Ava's Birth Story

Funny to even say after all of this that I had an uncomplicated delivery with Ava. By any means that didn't mean an uncomplicated pregnancy. After going into preterm labor at 27 weeks and staying in the hospital for 4 days hooked up to Magnesium (ugh!), I thought that would be the end of it. But THEN to go into labor again at 34 weeks, thank goodness magnesium was never mentioned and they were able to stop the contractions this time with Procardia. Finally my doctors thought I could go back to work at 35 weeks full time. No one thought I would last long at all. Sure enough, 35 turned into 36, 37, 38 and almost 39! Everyone at work kept saying "You're still here?". It was nice to be back at work though after being off on bedrest, which is fun for maybe a day, but then you get bored and restless and start doing everything they told you NOT to do.

I had contractions all the time it seemed over the past few weeks. There were many instances in which I lay awake at night, timing and counting contractions convinced I should shower and wake up Jason. Of course those nights turned into disappointments as the contractions slowly would dissipate. Monday I got up and went to work and did my usual morning rounding. Right before lunch I had a half an hour to go up to the 5th floor of Lacks and do some laps. I decided to take the stairs to give myself an extra boost of exercise. Later that day, I grabbed a friend and went back up to walk again. Regardless if that was going to help my labor, it sure felt good to be getting any type of exercise, I miss being healthy in that way.

That night, I was contracting as usual. I even texted my Mom to let her know that I was having irregular contractions but that I had hoped they would just get stronger already so I could meet Ava. Going to bed that night, the contractions started to become regular and as usual, I couldn't sleep. This time, I decided to get up and walk around the house to just make them go away if they weren't going to be real. They decided to get stronger for once! I finally woke up Jason around 2am to let him know I was going to call my Mom over. I think my parents arrived somewhere around 2:45 and by that time, I just wanted to drive to the hospital. Around 3:30 we were in OB triage and the contractions were definitely putting tears in my eyes. I had been 2 cm at my 38 week appt so I was happy to hear I was 4 cm at least. I asked for the epidural since with Austin it took way longer than expected for the anesthesiologist to become available. He came right away though and of course we knew each other from the hospital so he told me he'd give me a perfect one since with Austin it only worked on one side. This time it was a little more than perfect and I had to keep sitting up since it felt like the epidural was taking over my ability to breath.

I stayed at 4 cm for what seemed like forever and was starting to get worried I wouldn't progress and would need Pitocin. Thankfully the resident broke my water and shortly thereafter I was 7cm. Even though I had just been checked at 9am, I was feeling tons of pressure and asked to be checked again at 9:30. I was fully dilated and ready to go. The resident told me that if I could hold out on pushing for one more hour, that my delivery would be that much easier. I couldn't help but feel the urge to push and SO much pressure for the next 40 minutes or so. Finally, I just called the nurse around 10:15 and asked her to make sure my doctor was here. I just had a feeling that this wasn't going to take long but little did I know it would take less than 3 minutes! My doctor arrived and as she was getting ready the nurse wanted me to do a practice push. Right away, I was told NOT to push since I guess she was barreling out of there. A total of 2 1/2 pushes and out she came! I barely remember how that all happened so fast and have to keep asking my mom and Jason about how it all happened.

Ava Jayne Rogers born at 10:36 am weighing 7 lb 1 oz and measuring 21 in.

Just smitten with our little Ava.

Austin is not entirely sure what to think of his baby sister just yet. I am just glad he was a lot more gentle with her than he is with Lily!

More pictures to come of course as I have the time but for now, I just couldn't wait to share her story!