Happy Birthday Baby Ava!

For two weeks we have been impatiently expecting our baby girl to be born. I have delivered early with my other four babies and so expected to do the same this time.

Two days before my due date, I still didn't show any signs of going into labor despite several long daily walks, shampooing my carpets, washing the cars, body pump, painting, power cleaning the house, and other crazy methods of inducing labor!



I love being pregnant and since this is my last baby, I wasn't necessarily in a huge hurry to go into labor. However, she has never been a very active baby, so I was always worried that something was wrong.

Plus, they took me off of the work schedule at 38 weeks, so I felt very much in limbo, waiting and wondering every day if I would go into labor.



On Thursday morning, my friend, Shannon, who is the lead nurse of the Kadlec Birthcenter, called and asked if I wanted to be induced. Doug and I jumped on that and were at the hospital two hours later.

We found out that all of our friends who were expecting babies, even those whose due dates were after mine, had delivered earlier in the week.



My wonderful nurse, Trish, was trying to start my induction quickly, but I was dehydrated and nobody could get an IV started. It took five attempts and very bruised arms before someone was able to get the IV going.

The pitocin worked right away and I started contracting fairly hard every two minutes. Since I tend to deliver quickly, I decided to get my epidural sooner than later.


Since I work at the hospital and deal with labor every day, I was not nervous for anything. That is until the anesthesiologist came in.

He said since I'd had a previous back surgery, there was a much greater possibility of puncturing the spinal cord which would lead to a nasty spinal headache. No big deal, except he also said that the normal method of curing the spinal headache might not work with my altered spine structure and I would suffer the spinal headache for a long time. I think his exact words were, "it will go away eventually." That was reassuring!

Of course, I had the epidural anyway and he did a fabulous job. I don't remember this happening with other pregnancies, but the medication in the epidural went straight to my head and I was loopy for the entire delivery.

I couldn't focus my eyes and during the delivery, I kept yammering on about being afraid of the ocean, sharks, eels and jellyfish. I'm sure everyone in the room thought I was a moron! Just a cheap drunk I guess.

About three hours later I started having a lot more pain. Trish said I was only five centimeters, but I have a history of delivering quickly after four centimeters, so I told the anesthesiologist to give me a quick acting drug in my epidural.

He didn't want to give it to me since it only lasts an hour and he didn't think I would deliver by then. He finally gave in and reluctantly gave me the drug. Twenty five minutes later the baby was delivered and he was impressed!

I truly could not have asked for a better delivery or for better doctors or nurses to care for my family. It was everything that I had hoped for.




It is always such a relief to have the baby born and to see that she is perfect and healthy. Even with ultrasounds and all of the technology that we have, I still worry that something is wrong with the baby that got missed. I suppose that is the consequence of working in labor and delivery - I see too much.

What a blessing it is to deliver in the hospital where I have my work family to take care of me. How fun to have so many people excited for the birth of my children - they always treat me like a queen when I am there.


Then to be taken care of by my ward family when I get home with childcare, meals, gifts and well-wishes. My family and I are truly blessed and we are grateful.