Avery Elise DeSavigny was born on February 17th, 2012. When Avery was born she weighed just over 7 pounds. She was beautiful from the first time I saw her, and one of my first thoughts when holding her for the first time was how perfect she was.
The morning that I went into labor I actually knew something was off. It was Thursday, February 16, and I had just hit 39 weeks. I went to work, and kind of figured "well, I've been lucky to be feeling so good so far, but this must be what it feels like for the last week or so." People were always asking how I was feeling, and I was always saying "good" until this day. I had packed my lunch, but I didn't feel like eating it, and I remember going to Panera for lunch instead. I had their tomato soup and hot chocolate. I made it through the rest of the work day and headed home.
I started having contractions while I was driving home from work. I worked about 45 minutes from home, and about halfway home my stomach had the worst pains I have ever felt. I almost pulled over, but as quickly as it came on, it went away. I called Travis, who was planning on going to a friend's house for his weekly poker night. He said, "keep driving and we'll decide when you get here." As I pulled into my neighborhood 20 minutes later, I had the exact stomach pain again, and that's when I determined it was probably contractions.
Travis decided to go to poker night since we wouldn't go to the hospital until my contractions were 5 minutes apart like my doctor told me. The next two hours or so were spent in the bathtub, where I actually felt pretty good. I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and barely felt my contractions. When I got out of the tub, I realized that my contractions were much stronger and closer together than I realized. I called Travis, and my friend Marissa (where Travis was...playing poker with her husband Joe) and determined that I wanted to go to the hospital soon, and Travis needed to come home right away. I already had my bag ready, so I remember just laying on our bed almost in tears with the pain.
At this point, I realized. I had a very low pain tolerance, and it was going to be a long night.
As soon as my husband came home, we left for the hospital. I was terrified that they would send me home to 'wait it out' because I was worried that I was possibly having Braxton Hicks contractions. Luckily, I was admitted and I was 4 centimeters dilated. My doctor was at the hospital that night, and she let me know that she was going to spend the night there, and would deliver my baby when we were ready (fully dilated to 10 centimeters.)
They gave me some pain medication through an IV, and I was instructed to walk up and down the hallways and hold the railings on the wall during contractions. This lasted for several painful hours. Around 2:30 in the morning, I decided to have the epidural. I had only progressed to about 6 centimeters, and I was in pain and exhausted. With the epidural, I was able to get a little rest for a few hours, until I woke up in a puddle of fluid when my water broke on its own.
Within about an hour or so of my water breaking, my doctor came to check me and I was fully dilated! This was around 6 in the morning. She told me to start pushing!
I tried to push, but couldn't feel much, and they decided to turn the epidural waaaaay down. The terrible pains came back, and I've never worked harder at anything in my life.
Sidebar - I've run a marathon, and passed my senior Freestyle I figure skating, and I thought giving birth would compare with a tough physical event, but I was wrong. Nothing I have ever done has compared to the feeling of pain and exhaustion that I felt. They kept saying 'you're almost there, you're doing great,' but it was NOT great.
Anyway, my beautiful daughter was born a few minutes before 8 that morning, and it really was an unbelievable moment, just like everyone says. One minute your pushing and the next minute your holding your little girl.
We spent the next 24 hours in a daze, trying to learn how to take care of our baby, and trying to get to know her as quickly as possible. On that day, I didn't know I could love someone I never met so quickly, and I certainly never realized that my love for her would continue to grow each day exponentially!
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