Adventures in Larsonland: Baby Avery Is Here!

Even though she wasn't due to arrive until August 23rd, little Miss Avery decided to make her appearance in the world a bit earlier. Here she is after arriving on Thursday, August 7 at 9:33pm (6lbs 1oz, 20 1/4" long)

Here's a low-down of that day:

Matt had called in sick that morning after feeling a bit under the weather. And thank goodness he did! It couldn't have worked out more perfectly, because I woke up feeling what I thought were my usual Braxton Hicks contractions... except that they were oddly coming about every 3-5 minutes a part. I didn't think much of it and barely made mention of it to Matt until later that morning. Thankfully, I had a fetal monitoring session scheduled (due to my high levels of fluid), so I was already heading in to the doctor's office. Once there (while texting Matt to pack our hospital bag just in case!), the doctor checked me and I was only 1-2 cm dilated, so she sent me home and said it could just be a fluke or - if things started getting more painful - to call her again.

I tried to carry on as usual, and even went to visit my friend Stephanie who had just had her 2nd baby the night before in a hospital downtown. While there I joked that I was in labor but even then thought "no, this can't be happening for real!". I headed home with more frequent and painful contractions and told Matt hesitantly: "Um, I think we need to go to the hospital - I think baby sister wants to arrive today!" I called my doc, and sure enough she said to meet her at the hospital. We called my sister, who graciously came right over to take care of Benjamin, we packed up what we could, and headed to the hospital.

Once there, my contractions were pretty consistently happening at 3 minute intervals. And they were getting pretty painful! I wasn't much more dilated than earlier in the day, so the nurse said she'd need to see some progression or I'd have to go home to labor more there. With the pain I was now in, that was not an option. I could barely walk the halls without doubling over every few steps... and so I hopped in the tub to wait out the next hour while hoping and praying I was progressing. Sure enough - when the nurse checked me again, I was 4-5cm, and she called the anesthesiologist right away (thank goodness!). Benjamin and Amber came by to wish us luck (and bring daddy dinner) :)

soon to become a big brother!

Jenny was actually one of my nurses with Benjamin too! :)

I got my epidural at about 5pm and not long after was much more comfortable EXCEPT that I then got terrible tremors/shakes from the epidural (a small price to pay, I suppose). I also got really light-headed and woozy, so I had to wear an oxygen mask for the rest of the labor. It was a glamorous sight to see me covered in blankets with an oxygen mask on!

Time finally came for me to push at about 8:45pm or so... And to be very honest, I was almost certain I couldn't do it. I kept thinking Why don't they just wheel me to the OR now!?. VBACs aren't always successful, and given that it seemed to be my pelvis that Benjamin couldn't work his way out of, it seemed even less likely for me. But here I was, pushing my hardest and all of a sudden hoping it would work. There were glimpses of my first delivery attempts with Benjamin (she was also "stuck" for a bit behind my pelvic bone), and I had visions of another terrible attempt ending in a c-section. But then the doctor said she saw quite a bit of the baby's head... and that this could be it! (PS - I had the same doctor for BOTH deliveries - I felt so lucky!!) She said if she used a vacuum along with my pushing she could probably get the baby out... and boy was she right. She barely touched the vacuum to baby's head on my next push and SWOOOSH!!! Baby girl came shooting out of me like a cork. And I kid you not. She ended up in the bucket on the ground! The entire staff in the room looked wide-eyed and amazed, and my OB said she had never had that happen in her entire career. She said they'd all be talking about that for months :) We Larsons like to enter the world with excitement, I suppose!

And that was that - she made it! I got to hold her right away and could not believe what had just transpired. It was amazing. Matt and I were in LOVE with this sweet girl immediately.

my awesome OB!

After oohing and ahhing over this new member of our family, it was time to get ready to move to the recovery room... only I passed out in the bathroom (oops). So after some IV fluids and a quick visit from my parents who were kind enough to wait until midnight to meet her, we were able to move over to the new room and enjoy some time with the sweet girl.

Matt got to watch her get a bath at 3am :)

We had some sweet visitors and LOVED getting to introduce Benjamin to his new baby sister! It did take us about 10 hours to name her, but once we did, it just felt right. She is our sweet Baby Avery Virginia. Benjamin loves her!

We were cleared to go on Saturday morning, which was a weird feeling since we were in the hospital for five nights with Benjamin!

And daddy thought it was so cute that when we got in the car, the Beatles were on singing "Something". Something in the way she moves...

Welcome home sweet Baby Avery!

Mimi (Matt's mom) flew out early the morning after Avery arrived to help out with Benjamin and essentially take care of us once we got home. {What an awesome gift!} And Papa Bear (Matt's dad) arrived this week to meet Avery and help out too. Benjamin is so thankful for the fun times! More to come in another post!