Baby Girl Has Arrived!

If you have Facebook, you may have seen my post about how ready I was to have the baby and be done with pregnancy a couple weeks ago! So on the night of May 22nd (or morning since it was 12:45am), my water broke. I started having contractions pretty quickly afterwards but they were irregular, so I figured I had some time. In case you didn't know, when your water breaks it continues to leak for awhile, so I spent a good amount of time sitting on the toilet waiting for that to stop. Then I decided I should collect my toiletries for my hospital bag so I would be ready to go. In the midst of gathering my things, Carlton woke up asking what was going on. I told him my water had broken and I was having contractions. At that time it was already 2:30am! I didn't realize so much time had already passed. So he called the on call doctor and asked if we could labor at home for a while since the contractions were several minutes apart still. They asked us to come in around 7am...but about 15 minutes later they called back and asked us to come in right away because I had a c-section with my previous pregnancy and was going for a vaginal birth this time, so they didn't want to risk anything going wrong. We called our friend, Jessica Schecter, who came over to stay at the house with Gavin while we went to the hospital. By the time we gathered everything up and got to the hospital, it was about 4:30am and my contractions were coming more regularly and about 3 minutes apart. 
Our doula met us at the hospital and it took us about 30 minutes to get from the emergency entrance to the labor and delivery department on the 4th floor because I kept having to stop and breathe through a contraction. It took another 30 minutes before I was able to get into the bed to be hooked up to the fetal monitor and have the doctor check my cervix. I was dilated 4cm at 5:30am. The contractions were definitely coming more frequently at that point! I had planned to labor in the birthing tub and wanted to try nitrous oxide for pain relief but we didn't have time for either one! I was on my hands and knees in the bed for awhile and the nurse checked and said I was dilated 9cm - this was only about 45 minutes later! So they had me get onto my back again into a semi-seated position. I vaguely remember the doctor coming back in the room and the nurse, Danielle, coaching me on the pushing. She had worked in a birthing center, so she was very helpful during my labor & delivery! I got to feel the top of her head as she crowned although I didn't see her come out. I was a little too preoccupied with the pushing. A couple times I had to stop pushing and told them the urge to push wasn't there even though they were thinking I could get her out. But after only about 20 minutes of pushing, she came out screaming! I had gone from 4cm to 10 cm in about an hour (normally women dilate 1cm per hour). Avery Nicole Brinda was born on May 22nd at 6:32am! They put her right on my chest for immediate skin to skin contact and our doula was able to get some pictures! The doctor also showed us the placenta, which was interesting to see!!

Danielle (blonde) coaching me on my pushing

Here she comes!

Making her arrival known!

Danielle congratulating me

Proud Daddy!!

Placenta!

Keeping Avery warm

Official birth weight 6 lbs 8.5 oz

Now we are a family of 4!

G meeting his sister for the first time!

Ms. Jessica meeting Avery!

First sponge bath

Sponge bath

It was a long night!!

Grammy Wheeler meets Avery!

Great Aunt Carol meets Avery!

Everyone got to enjoy baby girl's company!

Grammy Wheeler and Aunt Carol flew in late in the afternoon on May 22nd, so they were just in time to meet Avery on her birth day! I was worried she might come a week late which would have meant that Carol would have missed meeting her. But Avery made her appearance just in time!