Ava Rees Robinson

She's here

Introducing Ava Rees Robinson

Born at 5:49 PM

on May 2nd 2013

at Baylor Medical Center in Irving, Texas

weighing in at 9 lbs 12 oz 

and 20.8 inches long.

 she's perfect.

I can't believe it's been over a week since Ava was born. I feel like I barely blinked and It's already time for my mom to go home- which I'm trying not to be too sad about. This is her last full day here with us so I'm taking advantage of how much Ava loves cuddling with Grandma to write down

 her  little / extremely long birth story.

ugh- here I am up top at about 39 1/2 weeks pregnant and so sure she was coming any day. She took her time though as evidenced by an even bigger picture below.

At this point I was almost 41 weeks pregnant and so ready for Ava to join the world! Jeff has had a three week break from school and we were hoping Ava would either be a week early or on time so we could make the most of him being at home- however the little miss was just too comfy to make her way out so after my dr's appt that week we set a date to get induced for Thursday May 2nd. 

We didn't actually find out for sure that would be our date until about 7 pm the night before when I got a phone call from the nurse saying she was able to squeeze me in for 6 am the next morning! I was so excited- I had literally begged that nurse to get me a spot asap. Jeff and I spent that night cleaning/packing/freaking out.

Try getting a good nights sleep when you know you're having a baby the next day- it just doesn't happen. 

Finally, morning came around and we headed to the hospital!  

We walked up to labor and delivery and I practically shouted

We're the Robinsons! We're here to have a baby!

The nurses thought I was funny- but I was just so excited to get things going!

Up above was right after I checked in and got all hooked up to the baby monitor and had my IV put in. For some reason- the IV hurt SO BAD. I don't know why- but it really hurt and hurt for almost an hour. I thought that was weird- they put it in the side of my wrist and it felt like the needle was going into my bone- seriously, I'm not being dramatic- it hurt.

 Also- the baby monitor didn't really work on me and Ava. Ava was a stinker and kept moving away from the monitor and a nurse would have to come in every half hour to reposition it. Finally they gave up and took it off and put in a cervical one (no fun) but at least it worked better and it stopped freaking everyone out when the first monitor kept dropping the baby's vital signs. 

Showing off my wrist band. 

I'm still pretty happy at this point. 

They hadn't started the Pitocin yet.

Our last picture together as a family of two. 

And then the Pitocin kicked in and we stopped taking pictures haha

Even though I was almost 41 weeks pregnant- I was still only dilated to a 1. So sad. I was prepared to be in labor forever since my body seriously just didn't seem like it wanted to get Ava out. Once the Pitocin started the contractions weren't horrible- they weren't great, but I thought okay- this isn't too bad.  We watched TV joked with our nurses and just dealt with the contractions as they came. I was told they wouldn't break my water until I was at least 4 or 5 cm dilated, but then my doctor came in after two hours of Pitocin and said he thought we should go ahead and break my water and up the pitocin. I was only 2 cm dilated at this point. 

My doctor breaks my water, which wasn't as bad as I was expecting- I thought it was going to be super painful- I mean, have you seen the hook they use??? yikes. 

After my water broke the contractions started kicking my butt. They hurt SO bad. They just kept coming and hitting super hard. blah. I actually don't remember a ton of the next few hours because I was just so miserable. My dr and nurse told me I could get the epidural whenever, but that it was best to wait until I was at least 4/5 cm dilated. But after two and half hours of these awful contractions they checked me and I was only at a 3. I didn't care- I asked for the epidural right then! However, the anesthesiologist was in surgery so it took another 2 1/2 hours of some seriously painful contractions before he came in with the giant needle. 

I should also say that for some reason my body was out of control shaking/shivering ever since the Pitocin was started. The nurses said it was perfectly normal, but it was like I was having an out of control shiver attack. I think that freaked Jeff out. I wasn't cold- the drugs were just making my body freak out a bit. I was also getting nauseas and thought I was going to throw up so my nurse put some Zofran in my IV. Stupid me. I should have stopped her because my last experience with Zofran was so horrific. But I was in pain and not thinking straight. Well right after the Zofran went in my blood pressure plummeted about 40 points and the baby's heartbeat went way down. I already have really low blood pressure so there's not a lot of room for it to drop without it becoming a problem.

 The last time I was on Zofran my blood pressure got too low as well and is one of the reasons I had those mini stroke/migraines. At this point a whole bunch of nurses came in- put a oxygen mask on me and gave me shots of a drug to jump start my blood pressure to get it back up. Thankfully these drugs worked and my blood pressure jump right back to where it was

 and the baby's heartbeat was perfect again.

 All through this I was still shaking like crazy and I was worried the epidural would be a problem since I couldn't hold still for the life of me. My nurse was nice though and they had me sit on the edge of the bed with my legs straight out and she just held on to me while the epidural was put in place. Jeff wanted to watch- but the dr wouldn't let him. The anesthesiologist made Jeff sit in the corner lol

 He said he had too many husbands pass out while watching their wives get the epidural. 

I should also say that right before this dr finally came to give me the good stuff they checked me again and I was at a 5! Even though I had wanted the epi at a 3 ha- because of the other surgery putting off the anesthesiologist, I had to wait until I was a 5 anyways. I made sure to tell my other doctor that I "waited" until I was a 5 so he would be proud of me lol

and another good surprise!- the epidural didn't even hurt! It felt like a pin prick and then a really weird feeling going through my back and into my legs- it felt like my body was slowly filling with cement.

I was really worried that the epidural would hurt more- and I don't know if I just had a lucky experience or if I was in so much pain from the pitocin that the epidural didn't seem that bad. Either way- it worked great! I felt AMAZING the whole rest of the labor and delivery.

It did make my blood pressure drop again though :/ not as bad as the first time it did but still low enough that they made me wear the oxygen mask the rest of the time.

me drugged out. 

at this point i was actually feeling great- mostly because I couldn't feel anything!

My leg fell off the bed at one point and I didn't even notice. Jeff looked over and had to come over and put in back on haha. I couldn't feel a thing. Heaven. 

I was prepared for the epidural to slow things down, but in the next three hours I went from a 5 to being fully dilated- without feeling a thing :) Two nurses came and told me it was time to start pushing. I was so nervous. But after pushing for ten minutes (pushing is hard btw) another nurse came into our room and yelled at my nurses to come next door for some emergency. So....they did and then it was just me and Jeff in our room alone. I wasn't too happy but what was I going to do? I was nervous however because they had turned off my epidural when I started pushing and I didn't want to wait too long to start pushing again because I didn't want the epidural to wear off. I was assured it wouldn't be a problem....but then no one came back into our room for about an hour. 

By this time I had control of my legs. I was still numb but I could tell the epidural was wearing off pretty fast. Finally my doctor ran in with a different nurse and said I could start pushing again. ok great. just don't leave me again k?

After ten more minutes of pushing- (can I just say that pushing was really weird and intense and made me feel super competitive? the nurse was yelling at me and I wanted to punch her in the face but as soon as Ava came out the mean nurse turned nice and told me I was awesome. ha. she knew just how to get me to push harder. loved that nurse) Ava arrived! 

Right before the last push the doctor asked Jeff how big he thought she'd be. Jeff said at least 8 1/2 lbs and the nurses and dr all laughed at him! the dr said no way- that she'd be about 7 lbs. 

The moment Ava was born I could hear the nurses exclaim, "whoah!!! big baby!!" haha

and the first thing my doctor said was, "look at her double chin!"

That's my cute roly poly baby! 

They took held her up- Jeff cut the cord-and then they wiped her off a bit and put her directly on my chest. 

She was beautiful. 

I am so happy and just relieved that she was here and everything had worked out.

I remember looking over at her while they cleaned

 her up and thinking- "so that's what my baby looks like? ok"

She had a pretty bad cone head and I was worried something was wrong with her head but I was assured it was normal and she'd "round out" sooner than later. 

our first picture as a family of three

this pictures kills me.

she looks like the cutest mini sumo wrestler.

Jeff followed her to the nursery while I finished getting stitched up/put back together

- seriously, a 9 lb 12 oz baby will do some damage, ha- but it was all worth it for this beautiful little girl.

aww and here we were later that night/early morning of the next day. Jeff's already the best dad. He just loves Ava so much and Ava loves him. 

we couldn't get enough of her. we just stared at her all night.

the next day we had our first visitors. the cooks came to see her and they brought food and presents! have i said how much we love living close by to family? they're the best.

Jeff with his sister, Ann and Ava

Logan and Taylor brought Ava that awesome stuffed animal all decked out in a tutu and cowboy hat

and finally- my mom is here!!!

this is my mom's first grandchild. she cried :) 

just part of the loot Ann brought us- these cupcakes were delicious. I ate almost all of them- I let my mom have some bites and Jeff had a strawberry one but.... I was starving and couldn't control myself.

I was wanting to go home after the 24 hours were up, but my doctor wanted me to stay the full two nights. I ended up getting third degree tares and a ton of stitches so he wanted us to stay and make sure everything was going ok before we left. They also wanted to make sure my blood pressure stayed back up. It was pretty wonky for the first day after but finally it got back up to normal and has stayed there. 

Finally, when Ava was getting checked out for us to go home the nurse told us he thought Ava had a heart murmur and that she could possibly have a heart defect/hole in her heart. He told us we couldn't leave and that he was ordering her an echocardiogram for her heart right away, but it was would still take about three hours for the test to be set up. Gah. Those three hours were awful. I was so upset and so worried- I just held her and cried. Finally they were ready for the test and we all went down to watch. I still couldn't walk great so I was just hobbling around trying not to bawl. Ava was upset too- she was crying and didn't like being hooked up to the monitors so they gave her a pacifier and sugar water to calm her down- two things we weren't exactly planning on giving to her but at that point we didn't really care. Thankfully when they were doing the test they couldn't even find the heart murmur the nurse had heard before and her heart looked perfect! I was so relieved and so happy that I cried some more. We were told what happened was mostly like a PDA- where one of her heart ventricles was just taking a little longer to close up (usually this takes around 24 hours after birth- Ava's took 48 ) and the closing up process can sound like a heart murmur. All of the pictures came back of her heart showing the ventricle closed up and everything working properly. A few hours later we were on our way home. 

Also- she now takes a pacifier lol

So happy to be going home!

We love you sweet girl