Jaylee Avner is here! She was born August 28, 2009 at 9:17 am. She weighed 5 lb 13 oz and is 18.5 in long. She is beautiful and perfect in every way!So...here's our story... Wednesday (Aug 26) evening around 6ish I started feeling contraction coming on. They were pretty consistent, but around 10 to 15 minutes apart. I decided to sleep on it and see what happened. I had contractions through the night, but nothing that was horrible...I think I slept through most of them. When I woke up Thursday morning they came again around 10 minutes apart, so I laid down again and they went away. I decided to go to work, where they started coming again 10 minutes apart. Not being able to concentrate on anything else, I decided to call it quits and go home so I could sleep. All through the day on Thursday I had contractions that got harder to handle as the day went on. We kept a running list of times that I had contractions. I thought that they would be spaced pretty consistently, but they weren't (I thought that was weird). I would have them 10 minutes apart for an hour then I would have one in 6 minutes then in 12 minutes, then in 9 minutes, etc... They eventually started being more and more consistent. Around 9 pm they were 7 minutes apart and they kept going down from there. At 11 pm they were 5 minutes apart and hard enough that I had to brace myself for them to come. We left for the hospital and got there at 11:30. They hooked me up to some monitors and checked for dilation. I was only at a 4 1/2, so they called the doctor and she said that I could get started on pitocin if I wanted to or I could go for an hour long walk and come back to see if I had progressed. So we opted to walk around the hospital for an hour. While walking around I was having contractions about 2 1/2 minutes apart...they were killer! When we got back they checked dilation again and I was at a 5 1/2...progress! So they kept me. They contractions slowed down to about 5 minutes. We walked around for another 40 minutes and when we got back I was dilated to a 6 1/2. The contractions were pretty intense, so I got to sit in a jacuzzi to relieve some of the pressure in my lower back. I tried sitting on the birthing ball after the tub, but it only made the pressure worse, so I decided that trying to relax on my side was the best way to go. Having Jordan there was the best thing that I could have done. He was at my my side through all of the contractions. Focusing on his eyes and having him remind me to breath was probably the best thing that we did. He talked me through each contraction and reminded me that all three of us (me him and the baby) are working hard and that we can do it! He stayed awake the whole time, while I slept between contractions. It was good to have him there also because our nurse kept coming in and saying "you know, you can have an epidural...it isn't as bad as everyone says it is...lots of women think they can do this, but they end up with the epidural and have the baby fine...if you are in so much pain why don't you just get an epidural..." she was so annoying! I would not recommend her as a nurse! My doctor came in at 9:00 am and checked me. I was dilated to an 8. She asked if I wanted her to break my water, and I was so delirious that all I could say was "I don't know." She decided to, and it was actually a good thing. The baby had pooped in the womb, so they were able to have all of the precautions for that ready before I delivered. After this the nurses and the doctor seemed to be getting things ready, but not in any hurry. After breaking my water I had dilated to a 10 pretty quick. I asked if it would be soon and they said that on average for first time moms pushing takes about 2 hours...so I started to gear up for a long couple hours. The very next contraction after my water had broke I felt like I needed to push. I started pushing and did three pushes for one contraction. The contractions were no longer than 2 minutes apart (I thought they were supposed to be further apart at this stage of labor!) and after 4 contractions (12 pushes) she was here!
Jaylee is as healthy as ever. When we left the hospital she weighed 5 lb 8 oz, but at her checkup today she was 5 lb 9 oz...she is getting bigger! Jaylee is beautiful, and we love her! She is excited to meet all of our friends and family! We will keep you posted on how things are going.
