Happy Birthday Avalyn!!

Well, after 15 hours of labor at Winnie Palmer Hospital, Avalyn Grace Thompson finally arrived at 2:15pm on Thursday, August 6, 2009! Here is her story:

On Wednesday, August 5th, in the wee hours of the morning, it appeared that I had lost some of the mucus plug or fluid. This leak continued throughout the morning and day hours and after some consultation with our friend (an OB nurse) we decided to head to the hospital at 8pm to see if it was an amniotic fluid leak (or my water breaking). After a quick check in triage, it was evident that yes, my water had broken, but not completely. We were admitted and at 11:15pm Pitocin was started to get the contractions going. Once that kicked in, I began getting contractions every 2-3 minutes and slowly began to dilate. At 4am I was given antibiotics to fight off any infections since my water had been broken for at least 12 hours thus far. At 10am, I couldn't handle the frequency and intensity of the contractions anymore, so I succumbed to the epidural. Let me tell you, that was the BEST thing I did! Wow, I couldn't feel a thing and finally began to get some rest, as I hadn't gotten any sleep thus far. Shortly after the epidural was given I had an exam to see how far along I was - only 4 cm. After 11 hours of labor and pitocin, only 2 cm of dilation had occured. Dr. D'Heureux decided to up the pitocin to increase the intensity of the contractions to speed up the labor (again, my water had been broken for awhile now) and they also inserted some type of devise to actually monitor the intensity (vs. duration/latency) of contractions.

Well let me tell you, once that was increase, things progressed! An hour later, at 11am, I was 5 cm dilated, but Avalyn's heartrate was fluxuating during contractions, so I was given oxygen to help with that. 1:00am, I was 7cm dilated and progressing quickly. However, at that time, something was going on with Avalyn, as the nurses kept rearranging my position to help her out. I think her heartrate was jumping around too much or plunging too low. After delivery, I found out that at this time, they contemplated doing a c-section to get her out since her heartrate was so erratic/low. Another check, not but 5 minutes later, and they determined she was ready to come out! I had progressed from 7cm to almost 10cm in a matter of minutes and she was ready to deliver (which helped them to decide to deliver vaginally vs. a c-section).

So, the crew came in - Brandon, my mom, and Diana - to help welcome Avalyn. At this time, I still had my epidural solidly working, so I was unable to feel any pressure/contractions to push - which made it wonderful for pain control, but difficult to tell if I was doing anything. They mentioned vacuum extraction and the sort, but after 1 hour of pushing, she arrived! I honestly couldn't feel a thing except the relief that she came out. It turns out that the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck (hence the low heartrate and urgency to get her out). She weighed in at 7 lbs., 3 oz, 19 1/2 inches long, at 2:15pm. Her APGAR scores were 8 and 9 after delivery - very good. However, since she transitioned so quickly, they took her to the transition nursery to monitor her breathing for a couple of hours while I got stitched up (2 small tears) and transferred to the mother/baby suite. Unfortunately, those 'couple of hours' turned into 6 long hours before we were able to have her with us in the room and begin breastfeeding. Nevertheless, she is now doing excellent with her breathing and all signs are good for her health!

Breastfeeding is going well - she latched on right away and is taking to it like a champ! The difficult part has been trying to figure out her needs and work her into somewhat of a little schedule. With constant interruptions from nurses, doctors, and visitors, it is difficult to get or even maintain that schedule, so it's been quite frustrating and trying on our patience. However, things are starting to shape up now that we've seen a lactation consultant for some extra tips and reassurances and are being discharged later this morning. We hope that things will continue to improve once we get home, although there are other 'family members' awaiting her arrival and we hope they adjust quietly and smoothly!

To see more pics from her birth day, visit this link (you may have to copy/paste it into your browser):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048436&id=32901041&l=59a7f9a466

P.S.... scroll down to the "What's Avalyn going to look like?" post and you'll see she's practically identical to my baby picture at 3 months!! That's where she got all that hair from!!