Ok.. here it is.. finally! Im sure I am missing a million details but it was important to me to at least write out this much. Its super long!

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
When I woke up on Tuesday, I thought it was just going to be a normal day. Little did I know my life was going to change forever. I have been anticipating labor and having my little girl to hold for so long that I didn’t think that day would ever come. I got up, went to work and everything was fine. Throughout the day, I was very uncomfortable. I kept saying, I think these are real contractions. I was really hungry around lunch time so I ate and they all went away so I figured they were just BH. So anyways, I finished working, came home, went to dinner, went bowling with Rick (he is on a league so I went to watch), came home, our neighbors stopped by to give me my birthday present (my birthday was on Monday). One of the things they gave me was a "mini cake", Rick and I shared it with a big glass of milk. At this time it was about 10:00pm. Rick went to go take a shower and I was getting ready for bed. My stomach started to hurt super bad. I figured that it was because I just had a huge amount of sugar followed by too much milk. I sat there for a few minutes and then I really had to go to the bathroom. I went into the bathroom and had the worst diarrhea. Rick was still in the shower and this point my stomach was nonstop contracting. I hurried up and jumped in the shower with Rick and he rubbed my back and got out so I could finish up my shower. I got out, came and sat on the chair and was in so much pain.

At 11:30pm I decided that maybe I should call the doctor and go in. The doctor told me that I should go get checked out especially because of my BP. We arrived to L&D around midnight, they checked me and I was still at 1cm and still 90% effaced and -1 station. They monitored my contractions for the next 2 hours and said they weren’t anything that was going to progress my cervix. On the monitor, my contractions were only registering between 16-25 but mostly on the lower side of that. I was in ALOT of pain and they said the only thing they could offer me was some morphine. I figured that was stupid if I wasn’t even in labor. I didn’t want to sit there on medication for no reason. I decided that I would just go home.

They discharged us around 1:30am. I asked for a work note for Wednesday cause I was so exhausted and knew I wasn’t going to be able to get up in the AM.

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

We arrive home around 2:00am. I was still in so much pain and it was getting worse. I paced around the house, tried watching some TV, tried going to bed, and most of all, I couldn’t stay out of the bathroom. Nothing made me feel comfortable or relieve any of the pain.

Finally around 5am, I called the doctor again. I felt so foolish and figured that it was still going to be nothing. The doctor on call asked some questions and also told me that my doctor was on call starting at 7am. I was so relieved to hear that. We went on our way to the hospital.

We get into L&D again at 5:30am and they monitored my contractions some more. Still the same, only this time I was between 1-2 cm dilated and 100% effaced. I felt better that I was actually progressing but still didn’t think it was anything because of the way my contractions were registering. I layed there and breathed through all of them until my doctor got there.

At 7:30am my doctor arrived to the hospital. She checked me and couldn’t believe how low the baby was. Ava was already in station +2, I was 2 cm dilated and 100% effaced. I really thought I was in labor because of my contractions, but my contractions weren’t measuring very strong and my pain was mostly just coming from her being so low. She said she was going to admit me and we were going to have a baby!

After waiting for what seemed to be forever, I was wheeled over to the Labor and Delivery room at 9:20am. I was given an IV drip of pitocin to intensify my contractions and an IV shot and a shot in the hip of morphine for the pain. That was great and I felt much better. That only lasted until 10:50am! I told them I needed some more but they said it was too soon for more morphine but they would check with my doctor to see if they could give me an epidural. I went into this with the idea of no epidural but that was soon changed at 11:10am - I said yes to the epidural. I just didn’t know how I was going to do it since I was already going on 24+ hours of no sleep. They said they were going to have to check me first and get it approved by my doctor before they could order it. I was checked and was 3 cm dilated, 100% effaced and baby was between a +1 & +2 station. They also inserted an internal monitor to measure my contractions and when I *thought* they were only 20, they were really measuring 85!! Due to my anterior placenta, the external monitor wasn’t able to pick it up. No wonder why I was in so much pain! Due to the pressure of Ava being so low and the frequency of my contractions, I only had about 30 seconds in between each.
At 11:55am, the Anesthesiologist came in to do the epidural. I was nervous getting that done because some say how bad it hurts. Luckily, I didn’t have any contractions while she was doing her thing and if I did have any, my mind was so concentrated on the epidural that I didn’t even notice. It didn’t hurt one bit and I felt instant relief!
At 12:15pm, my doctor came in to break my water and to check me and I was between 3-4 cm and broke my water. Ava’s head was so low that when she broke my water only a little tiny bit came out and Ava was acting like a cork After my doctor was finished, I was finally able to get some sleep. I slept until about 2:00om.
At 3:15pm, I had so much pressure again and had to sit up and was given an extra dosage directly to my back for the epidural.
At 4:38pm, I was checked and was 7cm dilated.
Around 7:00ish, I was checked again and was dilated to 8cm but was able to “stretch” it to 9cm.
The nurses changed shifts at 7:00pm which I was totally disappointed with because I had the best nurse ever. I even asked her if she could stay but she said she would but the day had been so exhausting. At the same time I was in labor so were 11 other woman. My mom later told me when she went down stairs there were another 5 girls in triage that were in labor too. My doctor told me that it takes on average about 1 hour to dilate to each cm and 2-3 hours of pushing. My nurse, Susan, assured me that she would find the best nurse on the next shift to be with me. Before she left, introduces me to Cathy and said her good-byes to me. Cathy was wonderful. She really helped me a lot and made me feel very comfortable.
Around 7:15pm, I let Cathy know that I felt like I needed to push. I was just checked 15 min before so of course we all thought that it was just the pressure of Ava’s head. I asked everyone that was in the room (my family and Ricks family) to please leave as I wanted the delivery to be just Rick and me. She checked me and what do you know, I was 10cm dilated! She called in the Resident Doctor. The Resident Doctor checked me a few minutes later and said that she felt that I wasn’t *quite* dilated to 10 but that we could do a practice push. I did a practice push and she was able to push it to be a 10. So the practice pushing ended up being time to push. The Resident Doctor went over to the phone to call my Doctor to let her know I was starting to push. After about 2 pushes, I just started crying and saying that I couldn’t do this. Rick assured me that I can do anything and that I was the strongest and most determined woman he has ever met. My doctor got serious and said Amanda you have to do this; I know you can do it. I kept pushing and pushing. It seemed like a lot longer than it really was but before I knew it everyone was saying “LOOK AT ALL HER HAIR!!” Rick said that my doctor was twirling it with her finger  . At some point, my doctor and the resident doctor got up and walked away. I started pretty much crying saying, “Where are you going, I need you!” The nurse said, they are just going to get suited up, the baby is coming! I pushed again could just feel that she was right there. Another contraction was coming and they told me not to push. I said I have to push and they literally had to catch her (oops!). All I can remember is balling saying “my baby!!” After 21 hours of labor and 24 minutes of pushing (13 contractions), my baby girl was finally here! Them putting her on my stomach as she was screaming was the best feeling. She cried for a minute but just stopped and looked at me with her eyes wide open. I totally fell in love. Once they finished cleaning her up, they took her over to the little station and did there thing with her. I could see that Rick was torn. He was having the hardest time choosing whether or not to stay with me or to go with Ava. I told her to go with her and make sure she was alright. He went over there while I delivered the placenta. The placenta was the weirdest feeling. I didn’t have to do anything and it kind of just pushed its self out with my next contraction with the help of the doctor pushing on my stomach. I had to wait away to get stitched up as I did get a 2nd degree tear (probably shouldn’t have pushed when they told me not too). Rick and I were able to spend the next probably 40 min or so by ourselves and then called Ben to tell him he was a big brother. He was so excited, he couldn’t believe that Ava was finally here – he waited so long.
Everything was just so perfect, it seemed like a dream. During the whole time, just having Rick by my side was all I needed. He helped me through it so much and him just reminding me of what the end result was – us holding our little girl, kept me strong. I realize now how blessed I am to have such a wonderful husband and such a beautiful family. Life couldn’t be more perfect.
On Friday morning, we had a visitor. My first L&D nurse, Susan, came to visit us. She was such a wonderful person. She said that she had been thinking about me since Wednesday when she left and couldn’t wait to come in to look at the chart. She said she wishes now that she would have stayed since it was only 44 minutes after she left. She said that I was wonderful to take care of, that Rick was a great coach, and she knows that we are going to have a wonderful family.
I’m sure I am missing a whole lot and I will probably come revise this a million times before I put it in her baby book, but all of the feelings and emotions that come when reading and writing this is so wonderful. I am glad I was able to have such an amazing delivery and that we are both healthy.

Ava Josephine
6lbs. 10oz.
20 inches long
7:44pm

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