Avery’s Birth Story

Isn’t it funny how quickly your brain forgets about labor?  It’s only been 3 weeks, and I already look back on Avery’s arrival and cannot believe my body birthed an 8 lb human!  If you’ve read Emerson’s birth story (Part I, Part II), you’ll know that I had to wait a while for an epidural and it was awful. My goal for Avery’s labor was simply not to wait too long to get to the hospital and not to wait too long to ask for my epidural so that I could avoid going through transition without pain relief again (foreshadowing: my goal was not achieved).

Final bump picture from the coffee shop bathroom:)

Rewind to October 2nd (my due date was the 1st).  I had my membranes stripped that morning – it was uncomfortable, but I didn’t find it to be horrible and had some mild cramping afterwards.  I sat on the couch a lot of the day and rested just in case things got going that night.  I felt a little different and optimistic that the membrane stripping had done something. That night, I had some really bad cramping and contractions that kept me up for hours and didn’t really amount to anything. I woke up really annoyed, not because I didn’t end up going into labor, but because sleep is soo soo precious and it seems cruel for a 40-week-pregnant woman to be up half the night!

Matt decided to stay home from the office and work from a coffee shop the next day (October 3rd), so after we took Emerson to school, I joined him at Queen City Grounds to get out of the house. After a while, I felt pretty awful and told Matt that I should probably go home;  I felt fragile and like something was going to happen any minute (I was expecting my water to break since it did with Em).

Matt’s 11AM call got cancelled at the last minute, so we decided to grab lunch before picking up Emerson and heading home.  I needed one more round of ricotta toast from Eight & Sand Kitchen:) I felt a little better and it was a nice lunch date. We got home around 1:15 and I got cozy on the couch.  I noticed that I was having a ton of Braxton-Hicks and that they were more uncomfortable than usual.  Around 2:45, I decided to start tracking to see if there was any kind of pattern and they were coming  every 10-15 minutes!  I told my mom that they were kind of hurting and she was so excited that something might be happening and started asking me every 10 minutes if I had another one.  She Voxed my sister, who said I needed to really relax my mind and body to encourage labor, so I decided to watch an episode of Heartland; it’s generally a relaxing show, you know – the horses, the scenery, young love, haha.

Around 4:30, I decided contractions were regular and strong enough that I should take a shower and wash my hair:)  Emerson would be waking up soon, and I was guessing they might stop once I was distracted by her.  The shower felt awesome and it seemed like the contractions weren’t hurting as much, but I wasn’t sure if it was just because the warm water was soothing.  I got out and laid in bed for a bit, and that’s when they really started to hurt.  I told Matt we needed to do the final packing and he loaded the car. At this point, the contractions were every 6-8 minutes and I was having to really breathe to get through them, but they were only lasting 30-40 seconds.  I called my doula, and she said I could head to the hospital and would likely be admitted or I probably had time to hang out at home and that it was up to me.  I decided to give it another hour (big mistake) and heated up some leftover lasagna and Facetimed my sister.

Things started to get really intense around 6PM, and Emerson and I had an emotional goodbye before Matt and I hopped in the car at 6:30.  Matt tried to go the back way to the hospital, and we ended up at a closed road.  I was yelling at him because of the extra 3-4 minutes that it added to our trip!  I told him he could NOT park the car and we hurried up to labor and delivery where I could barely walk to the desk because the contractions were coming so fast.  When I checked in, I felt extreme pressure down there and told the nurse that it felt like I needed to push and to please order my epidural.

Of course I had to go to triage first (I should have planned for this, but was already set-up and hooked up to an IV with Emerson, so just didn’t think about all the steps!!) The nurse checked me, and I was at 6-7cm, 80% effaced, and baby had moved to station -1 (she was still kinda high at my 40 week appt.). The nurse started working on my IV (omg, why is this part so painful?), but said we’d have to wait for fluids and a platelet count before I could get the epidural. ARG!! I found myself in the exact same situation I had been in with Emerson which is exactly what I had been trying to avoid.

So I moved to my L&D room, my doula arrived, and I was miserable.  With Em, I had back labor (she was sunny-side up), but with Avery, the worst part was the pressure. I just wanted to push to relieve the pressure, so they checked me again and I was at an 8-9!  Baby was still high though and my water was intact, so there was still time for an epidural.  My doula helped me get on the bed to try and relieve some of the pressure.

FINALLY, the anesthesiologist  showed up at the door and as soon as she saw that my doula was diffusing essential oil, she said she was allergic and could not enter the room. YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!  I yelled for them to send a different one and they said she was the only one.  My doula turned off the diffuser immediately and turned on the AC at full force and asked the anesthesiologist what exactly she was allergic to.  She said she didn’t know but that she wouldn’t be able to finish the job if she came in the room and started to have a reaction.

“This is amazing”

So the anesthesiologist stood outside the door of the room and did all of the verbal consent questions and information gathering, and then I guess she felt comfortable trying to enter the room. She was not happy that I’d only had half a bag of fluids, but agreed to start anyway (after scolding the nurse). At this point, I was desperate and was begging her to hurry.  I sat up in bed and draped my arms around the L&D nurse (who was AMAZING!). It took a lot longer than last time (the anesthesiologist kept saying she couldn’t get it threaded and kept asking me to bend forward more).  I started to feel some sharp pains in my leg, and she adjusted it, and then I finally felt some relief.

 I got the shakes really bad, but didn’t care at all because I was the happiest woman in the world! I think it was 9PM at this point, and since baby was still at station +1 or so, the doctor said I could rest and labor down and she’d check back in 45 minutes.  The same thing happened with Emerson, so I was happy to let the contractions do the work so I could hopefully push less. My water broke shortly thereafter and I was just so thankful that it didn’t break earlier so I could get my epidural.

At 9:45, we did a practice push that didn’t do much at all, so doc decided to give me another 30 minutes. My doula used the peanut ball to move me around a bit and I started to feel some really intense pubic pressure and knew baby was finally coming down. The doctor came back in at 10:45 and said it was go-time!

I probably started pushing around 10:55 and was THRILLED that baby was moving right down the canal quickly.   I pushed for about 20 minutes and then the doctor said “she’ll be out on the next push if she doesn’t deliver herself first,” and then she did just that!  It was kind of hilarious to see in the mirror because she just fell out at the end.  [And I had a 2nd degree tear in the same spot as last time…]

I enjoyed this part of the experience SO much more the second time around!!!  Pushing was fast and relaxed and there were so many smiles and so much excitement knowing we’d meet Avery  soon (versus pushing for 2.5 hours with Emerson and not knowing if we’d be able to get her out, worrying about heart rate, position, etc). It was amazing and she was calm and snuggly when she was born.

She latched on right away, making breastfeeding a million times easier, and for that, I am very thankful!

And that’s how little Avery Elizabeth arrived! (I apologize for the novel).

10/3/19, 11:16PM, 8lbs 1 oz, 20in