Ava's Birth Story (Long overdue, I know)

On Memorial Day, around 2 or so in the afternoon, I started having what I thought to be contractions. Not having gone into labor before, I told James that I wasn't positive, but I thought that I was going into labor. Our plan was to having my mother-in-law come over to our house when I went into labor so that she could stay with Aden while we went on to the hospital. Nonetheless, I kept waiting, wanting to be sure that I was really in labor. When I couln't walk and was doubled over on the kitchen table, I knew it was time to go right away.

We met my mil at St. Edwards and got checked in around 4:30pm. I was dilated to 5 and was ready for some pain medicine. I was given a drug called NuBain until they could get in to give me the epidural. The epidural worked great for the contractions, until I started having back labor on my left side. It did absolutely nothing for that. I was in tears and finally they gave me a narcotic, which did help somewhat with the pain. The doctor broke my water and said that the baby had used the bathroom and that she probably had ingested meconium. Due to this, once I began pushing, I would be instructed to stop once her head was out, so that her mouth and nose could be suctioned. If she was to cry before they removed it all, she could develop pneumonia.

Although I was progressing as I should have been (about 1 cm an hour), my contractions were not as strong as they wanted. At this point, they decided to give me Pitocin (labor-inducing drug), to help my labor along.

I was ready to start pushing somewhere close to midnight. Once that began, things become a little fuzzy. The epidural did not take as it should have and did nothing during her actual birth. So, basically I delivered her naturally. I cannot even begin to describe how painful this was. James said that I turned into a demon, but I could have never imagined labor being so bad. Once she started crowning, the nurse told me to stop pushing because she wanted to wait until the doctor came in. Then she got up and walked around the room waiting for the doctor and I was beside myself. Once he arrived, I continued to push until her head emerged and then it was time to stop again. They were able to get most of the meconium out that she had ingested and we were very thankful for that.

After almost an hour of pushing, we were finally able to meet our baby girl. She weighed 8 lbs. and 13 oz. and was 21 inches long. I couldn't believe that she was so big, even though she was 9 days overdue. She has quite a bit of black hair. Several people have commented that her hair must have come from the Grady side, but suprisingly enough, I had black hair when I was born and James had light hair.

I've posted a few pictures below. Hopefully, I'll have more to come soon, but I've been having a tough recovery so far. I had second degree tears, followed by an episiotomy. I am feeling a little better and can't wait to get back to normal!