sweet + whimsy life: avery's birth story

a week ago today, we welcomed our little baby girl into the world. how has it been a week already?

though an entire 7 days have gone by - it really feels like yesterday that it all happened. when asher was born, I wrote out the details of our birth story to help me remember the craziness of our first L&D experience - and I was always so glad that I did! so I decided to do the same for baby girl before the details get too fuzzy!

as you may or may not know, I was actually scheduled to have a c-section on that following monday (hence, the very specific count-downs I had been doing on my blog.) we were busy checking things off of our to-do list and were excited for a quiet weekend at home and a date night on sunday before her grand arrival on monday at 12pm. the friday before, I spoke to the L&D nurse via phone and did all of my pre-surgical questionaires. that day was like any other day - play date and small group meet up in the morning, a quick family dinner (fridays are family days!) at panda express and our first bible study. at bible study, I felt really achy and a little "funny" and had a gut feeling that she was gonna come soon. as I was leaving bible study, I told multiple people that I was feeling a little weird.

when Eugene left for his night shift that night, I joked with him and told him to pray that she doesn't come that day. I really felt so funny but couldn't explain why! that night, I couldn't even tidy up or do the dishes before going to bed because I just felt so beat. I lounged in bed for a few hours, and ended the night by taking some belly photos as I realized that I only had a few more days with my belly!

I went to bed around 1:00 am and before I even fell asleep, I felt a little trickle....

I wondered if I had accidently peed myself or if it was actually my water breaking. very slowly I stood up and made my way to the bathroom -- it kept leaking! and when I finally sat on the toilet, I felt a huge gush! (can you tell i'm a nurse? my medical terminology is just so on point.) at this point, I am low-key freaking out, trying to call Eugene at work and realizing that I don't have his work phone number. I call the hospital and after getting transferred like 6 times, I finally reach Eugene and let him know that my water broke! Thankfully I had already been texting with a few friends and ask them for help! (CJ came immediately to help take me to the hospital and Sam brought Jen to sleepover & housesit for me so that we could leave Asher at home -- thank you guys!!!!)

I got to the hospital and immediately got triaged. As I was getting tucked in, the nurse asked me why I was getting another c-section and why I wasn't trying for a VBAC. I explained that I had a c-section with my first pregnancy and though I wanted to try for a v-bac, my doctor didn't really want me to. she could sense that I really wanted to try for a VBAC so when my doctor called, she convinced him to let me and I was SO HAPPY. Here I am, swollen and beat and all but so happy signing my VBAC consent. (thanks for taking a picture of this monumental event, CJ!)

After signing my consent, the nurse checked me and we found out that I was already 3cm dilated! My water was also nonstop leaking at this point and I was already starting to have regular contractions! (which is so different than my first time: water leaking, but no contractions and not dilated at all. It took almost a whole day on the MAX dose of pitocin to get me to 2cm dilated.. so I was so excited how quickly I was progressing!)

2:30 AM We got sent to L&D so that I could get settled in my room and wait for baby!

3:00 AM my parents arrived and they put internal monitors in me to monitor my contractions and baby's heartrate. Since I was a VBAC, my doctor wanted everything to be monitored very carefully and for my labor to progress as slowly and safely as possible. My parents arrived to the hospital!

4:00 AM Eugene was thankfully able to get someone to cover for him at work (in the middle of the night, too! thanks michael!) so he stopped by home to get a few things and then finally came to the hospital!

5:30 AM My contractions were getting stronger and stronger so I asked for the epidural and then entered into happy land once again. Honestly the epidural is the best thing in the world. After getting the epidural, we were able to rest so we got to sleep a little.

I was getting so swollen from the pitocin but I was SO happy from my epidural. All was well.

6:30 AM Got checked again and realized that I was 5cm dilated! The baby's head was still not really engaged (-2) so they decided that they would start me on some pitocin to help get things moving.

7:30 AM The new shift started and I got started on pitocin! It was crazy to think that the baby was gonna be coming that day!

9:30 AM Progressing more and more. 7cm dilated, 90% effaced and baby's head was slowly coming down (-1). At this point, they started messing with my pitocin because I was progressing a little too quickly than my doctor liked. I was constantly getting my legs and hips repositioned to help assist with the baby's head coming down - but everything was looking good! For the next few hours, it was just adjusting the pitocin doses, doing constant position changes and checking my progress. Eugene and I were a little freaked out about the fact that I was actually gonna be able to maybe push this baby out. Since we had known that we were gonna have a scheduled c-section for most of our pregnancy, we had no idea what we were supposed to do (lol!) Eugene kept asking the nurse, "so, am I supposed to do something when this happens? where do I stand? what's my job?" and I was clueless as to what to expect, how to do controlled breathing, etc. I hadn't even been doing my kegels or anything - yipes! but we were just told that we would learn as we go and just to rest.

12:00 PM Yay! I was completely dilated and effaced and baby's head was DOWN! We had never gotten to this point with Asher so I was ECSTATIC! (With asher, I only dilated to 8/9cm and his head never really fully engaged - stayed at 0) She told us that she would let us wait another hour for my contractions to help progress me more and that we would push. She told us to get as much rest as we could so that we could tank up energy for all the pushing but - HOW?! we were freaking out and so excited to meet our baby girl. OMG OMG OMG.

1:00 PM the nurse came in to get the room ready and some volunteer girl came too. All through my pregnancy, people asked me if I would let a volunteer or a nursing student sit in on my delivery and look at all my junk when the party is going on. I never really knew if I would or not. Having been a nursing student myself, I knew how invaluable that kind of first-hand experience was - but I wasn't sure how comfortable I would feel. Not sure if it was the adrenaline/excitement of the baby coming or the epidural talking, but I was 100% okay with it and she got to watch my entire delivery. front and center, too (yipes. sorry not sorry?)

My body had done a lot of the work by the time pushing started - so I actually only pushed for about 30 minutes and then baby was out! It was a crazy experience!

It was all the more surreal and emotionally overwhelming because I never thought I would get to experience this kind of delivery. The moment I felt her head pop out, and eventually seeing her body spring forth from my body was equally strange and wildly emotional. I couldn't stop sobbing.

Around halfway through my pregnancy, my doctor told me that he wanted me to do a c-section (this caught me by surprise because it was different from what we discussed when I first got pregnant!). I wasn't really given much of a choice and it took me a while to process the news. Having a second c-section meant that I would have to accept the limitations that came with it (never being able to experience a natural delivery and only being able to have 3 kids max). many of my friends knew what a process it was for me to be able to come to terms with this news and really surrender it up to the Lord. I didn't want to lose sight of what an absolute miracle it was that we were able to conceive again (after struggling to conceive for 2 years with asher) and I didn't want to lose sight of all that I had to be grateful for! With God's gracious help and and to his credit alone - I was able to really find peace with it and always joked "if it's God's will for me to have a VBAC, I will!"

and you guys.

I DID! and it was awesome.

being in the hospital this time around was different because we had a little one at home. Eugene went home every night to bathe asher and put him to bed so I spent a lot of time at the hospital alone. Initially I thought it would make me a little sad, but it was actually not too bad. I found ways to keep myself busy and loved having some quiet one-on-one time with my little girl.

I really wanted Asher to come meet the baby at the hospital (so that we don't just bring her home and he freaks out wondering where she came from) and I was anxious about how he would respond. All throughout my pregnancy, he would point at my belly saying "baby" and in the last week or so before baby was born he learned her name and it was the cutest thing! I knew that he was a little young to understand fully what this new baby would do to his life and to our family dynamic - but their initial meeting was just so sweet and made me so emotional.