I thought it would be months before I had the opportunity to write about our sweet baby's entrance into the world. But, I find myself (seemingly) not tired at the moment and Ava is snoozing away, so I thought I'd take advantage.
I guess it starts about a week before Ava's due date. I went to my routine doctor's appointment and my doctor noticed my blood pressure was a little elevated (though still within the normal range) and told me she'd check it again at the end of my appointment. Toward the end of my pregnancy, I had some pretty awful swelling in my feet, hands, and face and she wanted to be extra cautious about preeclampsia. Doc checked me to see how dilated/effaced I was, I was at 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced so we hadn't made any progress since my appointment the week before. She then checked my blood pressure again and it was the same as it was at the beginning of the appointment so she decided she'd induce labor on my due date. I was to first go to triage at the hospital to do a non stress test on the baby and monitor my blood pressure. If everything checked out fine, I'd be coming to the hospital the following night for cervadil and then be started on pitocin early the next morning.
Everything was great in triage, my blood pressure was within normal range and the baby's heart rate and activity level were perfect so they sent me home to enjoy one last night with Luke while it was just us two! Unbeknownst to me, my doctor swept my membranes while she checked me, and I started bleeding when I didn't have any bleeding from cervical checks before. Freaked me out, but all the nurses in triage told me it was normal and the doctor most likely tried to start labor that way. Thanks for letting me know, doc. Anyway, I went home and cleaned and cleaned until the house was spotless. I didn't want my baby coming home to any kind of mess! I started feeling some light contractions at about 9 PM, but they were so sporadic that I didn't really think too much of them and just went about my night.
Luke and I went to bed like normal that evening, everything was peaceful until I woke up at about 4:45 in the morning with a contraction that was strong enough for me to say eughhh. I got up and went to the bathroom, then tried to lay back down and go back to sleep but I couldn't. The contractions were definitely timetable, so I started timing them. 8 minutes apart. I was up for the day, that was for sure! By 11 AM they were coming quicker, about 4-5 minutes apart so Luke and I made our way to the hospital. When I got there, I hadn't made any progress so was sent home. So typical of a first time mom, eh? Once we got home though, things started really picking up quickly.
We were still scheduled to come back to the hospital at 5 for the induction (even though I was laboring on my own) and we met the doctor on call who would be delivering Ava if I had her before the 12th. If I could have chosen him as my doctor from the beginning, I would have. He was very personable, had a very dry sense of humor (which I am used to) and was the kind of doctor I just trusted with my health and my baby's health. I didn't feel that way about the doctor I was already seeing. While I was at home, the contractions started getting stronger and closer and closer together. My mom was with me while Luke ran to the store for some food for me, but I was quickly getting past the part where I was even thinking about food. I was having regular contractions, but mostly awful back labor. Let me tell ya, that back labor killed. The hours went by very slowly for me, but I was sure I'd made more progress and wouldn't have to have any pitocin put in my IV once we got to the hospital. Luke got home from the store around 3:45, and I was ready to head back to the hospital at about 4. We already had our hospital bags in the car and wanted to avoid traffic so we left around 4:20. That car ride, I was pretty sure I was going to break the "oh crap" handle in the car from pulling and gripping it so tightly. By the time we got to the hospital, contractions were 2-3 minutes apart.
Walking into the hospital was hard. I am not the kind of person who likes to show I'm in pain, especially in front of total strangers, so I tried to be smiley and happy for the nurses but can I just say that when they're asking you questions in the middle of a contraction, it's almost impossible to reply. Like hello, my body is trying to tear itself in half. Gimme a second! What is the point of pre-registering when they still put a pen and paper in your hands and expect you to fill it out when you're dying? I was so out of it, I put my maiden last name down instead of my married last name. I haven't done that for 3 years. What the heck?
We got to the delivery room, they had me change into a hospital gown and they hooked me up to the IV, heart rate monitor, and blood pressure machine. It's impossible to labor "comfortably" with all that crap hooked up to you. I couldn't get up and walk around, I couldn't' get on my hands and knees (which helped with the back labor) because I kept pinching the IV line between my legs and there were no rails to hang on to. I had Luke squeeze my forearm when I had contractions to help distract from the pain, but after a while I couldn't even feel that anymore. Contractions stayed consistent, but got way more intense. Ya'll, I wanted to have a natural childbirth with no epidural to prove that I could. Hats off to women who do it, because I'll be the first to say active labor HURTS and once you get to 5 or 6 CM dilated, you kinda think you should be further along than you are. And also, contractions are supposed to come in waves that build in intensity and then subside. Anytime I had a contraction at this point, it just felt like someone was smacking me in my lower back with a brick as hard as they could. So, it came to the point that I had Luke get my nurse go get the anesthesiologist for an epidural. I was scared of having an epidural before my active labor hit, but when he was giving me that epidural (in the middle of an angry contraction, mind you) with my nurse helping me stay still, was that I was grateful that there was something to help with the pain.
What I wasn't prepared for was the fact that I wouldn't be able to feel my legs at all. That was very weird to me and gave me a little bit of anxiety, but other than that I was totally fine. By this time, it was around 8 PM. Luke and I were able to nap for a little while while my body continued to do what it was doing, and when they checked me at around 9:30, I was at a 9. As the nurse was checking, she said "water is still intact," and then immediately after she said that, I felt a gush and my water had finally broken. The doctor offered to break it earlier in the day to speed up labor, but he didn't even have to do that! They let me labor for one more hour because the nurse didn't think Ava was descended enough, but I was starting to feel some pressure. It wasn't anything crazy, but I could tell that my baby would be coming to us very soon. At about 10:40, my nurse had me start pushing to see how things had progressed and with just one push, she could see the baby's head. She told me we had to stop pushing so that they could go get the doctor and deliver our sweet baby! I was blown away that it was almost time and that she was RIGHT THERE in the birth canal. The doctor arrived and told me he was so happy I was letting him get his beauty sleep than night, made me laugh, and then two contractions and ten minutes later, Ava Noelle Gervais was born at 11:01 PM on May 11 weighing 8 lbs, 2 oz. She has a good set of lungs on her, that girl. I was so happy she wasn't as little as I thought she would be and couldn't believe how beautiful she was! She came out a professional nurser and is everything we could have ever asked for. My doctor kept trying to talk to me about stitches and blah blah blah but all I could do was stare at Luke doing kangaroo with our baby girl.
Ava will be three weeks tomorrow. I'd be lying if I said that becoming a mom has been easy or that everything is perfect. I've never gotten so little sleep in my life or had my every second of the day so consumed. I've never thought of myself less in my whole life than when I became a mom. But there is so much joy in the midst of all of the sleep deprivation and learning that I'd be crazy to want my life any other way. We love our girl and are so grateful to be able to be her parents. Also, I didn't know that I would fall for Luke all over again when he became a daddy, but it happened.
