Please excuse the two week delay. I can't believe how quickly the last two weeks have gone by!! I thought I'd post some additional pictures and details about the arrival of our sweet Avery girl.
One final shot of the belly at the hospital
So I totally lost one of the benefits of a c-section this time around...I started having painful contractions the Wednesday night before Avery was born. They were inconsistent until Thursday night when they were 10-15 minutes apart. By then I hadn't slept in two nights, but on Friday the on-call doctor said the contractions weren't close enough and I'd be fine laboring at home! Hello?! I wanted to scream, having a c-section, don't want to be doing ANY laboring!! Chris tried to distract me and ran me around to 3 or 4 different stores checking out items for the "media" room. He always seems to make major purchases right around our children's births! I must have been quite the sight, waddling around Costco in obvious pain, ducking down aisles when contractions would come and placing my head on the cart, trying not to cry. What an adventure that shopping trip was and me being in labor wasn't even the half of it. Finally after another sleepless night, I was losing my mind. I called up my Dr. who was on call on Saturday and he told me to head to the hospital. Of course once we got to the hospital I had one contraction when they hooked me up to the monitor and then NONE for an HOUR. I'm sure the nurse was thinking "Sure, the contractions were 10 minutes apart." Lucky for me, I had started dilating which was quite the change from my appt on Thursday and so my dr. said we should deliver this baby today instead of waiting. Hallelujah!
They got me all prepped for surgery. I forgot how fast they do that! Even though I was miserable and exhausted, I really hadn't had time to process that we were having this baby today instead of Monday. There was so much I had left to do!! I had a moment of panic when they started the spinal. I looked at my nurse and said "Its been a really long time since I've done this!" Uh, a little too late to be worried about that now! My Dr. did a great job and just a few minutes later Chris was calling out, "Its a girl!" And I think we both had the same thought, "What in the world are we going to name her??" (For those of you who don't know, we've had a boy name locked up for years, but had not been able to come up with any sort of girl name whatsoever!) Chris brought her around the drape and I couldn't help but cry. Here she was! We'd waited so long for this little girl; our miracle was finally here. She was beautiful! She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 20 inches long.
Back in the hospital room, it surprisingly didn't take long to agree on Avery Lenore Keldsen. We'd never talked about the name Avery before then. It was a name I'd liked before I was pregnant, but then later discounted it because it was so popular. But it really seemed to fit her and our family. (here's hoping she won't be one of 10 Averys in school) Now we just had to introduce her to Eli and Paige. Before the baby was born, the kids had picked out a blue hat and a pink hat and decided that Dad would put the appropriate hat for the appropriate gender on the baby when the kids saw the baby for the first time. One of our great friends who'd had the kids all day, brought them up to the hospital. When Paige walked in the hospital room she squealed, "Its a baby sister!!!" The kids took turns holding her and loving her all afternoon.
The proud big brother and sister
My time with Miss Avery in the hospital was just magical, how I LOVE the hospital. I had great nurses and LOVED having my sister Stace staying in the hospital with me for a few nights. As always, I was a little sad to leave, its so wonderful being taken care of around the clock! But Eli and Paige's excitement at their little sister coming home was contagious, they couldn't wait to show her around the house. We love our sweet Avery!!
Here we are on our way home!!
Home Sweet Home.
