Hearing about friend's birth stories makes me think of how Ava came into this world. I have never really shared her birth story so here you go... DISCLAIMER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW DON'T READ IT :-)
Being pregnant with Ava was no picnic. I was very, very, very sick until around week 16. I had terrible morning/all day sickness and some days could not even open my eyes or think about moving. Around week 16 it got better only to come back from week 20-22 and then again week 34-36. In between those weeks there was no "pregnancy glow" only terrible heartburn and then at week 27 Ava bruised my ribs and muscles around my right side and continued to kick that area right up until the moment she was born... no joke she kicked me throughout delivery. I also had very very low blood pressure and was put on "light duty" at 33 weeks after I almost fainted 3 times at work. So as you can see pregnancy was not the most delightful time of my life.
At 38 weeks Ava also decided that she maybe wanted to come out and play but she wanted to take her sweet time. I had contractions every 5 minutes for 8 days... yes 8 days... I went to the hospital twice and the nurses told me that I was absolutely "in labor" but not "active labor" and that I needed to just stay active and try to get things moving. I made it my mission to walk that baby out! I walked 4 miles a day every day, while having contractions every 5 minutes. I was miserable, couldn't sleep, and extremely uncomfortable.
Then at 2am on November 26 my water broke. Anyone who says "I don't know if my water broke," let me tell you it didn't because when it does you know! After my water broke and we headed to the hospital and guess what? My week of solid contractions every 5 minutes stopped. That's right! As soon as my water broke I had contractions every 20-25 minutes. After about 3 hours of no contractions they said it was time for the devil drug aka pitocin. They started with the lightest dose and after 2 hours contractions started hitting fast and furious. The nurse checked and I was only 4 cm at 6am. I was in extreme pain and she asked if I would like to go ahead and get the epidural. Now I am soooo proud of you Momma's who are all about natural childbirth! MORE POWER TO YOU! I however was all about the epidural but I have also heard if you get it too early your labor can slow down and it can wear off before you deliver. So I declined and said I'll wait until 7cm. I tried to relax and breathe through them. They slowed down about 30 minutes later so Peter decided to go make some toast since it was now 7am. He left the room and I decided to use the restroom and try to sit on the birthing ball. My Mom was in the room and helped me around the room and helped me sit on the ball. The second I sat down I had the longest and hardest contraction. My whole body started shaking, I started crying, my knees gave out, I couldn't stand and at that moment Peter walked into the room, with his toast. I immediately yelled out "Don't you ever leave me!" Toast was thrown on the table and he was by my side. Poor guy!
Peter grabbed the nurse since I felt like I had to push. She casually came in because just an hour before I was 4 cm. She checked, 9.5cm and it was time to push. I immediately asked for my epidural and she said "Oh honey, there is no time, it's time to push." Que the waterworks, begging and pleading, and asking if I could just go home...
2 hours later, Ms. Ava was stuck and the anesthesiologist was available. They said they couldn't give me a full epidural but could give me a little one (whatever that means) to cut down the pain. He came in and decided to talk all about the oatmeal he was eating downstairs. Here I am whimpering and feeling like I am literally going to die and this guy is telling everyone in the room about how the cafeteria downstairs is even on Yelp because their oatmeal is so good. Luckily I was in too much pain to tell him what I really thought about his food review.
An hour after that I was still pushing and COULD STILL FEEL EVERYTHING! I had 2 nurses in the room, 1 was training the other, and the older nurse was going on and on saying how great it was that I could feel everything since normally women have epidurals and can't really focus on the pushing. Well that was great she felt that but I wanted to be one of those women!
Anyways, after 3.5 hours of pushing at 11:21am Ava Ray Lamar was born. She pooped while coming out so she was 1 poop shy of 7 pounds. She had a full head of hair, rosebud lips, and a perfect little face. She was perfect in every way and changed our life in the most amazing way imaginable.
So that's Ava's birth story. A friend asked me a few weeks ago if I would have the next one naturally since I basically had Ava sans epidural... My response was next time I'll ask for the epidural the moment I walk in the hospital.
You did awesome, Katelyn!
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