Ava's Story

On Friday, January 22 I spent the afternoon at a newborn shoot. It was the perfect shoot. Very low key. Not much moving around.

When I got home, however, I felt awful. I was contracting like crazy. Jon called his sister to come pick up the kids so that I could relax. I spent the whole night on the couch in the living room. I slept for maybe 20 minutes that whole night and by 4:30 a.m., I woke Jon up and asked him to take me to the hospital. I thought, if anything, they would give me a shot of something to stop the contractions.

When we arrived at the hospital, they hooked me up to the monitors and a nurse came in to check me. I was 4 cm and completely effaced. I overheard the nurse calling my doctor and she starting asking about the epidural.

What?

When the nurse returned, she told me that she was going to transfer me from triage to a delivery room.

Huh?

Jon was fast asleep in one of those super comfortable hospital chairs and he was sitting too far from me to hit him to wake him up. I starting yelling, "Jon! Jon! We are having the baby today!"

We called a few family members to let them know. My Mom dropped everything and rushed over to make it for the delivery.

As soon as I was settled into my new room, the nurse came in and said that I could have the epidural at any time. I was so tired and I just wanted rest my body a little bit. An epidural was a welcomed solution. The doctor gave me the epidural but all that it numbed was my feet and legs. I could still feel every contraction. The doctor came back in and tried to readjust the epidural's position in my back. He gave me more medicine. My feet and legs just kept getting more heavy, but I could still feel everything else. He gave me more medicine. Still nothing. I was starting to get nauseated. The nurse offered me some nausea medicine, which she informed me may make me a little bit sleepy. Sleepy??? I will take it!

Within minutes of the medicine going into my IV, I was out.

The next thing I really remember was the nurse telling Jon to wake me up because I was measuring 9 3/4 cm and it was almost time to push.

It was now almost 4 in the afternoon.

I woke up just in time to push. My doctor came in and 4 short pushes later, Miss Ava was here! I can't really put my feelings into words, but it was pure joy.

I love those moments that directly follow the birth of your child.

Relief, love, happiness.

Ava's lungs struggled. My Mom who is a NICU nurse at the hospital at which I delivered, whisked her away. I knew she was in the best hands and so any worry I had dissipated.

They took me into a recovery room and as soon as Ava had become stable and I had had a little bit of sleep, I went to see her. She was so little and the size of the incubator made her size even more dramatic. She had blonde hair and blue eyes and pink skin. Jon was confused as to how this could be his baby (he still comes home everyday from work and asks if I think her hair and skin are getting darker...I don't think so). She was beautiful, of course, but she looked very frail. I was kind of afraid to touch her at first.

The doctors gave me a run dodwn of her condition and that she would need to stay in the hospital for a week so that she could receive a 7 day course of antibiotics. I was disappointed. I was sad that she came so early and that I would have to leave the hospital with empty arms.

I spent the next 2 nights at the hospital while Jon stayed with Chloe and Beckham at home. It was nice that over the course of the next 7 days, my Mom worked 5 of those nights. I would go into the NICU and hang out with my baby and my Mom. Ava got the VIP treatment. Her incubator was always decorated. She was always dressed in cute outfits and she always had a little bow in her hair. Money couldn't have paid for the treatment that she received. The other nurses and staff were amazing and made leaving her a little bit easier.

I spent the next week coming to the hospital to feed Ava every 3 hours. I felt like I had 2 families. The one at the hospital and the one at home. It was a rough week. I am glad that it was only a week.

During the week, we decided to take Chloe and Beckham to the hospital to meet their new sister. We had a waiting room to ourselves and my Mom brought her in to us. Beckham was pretty much not interested. Chloe took about 2 seconds to warm up to her. We spent the hour together as a family of 5. It felt good.

We brought her home January 30th and she has thrived. She has brought such a sweet spirit into our home.

We are so happy to have her in our family!