We welcomed our second daughter, Aveline Elisabeth just last week early in the morning on Thursday November 9 and we could not be happier. Even though this has seemed like such a long journey, the pregnancy has actually passed by pretty quickly! Even our families have commented on how fast it has gone by and they have known since pretty early on. I tried to enjoy each minute (although after week 38 that did get a little difficult).
Our first daughter, Claire arrived a few days after her due date on Christmas so I tried to settle myself in for going a little past my due date with Aveline. It’s kind of funny, but I was due on a Saturday with Claire and due on Saturday November 11 with Aveline. I had been dilated 1cm since my 36 week check up, but no progress since then. I even made an appointment for a 40+ week check up I was so sure I would be a little late! Throughout this pregnancy I had a lot more Braxton Hicks contractions than with Claire (more than 10 a day towards the end). But that was about it as far as progress. At the 39 week appointment last Tuesday November 7, I was still only 1 cm so the doctor asked if I wanted her to sweep my membranes to see if that would help. Sure go ahead. She was also able to stretch me to almost 2cm dilated. I went home afterwards and did not have any contractions or anything that night. I went to work the next day and thought I felt a couple of irregular mild contractions during the afternoon, but convinced myself otherwise. Matt had been coming home early and working at home for part of the day just in case so I updated him, but wasn’t too worried because I only had a couple contractions so far and since they were practically painless I didn’t think anything of it. I work very close to home and the hospital too so I just stayed at work. There was even a meeting after school I attended! But during the meeting I noticed I had some contractions were about 30 minutes apart. They were still mild, but I made sure to wrap the meeting up and head home!
My mother in law had been staying with us to help with Claire for the past week. We all had dinner and got Claire in bed. My contractions were starting to be more regular (about every 15 minutes) and I was actually beginning to wrap my head around the fact we might be headed to the hospital that night! Matt and I decided to walk around Target (it’s only a mile from our house) to see if some physical activity could help the contractions speed up while my mother in law stayed with Claire. We picked up a few things we might need at the hospital, too. Ladies, we all need a new pair of slippers for a hospital stay! And flavored water always helps you stay hydrated! After checking out, contractions were around 7 minutes apart so we headed home to call the hospital.
My doctor told me to call the hospital and head in once contractions were 7 minutes apart because I had progressed rather quickly with Claire and even though she was ‘sunny side up’ I still only pushed for 30 minutes with her. They knew Aveline was probably positioned the correct way since I had an ultrasound at 37 weeks (they were worried because I was measuring small so they wanted measurements with her although I measured small with Claire, too and she was over 8lbs! Aveline was measuring just fine on the ultrasound.) so odds were this labor would go even faster. The hospital told us to head in so we ended up getting to the hospital around 9pm. They put me in a triage room to monitor me. My contractions were about 4 minutes apart now and much more painful. They checked me and I was only dilated to 2.5cm. Unfortunately while monitoring, Aveline’s heart rate dropped into the dangerous range, down to about 30. It was so scary for us and we were all glued to the monitor for a while. The nurses and doctor were worried the umbilical cord was getting compressed causing the dip. We were able to get it back up slowly with changing positions, but they admitted me and put me on continual monitoring. Because of the continual monitoring I wasn’t able to move much to help with the pain and help it progress faster. I ended up getting an epidural when I was at 4cm around 1am in the morning. I don’t think the numbing shot worked for it because I definitely felt the needle go in and screamed, flustering the poor anesthesiologist. Contractions slowed down a bit after the epidural finally got working, but the nurse was actually relieved because it was such a busy night and the doctor that would be delivering was in surgery. Around 2am I began to feel very nauseous and lightheaded. I called the nurse in and she checked my blood pressure. It was 74 over 38. Again, we were lucky that changing positions was able to help with it, but we had to be careful because certain positions would help me, but make the baby’s heart rate drop again. Apparently laying on your side for an extended amount of time with an epidural makes most of the medicine go to one side of your body so I was feeling contractions on one side with the other being completely numb. It was a bizarre feeling.
Even though my contractions had slowed down a bit and weren’t as regular as when we came in, when I was checked around 4, I was dilated to 8cm. We had to do a quick room switch at that point, too. Our room had some special monitoring equipment that was needed. Once we got to the other room, the doctor met us in there and checked me again. I was fully dilated +2 which means it was suddenly time to push! Of course my contractions had slowed to about 4 minutes apart. I finally caught a contraction and was able to begin actually pushing. They had me continue pushing and not waiting for a contraction from there because she was so close. It only took about 3 minutes to push her out. At 5:13am, our little Aveline Elisabeth was born (we pronounce it Ava-leen and it means ‘wished for child’). 20 inches long and 7lbs 11.5oz and healthy!!
Once the epidural started to wear off I was able to move to the recovery room where we would be staying the next couple days and finally order some food and get a hot shower. Claire was actually a little bigger at 8lbs 4oz and so I needed quite a few stitches with her. I still needed stitches this time around, but not as many. Recovery after this pregnancy has gone much easier. I am not at 100% (who can be with a newborn and severe lack of sleep?), but I am well on my way. Claire is absolutely in love with her little sister, too. We were able to facetime her when we got into the recovery room Thursday morning. Because she had gone to bed before we went to the hospital, she had no idea we were even gone! Her first words were, “Where are you guys?!” Once we told her and showed her Aveline, she started giggling and running around the room yelling, “I’m a big sister!” My mother in law brought her to visit us at the hospital that evening and Aveline has been getting lots of sweet kisses and soft hugs ever since. I think Claire’s favorite thing to do is hold her which we let her do sitting on the couch with the boppy, lots of pillows, and supervision. She’s been reading her stories, too. After Aveline got her checkups, first vaccination, hearing screening, and I was cleared we ended up checking ourselves out a day early and came home Friday afternoon. Hospital beds just don’t appeal to me!
All in all we are happily adjusting to life as a family of 4. We are so very grateful to have the chance to expand our family and I would do it all over again if I had to. Aveline is such a sweetheart and loves to cuddle! She would be totally satisfied in someone’s arms all day long. I will be taking a bit of a step back from blogging over the next couple weeks as we get situated and a routine in place so I am sorry if I don’t respond to comments during that time! Thank you all for your congratulations on Tuesday. It means so much to us.