YOU HAVE ARRIVED!!!

Avery Mackenzie Lane, you our sweet cupcake, have arrived. You were born Tuesday, January 10th at 8:51am. You weighed exactly 5 lbs. and 18 inches long. You have stolen the hearts of everyone who meets you. I will do another whole post about how we all sit and stare at you, everything you have been doing, etc. but I definitely wanted to document your birth story.

Thursday was our last doctor's appointment which landed us in Labor and Delivery. We knew we would not be leaving without you, but were not sure if we would have to induce early or not. Either way, but Sunday, January 8th, we would start the induction process.

You and I both stayed stable until Sunday so we went with the induction as planned. About 6:30pm on Sunday night Dr. Goresch inserted the Cervadil, which would ripen my cervix and we would start the actual dilation/contraction part in the morning. However, two hours later at 8:30pm we started having contractions. They were coming very close together, but due to some pain meds through my IV and an Ambien, we were able to sleep a decent amount through the night.

Monday morning we woke up and started the Pitocin, which is synthetic Oxytocin used to create contractions and cause dilation. Since I was already having contractions (although only 1 cm dilated) the contractions came on way to strong. We were getting no break between contractions and they were lasting 60-90 seconds, yet, we were not dilating. All day long we played the game of upping the Pitocin, then backing it back down, upping it back up, backing it back down. The contractions were still staying 2 minutes apart and lasting 1 1/2 minutes each.

By Monday night we were only 2-3 cm. dilated. We knew at that point we were going to be in for the long haul. Roughly 6pm on Monday night, Dr. Clark came in and broke my water. About 10 minutes later, I was in excruciating pain. My back felt like someone was prying my back and legs apart with the jaws of life. However, the TOCO monitor was oddly placed (thanks to a non-observant nurse) so she was not seeing my contractions on the monitor. Mike finally ran out in the hall to get her, explaining something was seriously wrong. When she finally came in, I could barely stand it anymore - I just knew at any point I was going to pass out from the pain. Dr. Clark came to check on us again, and I was still only 3 1/2 centimeters dilated but my contractions were 1 1/2 minutes apart, lasting 1 1/2 minutes each...they were coming so hard one on top of the other, we were getting not even 5 second breaks between them. At this point, I really thought I was going to die. Not from the pain, but I just knew something was not right. Next thing I know, they are completely shutting off the Pitocin, another doctor was rushing in to give me an epidural, I was attached to an oxygen mask and they were running fluids FULL BLAST through my body. Since the induction started, I had a fluid drip going through IV where it would take about 8 hours to go through a bag...at this point, I went through 1 1/2 bags in 15 minutes.

Once the epidural was put into place, I finally felt relief. I did not feel right, but I wasn't in all the pain. Mike and I were able to get about 4 hours of sleep. Around 2 am, the nurses came back in and every 15 minutes were rotate me from my left side to my right side, and I was continuously on the oxygen. They didn't say anything to us, but I figured this wasn't a good thing. (P.S. It is extremely hard to rotate a pregnant whale from her left to right side continuously when you are numb from the waste down.)

Early Tuesday morning around 6am, Dr. Clark came back in and I was only 4 cm. dilated. We knew I wasn't progressing like I should. I explained to her the pain was coming back pretty strong and I was sure my epidural was wearing off. She watched on the monitors for awhile and saw my blood pressure was creeping up quickly. It was almost shift change.

Next thing I remember, was Dr. Miles came in about 8:00am Tuesday morning and said he can see where Avery is showing distress and my blood pressure was still rising. They gave me more fluids, more oxygen, and ran a blood pressure medicine through my IV. He said he would check back in just a few minutes and if it had not changed, we would discuss our options of a c-section.

About 8:30 he rushed in the room and quickly explained that we need to head to the OR immediately. Avery's was having decels after every contraction....and since they were right on top of each other, she wasn't catching a break and she was under too much distress. I again felt like the jaws of life were cracking my spine apart. My blood pressure, despite the IV medicine, was 198/134. We had to get her out and get her out right then.

We went straight to the OR, I was given a spinal block, since my epidural was not working anymore, and by 8:43 they had started. I didn't have a clue. Mike was by my side, holding my hand talking to me, and I was telling the nurse I felt really nauseous. I did not even realize they had started the surgery. Next thing I know, I hear, "Congratulations!! Oh, she is so tiny!" In a total of 8 minutes Avery had entered the world. They took her over to do test, and they quickly realized, although very tiny, she was absolutely perfect. She had no complications or problems. PRAISE THE LORD!!!

As they finished closing me up, the nurses asked if I wanted to hold her. I couldn't, though, because my hands and arms were completely numb. So, Mike held her and We were in heaven!!! And the nurses were great. My Head Nurse took our camera and took pictures of the three of us.

You were delivered by Dr. Benjamin Miles, who we love  and have seen the most the past few months. Dr. Little was in the OR helping Dr. Miles, since things got so hectic so quickly. We had our favorite nurse, Brandi, as our OR nurse which made me feel even better.  The doctor who gave the spinal stayed with me the whole time and was absolutely wonderful.  He explained everything and did nothing but comfort and ease any anxiety I had throughout the entire surgery.  God definitely was on our side and with us through this whole process.


By 9:15 we were headed across the hall to delivery for an hour. Avery was able to stay with us the whole time so mama, daddy and baby had wonderful bonding time and skin to skin contact. Again, Brandi was with us which was wonderful.
We were absolutely smitten with you from the minute we first saw you! You are so beautiful! You are the best thing that has ever happened to either of us.

We love you so much, Avery Mackenzie Lane. We would say "To the moon and back" but realized immediately that did not even come close to the love we have for you.