Introducing.... Avery Marie Rhodes!

I remember in my blog last week Thursday, after getting my stitches removed, I wrote, "If I am still pregnant one week from now I will be in shock!" Well I just barely missed the one week mark by about 8 hours. Avery Marie Rhodes was born one Wednesday, July 18th at 11:59 pm. She was 7 pounds, 14 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. She has a full head of black hair and is of course, super adorable. :)

Here are the major events leading up to Avery's birth.

Thursday, after getting my stitches removed,  my cervix was already dialated to 3 cm and probably about 90 percent effaced (thinned out). I started having contractions, but they weren't really painfu. They gave me a pill to stop them and "ultimately" they sent me home from the hospital, thinking labor may start soon after, probably in the next day or two. I was totally expecting her to come over the weekend. I was having little contractions but they were nothing regular and I couldn't ever time them. So on Monday, I ended up calling my doctor's office and saying, "I don't think anyone expected me to still be pregnant, but I am. So I guess I should make a weekly check-up appointment for this Wednesday." I purposely picked Wednesday thinking, "Then I will be exactly 37 weeks and if my check-up starts my labor, they will consider me full-term and let me deliver." I know with both Gabe and Caleb I had a check-up the day previous or the day of their birth, so I was hoping it would speed things along!

Monday and Tuesday I was still just thinking, "I can't believe I am still pregnant." I got a lot of calls wondering if I had had her. But no. It was just the usual... taking Caleb to gymnastics, taking Gabe to soccer, seeing our weekly Summer movie in the cheap seats (it was Megamind this week...). I was beginning to wonder if she would stay in there till my due date! I started telling Gabe to pray she would come so that we could go foreward with our plan to go to Wisconsin for a visit in August. I said, "if she isn't born this week we probably won't go." That really got Gabe worried! He started including in his prayers at night that "our baby will be born soon."

Well, that must've done the trick! On Wednesday at 3:00, Diane (Josh's mom) got to our house to babysit the boys while we went to Idaho Falls for our appointment. I took my hospital overnight bag just in case. I told Diane, "I hope they check me and see that I am dialated to a 5 or 6 and decide to send me straight to the hospital to break my water." I think she thought I was dreaming because most women are in immense pain if they are dialated to a 5 or 6 and are actively labor in the hospital. But we told her we would call her from the appointment and let her know if we thought we would be back that night or not. I had a backpack for the boys to stay overnight at her house packed and ready at the top of the stairs in our house. I had this pretty planned out in my head for it to happen!

So, we got to the doctor and I had still been having little contractions but not too painful, just like my stomach was tightening. When we got to the doctor, we went in and saw Nicole because Dr. Huggins was really busy with other deliveries and stuff but I guess she was in and out of the office. Nicole checked me and told me that, guess what, I WAS dialated to what she said was "about a 5 or 6." I instantly thought, "Yes! Let's go to the hospital!" But Nicole was still reacting like, "Well, if you're not having contractions.... you can just go back to Rexburg until you're ready." And I was like, "Uh... no... I want to have my contractions monitored because I think my labor is starting and as soon as my water breaks she will be out in minutes." She finally was like, "Well, we have a room where we can monitor your contractions for a little while if you want." And I was like, "Uh... duh!" no just kidding. But seriously, I was thinking "Yes, that would be a good idea. I am glad I am telling YOU what needs to be done." So then I went into that little room where they hooked my belly up and watched me for about 30 minutes. At the end of that time, Nicole came in and got the print-out of all the little hills and valleys, indidctaing contractions, and said, "I need to go talk to Dr. Huggins and she what she thinks."

When she came back this time, she said, "I am going to strip your membranes and that will probably get your contractions going..." but then when I went into the little regular exam room again it was Dr. Huggins who walked in and checked me. She said, "I would say you are dialted to more like a 7. I am going to send you over to the hospital and come over and break your water because I am afraid if I send you home to Rexburg your water will break and you will have this baby in the car." I was thinking, "Yes, I am glad someone else recognizes that fact!" It made me really glad that I had kind of pushed it with Nicole and not just been like, "Okay, thanks! See ya next week!" and gone home.
If I would have, that could have been a totally different birth story - and a very scary one!

Then we went out to the lobby again and Dr. Huggins was trying to locate the results of my Group B strep test. I told her she wasn't going to find them because Nicole had just barely done the swab like, 30 minutes prior. They usually do that test at about 36 weeks, but I guess when I got my stitches out they all kind of forgot about it because I didn't actually go into her office that week, just the hospital.
The crappy thing about not having done it earlier was that they didn't have the results back yet, therefore they had to treat me like I DID have it, just to be safe, and put some antibiotics into my IV for at least 4 hours before my delivery. I guess Group B strep is no big deal to the mom but if the baby gets it during delivery, it can develop into a serious problem. But they can treat in by giving you penicilon for at least 4 hours in your IV before you deliver.

This was kind of a bummer because I got to the hospital at about 6:00 and Dr. Huggins was going to break my water right away, but then she realized I needed to delay it for 4 hours. So I had to just kind of lay there and wait until 10:30 when she could come in and break my water and send baby flying out! In that four hours, I was like, "Time for my epidural!!!" I really wasn't in much pain when I got checked into the hospital but I was like, "I know it will get worse, so let's get this rollin!" The epidural man came in at about 6:30 and I sat on the side of the bed while he got it going into my back. Getting an epidural isn't super fun, and it's kind of scary to be putting so much trust into someone who could make one wrong move and potentially parylize you forever, but let me tell you, this labor and delivery was so easy it was crazy. That epidural man is a genius. And God is a genius for making man create the epidural. I had told him about my experience in Wisconsin where only half of my body went numb and he was like, "Well we're going to make you a believer in Idaho medicine." He totally did. He was really funny. When it was about done I was like, "I heard some women have this special button to push when they are in pain and want more drug pumped in..." and he was like, "Yup! Here's your button!" I was so excited. I have never had a button. :)

Like, as I was laying there, watching TV and kind of dozing in and out of sleep while I could see the monitor was registering my huge, mountain sized contractions, I was thinking, "Pioneer women would hate me if they could see this labor. This is insane how calm and relazing this is." Gabe and Caleb's births were both sooo painful. Gabe's was the worst. Caleb's hurt but not as bad and for not as long. Avery's was like, 4 relaxing hours that ended with pushing a baby out in 2 pushes and no pain. So crazy. When Dr. Huggins broke my water at about 10:30, she checked me and said, "You're really close to being ready to push but lets give you some pitocin to just speed it up a little and get you there." So then I guess she had to go perform an emergency C-section on someone else nearby and I didn't really mind anyways because I wasn't in any pain. When she came back in the room it was exactly 11:55 pm and she asked, "Well, do you want to have this baby on the 18th or the 19th? Do you like evens or odds?" And I was like, "I just want this to be done so I can have something to eat!" (I hadn't eaten since lunch time! So my only pain was hunger pain!) So, we got into position (they had to lift my leg into the stirrups because they were so numb) and she told me when to start pushing during the first contraction. I did like, 3 big pushes. Then I waited about a minute for the next contraction and did about 2 or 3 more pushes and they told me she was out! I seriously would not have even know it unless they told me. Then they set her up on my belly while Josh cut the cord and nurses buzzed around getting things ready. She was covered in the white cheesy stuff and looked kind of gross but of course, I was still so excited to see her! She did cry a little bit but not a ton. I think they just needed to suction her out a little bit. They didn't seem concerned and then they took her over to the other side of the room and wiped her off and weighed her and everything. Dr. Huggins was pretty surprised at how big she was. I wasn't though. :) I grow'em big. Also, I was born at 38 weeks and weighed 8 lbs 3 oz. Josh weighed over 9. Caleb weighed 7 lbs 15 oz at 36 weeks. It was about what I expected.

Josh was sooo exhausted because he had been working night shift and then a few things during the day between court and K-9 training, so I think he was running on something like 8 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours. When the sweet little old lady nurse asked Josh if he would like to come help give her her first bath, I could see on his face he was thinking, "No... I want to sleep now..." but he lied and said, "Um... sure..." and went to help her. By the time she was all clean and things were all kind of wrapped up, it was about 2:00 am and they moved us into a different, smaller recovery room. I had fed her for the first time and she did pretty well. She nursed for about an hour but I think she was half asleep the whole time. The nurses asked me if I wanted her to stay in the room with us over the night or if they should take her to the nursery so we could get some sleep. Josh gave me "the look." I said, "I think it would be best if we got some sleep. Just bring her in to me when you need her to eat."
I will admit, I wanted some sleep too. And food. We had stopped at Subway at 6:00 on our way to the hospital so I was finally able to eat my sandwhich. So then we slept from about 2 to 5 am. When they brought her in again at 5:00, we had a little trouble getting her to eat because she just seemed so tired (like me!) But over the next couple of days, the lactation lady helped me a lot and I am hoping we continue to get the hang of it in the coming days.

We ended up coming home from the hospital on Friday at about 4:00. The hospital food was nasty and I was ready to get home so our kids wouldn't have to be babysat by Diane anymore. Josh had slept at the hospital with me that first night, but the second night I told him to stay at home with the boys and get some sleep. Funny enough, Caleb peed in the bed next to him and Gabe woke up with a bad bloody nose everywhere so I guess he still didn't get much sleep!

The first time the boys met Avery was on Thursday morning at about 11:00 and Diane brought them down. They thought she was "sooo cute!" and Caleb is prone to poking her and loving on her - but a little too much sometimes! Gabe is able to hold her with a pillow on his lap without giving me a heart attack. :) She really is a cute little girl. I was kind of worried in the ultrasound when the lady told me she had daddy's nose, but she looks very feminine and sweet. Even the nurses said, "We see a lot of babies... and she is really very cute!"

We are so happy to have her here now and I am so excited to be done with the pregnancy! I have had some soreness and some swelling, especially in my feet. My boobs have felt like rocks that past couple of days as my milk has come in and my belly is still looking about 3 months pregnant. I asked Josh, "How long do you think it will be once we get hime that one of the boys asks me why I am still fat?" Caleb asked me about an hour after we got home, "Is there another baby in your tummy?" Yup, about as long as I expected. But I know soon I will be back to normal! (I hope)

Here are some pictures of our sweet baby girl!