Avenly Lynn- Born 7-26-2014

Our little Avenly Lynn came a week early.  She was born at Soin Hospital in Beavercreek, OH on July 26, 2014 at 11:14 am.  At birth she weighed 6 lbs 7 oz and was 20 in. long.  She is so tiny and precious and we love her!

Birth Story

At my appointment on Friday (the 25th) I was already dilated to a 5.  I tried to take it easy that night, hoping that I wouldn’t have to go to the hospital in the middle of the night.  We didn’t end up going to the hospital until the next day, but it didn’t matter because I certainly didn’t sleep Friday night.  I was awake most of the night with cramps and backache, and finally decided to get out of bed around 4:45 am and time my contractions.  They didn’t really start hurting or being consistent until 7 am.  I walked around the block just to make sure they were consistent and getting worse.  Sure enough, I had painful contractions every 5 minutes on my walk.  I waited at home another hour and the contractions got worse.  By the time we left our house about 9 am- I was breathing through the contractions. (Meaning concentrating on each breath and counting in my head).  At the hospital I had to go to a pre-room, where they make sure you are in labor.  I thought it was pretty obvious with how I reacted to my contractions, but non-the-less I was patient while we were in the room.  I did ask how soon I could have an epidural, and the nurse told me as long as my dilation was progressing.  I was at a 6 when we got to the hospital, and they told me they were going to move me into the delivery room, and I could have my epidural.  From the time I left the pre-room to the time I sat on the bed of the delivery room I had 4 contractions and they were getting worse.  The only problem was, I couldn’t have my epidural until I had my IV in and my blood drawn.  Then we had to wait for blood results from the lab.  Supposedly, this all wouldn’t take long… It didn’t, but little sister decided she wasn’t going to wait.  I went from contractions every 5 minutes to contractions every minute in a matter of minutes.  I remember saying to Josh- “Another one?!?! I just had one!”  At this point, they were mean!!  I was no longer counting to 15 or 20, but now counting to 50.  My breaths were no longer breaths, they were noises.  In a matter of minutes, those noises became songs- as Josh described!  (I don’t think they were pretty songs).  I was basically singing/yelling through the toughest of the contractions.  I’m sure the whole hospital could hear my beautiful melody!  ha ha Josh gave me a quick blessing in between contractions, and then my water broke.  I asked the nurse where my epidural was, and she said it’s too late!  I said, then how about an entricthical (probably spelled wrong)?? Right as I asked, I had a sudden urge to push!  My thoughts were no longer on getting meds!  All I wanted to do was push!  (Sorry if this is too graphic)!!  The problem was the doctor was not even at the hospital, yet!!!  They said don’t push!  I basically begged, pleaded, yelled at my nurse that I needed to push.  Finally, she kind of said okay- or I pretended she did because I wasn’t waiting any more!!  I pushed, and out came half of the baby! She would have come out all the way, but the nurse said, “hang on” so I asked what was going on, and she said the baby’s chord was around her neck. (Okay- here it gets graphic, so don’t read if you don’t want to)!!  She ended up cutting the chord in the middle of the chord, and one of the clamping instruments slipped so blood went EVERYWHERE.  Josh had to sit down so he didn’t pass out.  I was then able to do one more easy push and get Avenly out.  She came out so  quickly that I got a pretty nasty tear, but I’m just glad she was as good and healthy as she was!  (Apgar of 9 and 9)!

The worst of the pain was over, but I had to wait another 20 minutes for the doctor to come to finish up the nasty stuff.  I was still have contractions, though, and they weren’t  as hard and as often!  I still had to breath through them, and didn’t want to hold the baby because of the pain.  Josh held her and showed me her, and then when I was finally all finished, I held that precious little thing for the first time.  She was (still is) beautiful!

I made it to the bathroom just fine, but when I stood up to leave the bathroom, I almost passed out.  My nurse had to call for help, so she and the other nurse could help me to a wheel chair without me loosing it.

It was an adventure.  My nurse was fantastic, and she did a great job in a not so great situation!  I was lucky to have her as my day nurse the whole time I was at the hospital.

Payson Meets Baby Sister

A wonderful mother and her daughter from our ward that lives in our neighborhood came over and watched Payson for us while I was delivering Miss Avenly!  I was so worried about him, but he had a lot of fun with them, and they were so nice to him.

Josh went and got Payson after things had slowed down a bit at the hospital.  Pay was so excited to come to the hospital and see mommy and meet Baby Sister!

I made Payson a big brother shirt, but so far he hasn’t wanted to put it on. We gave him a train set when he got to the hospital, so he would feel special, but as much as he likes it- he still likes his baby sister the most!! 

 

First Family Photos and other hospital pictures

Going Home Pictures

We asked if we could leave a day early because everything was going well, and I really wanted to sleep in my own bed.  They let us leave, and of course Avenly’s newborn outfit was still pretty big on her, but she was still adorable in it!

A few pictures after getting home.

Josh has been great!  He gets to play nurse and homemaker on top of already being daddy this week.  Since Avenly came a week early, our mom’s will not be here until August.  They had to book tickets in advance since they both live in Utah.

The hospital has a professional photographer that takes pictures of the newborns.  We are not going to buy any of the pictures, but if anyone wants to see them here is the link:  http://www.bellababyphotography.com/galleries/chal0727nepunk?as=slideshow 

We are just thrilled to have “Baby Sister” with us!  Being a family of four is going to be lots of fun!!

Summer Projects

This summer has been full of fun projects!  Payson loves helping me!  Some projects I didn’t really want his help, and would mostly work on those ones while he was sleeping!  I feel like there is still more I want to do before little sister comes, but I got the biggest things done!!

Little Sister’s Room

Pay had a lot of fun helping me put the alphabet stickers on Little Sister’s wall.  I also put a canvas flower and a picture of the Savior holding a little girl’s hand in her room.  I am hoping to make cute curtains that match her quilt, but we’ll see if that actually happens.

Water Table for Payson

This took me no longer than 30 minutes to make after I had bought the shower liner to keep the water from getting in the cardboard boxes I used as the base and table.  If you want to see how I made the table, I wrote about it on my Sing, Dance, and Play blog.

Pay loved it for a few days, but the excitement has died down.  He still plays with it occasionally!  He really liked when we took all the toys and water out, and made soapy bubbles!

After I made the table, Payson thought it would be fun to put all his toys (including stuffed animals and books) in the water!!  Guess I should have paid attention as to what toys he was bringing outside.

Father’s Day Present from Payson

Payson had a lot of fun making Daddy’s Father’s Day gift! We printed a picture of Josh and Payson on fabric paper, ironed it on to the green fabric, and Payson stamped his hands and feet in blue paint and put them all over the green material.  We then put the material in a frame, so Josh could take it to work!!  It says “Daddy’s Boy!”

Fabric Flowers

I learned how to make this one kind of fabric flower.  I wanted to make some for Little Sister’s blessing dress, but after I learned how- I decided to make some more because the few flowers I did make were so fun.  Payson had fun helping me glue the flowers together.  I hope to use these for headbands and other things for my little girl!

Fleece Blanket

I will probably end up giving this away as a baby shower gift, but it was still fun to make!  I just used one piece of fleece and hemmed around the edge!

AND THE BIG PROJECTS!!

Baby Blessing Dress

This is the first baby blessing dress I have ever made, and I’m pretty proud of it.  I actually used an online tutorial from kojodesigns.com.  I changed a few things, so the dress is not the exact same as the tutorial.  It was a lot of fun to make!  I hope it fits Little Sister for her blessing.

Little Sister’s Baby Quilt

This was by far the project that took me the longest.  I have pieced simple quilts together before, but have never done applique and I have never free hand machine quilted a quilt before.  I actually think I did a great job on the strips and sewing them together.  The mistakes started coming when I did the things I have never done before, but I guess that is to be expected when doing something for the first time!  The quilt turned out really cute, and perfect for a baby girl!!

4th of July Weekend Fun

Josh really wanted to take a trip for the 4th of July since it landed on a Friday allowing him to have a 3 day weekend.  I wasn’t so keen on the idea of taking a big trip -given that I will probably be having a baby within the month or close to it, so we compromised and took a mini trip to a few places around here.

Chillicothe and the Indian Mounds

Basically, the Indian Mounds were built by the Hopewell Culture Indians for the purpose of burying their dead.  I took a lot of cute pictures of Payson at the Indian Mounds!  He had fun running around the field and looking at the mounds!

Fireworks

We stayed in Columbus that night, and found some fireworks.  This was the first time Payson had actually seen big fireworks in the sky.  Last year we we took a trip around Lake Michigan where there were no fireworks to see in the area on the 4th.  The year before he was only 4.5 months old, and we didn’t go out to see fireworks because it was still super hot outside, and I guess we didn’t want to put forth the effort!! ha ha

Anyway, he loved them, and last night he was asking to see more fireworks!

Before the firework show, Payson gave us a little entertainment!!  He put on a dance to the music that was playing!

Hocking Hills State Park

Saturday we went to Hocking Hills State Park, and we will be going back again.  It was a perfect day- meaning not too hot or rainy.  Hocking Hills had lots of hikes to little water falls and caves. The three of us only went to one area of the state park to hike because we hiked about 2 miles, and that was all about I could handle being 36 weeks pregnant!!  Josh and Payson did another mile hike in another area, but I took a nap in the car!  Payson fell asleep in the stroller with Josh on that hike.  I guess we wore him out pretty good, too, on the first hike.

The hike we all did was not just a walk in the woods.  It was fun. We had to go over roots sticking out of the ground, bridges, stone steps, through caves, and even cross the small stream at places.  We brought the stroller, but Payson ended up walking almost the whole time because it was just not smooth enough to push him.  One of us helped Payson over the terrain, while the other pushed the stroller or lifted it!! 

We were the ONLY ones with a stroller, and I have to say I did not see any other obviously pregnant ladies!!  You can call us adventurous – ha ha!  In fact, some of the people we talked to joked that they would have to call an ambulance because I might go into labor and have the baby at Hocking Hills.  Another older lady- said something to me like, “You aren’t going to climb those stairs are you?”  I said, “I am, actually!!”  She then replied something along the lines of, “Well, if you go into labor my husband is a doctor.”   I just call myself crazy!!  - Not too mention I had my sandals and dress on!! I didn’t go into labor after all, so I guess it was okay!

It was a good mini trip, and a fun weekend!!