump start them and expecting to give me some Pitocin a few hours later. That wasn't working very well so the medicine attempts stopped, but my contractions started around 7:45pm and never stopped...I explained to my doctor how I was running on 0 hours of sleep since Monday so she was a little concerned about me having enough energy to make it through labor. I labored through the contractions for about 2 hours until 10pm when they REALLY picked up and I asked for pain medicine. I was about 1cm dilated and had to wait until 4cm for the epidural, so they gave me morphine and an ambien to help me "sleep" until I made it to the epidural. From about 10pm to 12am I attempted to sleep in between each contraction- needless to say this wasn't very effective. The contractions were extremely intense and the intervals really picked up around 11pm. 

Finally at 12am, I was 3cm and begged for the epidural. Thankfully they agreed, and it was heavenly...at first. I couldn't feel my legs and everything was numb. It was great. The contractions totally went away for about 30 minutes- then I started feeling the contractions in my back. They hurt pretty bad, but no where close to what they were like in my stomach before the epidural. At some point, Jason said I actually fell asleep during the contractions for about thirty minutes. Jason said he got about 10 minutes of sleep during that time and that was it for the whole 20 hour labor process :( 

After this brief period of sleep, contractions continued and it was now it was around 3am and my back pain got A LOT worse...and I started feeling contractions in my stomach again. At 5am, I was about 8cm dilated. I was in so much pain again that I begged for another epidural. The epidural, a TON of ice, and Jason's constant support and encouragement was the only thing getting me through the contractions. The doctor agreed to give me another epidural as she told me the needle either fell out or moved. So in came the anesthesiologist around 5:30am with my second epidural. I didn't feel this one AT all- the needle or anything. About 15 minutes later, the contractions "went away" and I felt great again. At about 6:30am, I was 9cm dilated and the doctor told me we could potentially start pushing as soon as 30 minutes to an hour...so we decided it was time to call our parents. Thankfully my dad was being discharged! I asked him, "How do you feel about coming straight to another hospital?? =)" They were of course extremely excited and said they were heading over. 

The doctors were apparently wrong about me being able to start pushing so soon. I was able to fall asleep from 8am-9am...and when I woke up, I was 10cm dilated!! Around 9:30am I started to push! The pushing was not bad at all to me...maybe because of the second epidural. I had so much energy and excitement that I made it through the pushing smooth sailing (even cracking a few jokes!) =) After 20 hours of labor, our little precious Avery arrived at 11:06am!! She was 7lbs 2oz, 20 inches long...and just perfect. 

God's perfect timing continuously amazes me. The week before I was SO impatient for her to come, but I am so thankful she waited until after my dad's heart procedures when we knew everything was okay and that he was now healthy again. I couldn't even imagine if my water had broken the previous day at 3pm when we were so uncertain and upset waiting at the hospital with him. I definitely would not have had the strength to make it through labor. THANK THE LORD everything worked out as it did, in HIS perfect timing. My dad was the first one to hold Avery after Jason and I =)

We are so blessed and love this little angel so much.