Averi Jayne's due date was July 24, 2015!
She was born on July 27, 2015!
Before I go into her birth story, I am going to talk a little bit about my pregnancy first. I have alway heard of all of these symptoms that you get while being pregnant.
*Morning sickness
* Food cravings
* Round ligament pain
* Weight gain (25-35lbs)
* Swollen Feel/legs
* Peeing All.The.Time
* Braxton Hicks
* Braxton Hicks
* Finding an OB/GYN
Morning Sickness
I had a WONDERFUL pregnancy! During the first trimester I waited and waited for the morning sickness to start.. and it never came. I never once felt even slightly nauseous during my pregnancy.
Food Cravings
During my pregnancy I couldn't wait for food cravings so that I could eat whatever I wanted and blame it on the baby. Or so I could make Steve get me certain foods during the day or night. I also never had any food cravings. Anybody that knows me, knows that I love my fast food and cafeteria food. Nothing changed with the way I ate the whole nine months.
Round Ligament Pain
At four months pregnant I did get round ligament pain. It lasted about a day and a half. That wasn't really any fun.
Weight Gain (25-35lbs)
I definitely gained weight. Halfway through my second trimester I had already reached my 35lbs and then some. I gained all my weight by the end of my second trimester. I really didn't gain any weight in my third trimester at all. I just pounded it on during the first six months. I gained a total of 47lbs!!!
Swollen Feel/Swollen Legs
I had no swollen feel or legs until the last 6 weeks. They swelled pretty good those last six weeks. A lot of the swelling probably had to do with me standing a lot (renovating our home) in the middle of the hot, Hot summer!
Peeing All.The.Time
I really didn't notice that I had to pee a lot until my third trimester. I hated getting up all the time to go pee especially during the night!
Braxton Hicks
I never got any Braxton Hicks contracts or contractions until it was go time.
Finding an OB/GYN
I loved my doctor in Orem, Utah and was bummed that I had to find a new doctor because we were moving to Denver, Colorado with only one month before Averi was due. I found a doctor in Colorado that I liked.
Averi Jayne's Birth Story
(Steve's thoughts of the whole experience are written in red.)
(Steve's thoughts of the whole experience are written in red.)
Steve was so excited for our baby girl to get here. But she didn't want to come on her due date which was July 24th. Steve would ask me everyday, "When is baby coming?"
Yep, I was a bit anxious for our little girl to get here!
In the wee hours of the morning on Monday, July 27th I woke up at 1:00 a.m. with light cramps. I kept falling back asleep and waking back up for the next half hour. At 1:30 a.m. I decided I probably should start timing the cramps because they were probably contractions. For the next hour and a half I had my timer going on my phone so I could keep track of how far apart my contractions were. I scrolled through Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Blogs and anything else that seemed interesting at 2:00 in the morning. My OB/GYN said not to come into the hospital until I had contractions for two hours that were five minutes of less apart.
Steve was asleep the whole time.
At 3:00 or 3:30 a.m. Steve finally woke up and asked what I was doing. I said I just couldn't sleep so I was on my phone. He didn't really believe me. I told him I thought I was having contractions but they weren't close enough together so he could go back to sleep. I got up and went to the bathroom and when I came back into the bedroom he was fully dressed and ready to go to the hospital!
She's a terrible liar, so I knew right away something was up.
By this point the contractions were getting stronger and stronger. But they were all over the place time wise. I would have contractions two minutes apart for ten minutes and then it would just up to contractions every eight minutes, to every five minutes to every fifteen minutes, to every four minutes... they were all over the place. So I knew it wasn't time to go in yet because of what my OB/GYN had told me previously.
By 5:30 a.m. I called the doctors office and explained what was going on. It was an "on call" doctor that I talked to since it was 5:30 a.m. This doctor told me to wait as well because my contractions weren't close enough together yet. She told me if I felt like I really needed to go in I could, but they would probably send me home because I wasn't close enough. She said she would call the hospital and tell them that I would be coming in sometime that Monday morning.
At 6:30 the contractions were still getting stronger but as I was timing them they were still ALL OVER THE PLACE! I would have contractions that were six minutes apart then it would jump to twenty minutes then back to three minutes then every minute...
I decided at 6:30 a.m. I wanted to head in to the hospital and if they said I wasn't ready yet then we would just go home.
Traffic was a little busy but not too bad. We live about fifteen minutes from the hospital. We got there at 7:00 a.m. As they were getting ready to check me they asked me my symptoms and I explained it all to them. The nurse also said since your contractions aren't consistent you probably aren't dilated far enough yet. But we will check anyway.
The nurse checked to see how far I was dilated and was shocked that I was already at a 6!! At that point they checked me into the hospital. All of the nurses all of a sudden were rushing around to get me ready.
The way the nurses started rushing around, we both assumed we were about to have the baby any second (and by "we" I mean Jessica). I guess we really weren't though...
Apparently I was dehydrated so they hooked me up to the IV and got the liquids going. I couldn't get my epidural until I was hydrated.
At 10:30 I got the epidural and fell fast asleep for two hours. Epidurals are wonderful! I felt NOTHING!!
At 12:30 my doctor came in. She wasn't the doctor that I found a month earlier because my real doctor was out of town the week I went into labor. So this was my new doctor, Dr. Penrose. She checked to see how far dilated I was... I was still at a 6! Dr. Penrose decided that we was going to break my water in hopes that it would speed up the process. It didn't; it made it worse!! Once she broke my water (and put the contraction monitor and baby monitor in me... at least that's how I understood it all dazed) my epidural STOPPED working!! Who knew epidurals stopped working!?!? NOT ME!! I didn't realize that it stopped working because I didn't know that could happen. I just kept thinking to myself, if this is what it feels like with an epidural, I can't imagine what it would feel like without one.
The next 3 hours and 45 minutes I don't remember! I just know
I'T. WAS. NOT. FUN!!!
She's right. It wasn't fun. I thought I was emotionally braced for watching my wife go through labor. I wasn't. Watching your wife go through intense pain for hours is something I don't think you can really prepare for.
Once her epidural quit working and the real pain began, I wanted to be there for her as much as I could. Unfortunately, the feeling wasn't mutual. The nurses told me my job was to try to help her relax. So I tried...I kept telling her things like "you're okay","just try and relax", and "you're doing great." She responded to my encouragement by angrily glaring at me and responding, "I'M NOT OKAY! QUIT TELLING ME TO RELAX!" And there may have been a few expletives in there...or more than a few...I decided after that I would keep my mouth shut and provide silent emotional support. Jessica liked that a lot better.
As the pain continued to intensify, the nurses continued to monitor her progress. At this point Jessica had decided she wanted a C-section and kept telling the nurses to take her in for one. They obviously weren't about to go that route as she was progressing quite quickly at this point. In fact, after hours and hours of being stuck at a 6, she was getting to a 10 real quick!
The on-call doctor was busy with another delivery next door. Yep, we could here the lady screaming bloody murder through the wall, which didn't help my already high anxiety. The nurses started to panic a bit as Jessica had progressed really fast and wasn't able to keep from pushing at this point, despite her best efforts. The nurses kept prepping everything as best they could, as it appeared that our little girl was now in a hurry to come. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting for the doctor to arrive, she finally came in.
I pushed for 30 minutes! And then our baby girl was here.
At this point things were pretty intense as Jessica's stomach was moving and contorting in ways that didn't seem humanly possible. The next half hour is kind of a blur, but finally little Averi's head poked through for the first time. A few minutes later she was out completely and I was cutting the cord. I'll never forgot how incredible it was to see her for the first time! I knew right away this little girl was going to have her daddy wrapped around her finger. I also had an overwhelming sense of gratitude and pride for my amazing wife for doing what she just did!
July 27, 2015
Born at 4:15 p.m
21 inches long
8lbs 9oz
They put Averi over in the baby bed in our room. Daddy got to go see her close up. My blood pressure was really high as well as my heart rate. They wanted to wait for that to mellow out before they put her on me. Plus Dr. Penrose had to stitch me up. I had a fourth degree laceration/tear. It took her over two hours to get the rest of the placenta (because some of it fell off in the uterus) and sew up the tear. They were worried about how much blood I lost. Dr. Penrose said I lost more blood then a C-Section delivery. They would check my blood levels the next day to see if I would need a blood transfusion. After an hour of waiting to see if I could hold Averi before they took her out, daddy and baby went to a different room so that Averi could get her shots and could have her first feeding with donor milk. Daddy got to feed her for the first time.
I thought all the excitement was over once that baby came out, but things weren't going well for mommy. The doctor was concerned with how much blood she had lost and how high her blood pressure was. So much so that she wasn't even able to hold Averi at all. Jessica continued to cry out in pain as they worked on her. After an hour of working on her, she still wasn't stable and baby Averi needed to go get taken care of and fed. Jessica insisted I stay with Averi and the doctor's assured me Jessica would be okay, so I left with my new little angel.
In the newborn area, I got to feed her and soothe her while she got her shots. The tough little girl didn't even cry. Daddy almost did though. After all that, baby and I just sat there and looked at each other for the next two hours while they took care of mommy. It was a pretty amazing feeling to just stare into my little girl's eyes for those two hours. Nothing else seemed to matter at that point.
After a couple more hours and some insisting, the nurses finally cleared Averi and I to go back to mom. It had been four hours since she was born. Mom still looked really pale and her blood pressure was a bit high, but we were just glad to be by her again.
Four hours later daddy and baby Averi finally came back into my room and I got to hold her. They also waited until I could be with her and they gave her her first bath. What a sweet little blessing from above!
Tuesday morning the doctor recommend that I get two units of blood since I lost so much during delivery.
Wednesday afternoon we were headed home with your little munchkin!
Our first day home!!
My mom, dad, and brother were planning on coming out a week and a half after she was born. But my mom couldn't wait that long and since my dad won't fly, she bought herself a ticket that first weekend and came out by herself. Then the next weekend my whole family came out.
The weekend after that all of Steve's brothers and sisters came out to see baby Averi. (I didn't get pictures of all of his family holding baby Averi but all his siblings came out.)
Our first month with Averi Jayne!
The Flints ~ XOXO
Yep, I was a bit anxious for our little girl to get here!
In the wee hours of the morning on Monday, July 27th I woke up at 1:00 a.m. with light cramps. I kept falling back asleep and waking back up for the next half hour. At 1:30 a.m. I decided I probably should start timing the cramps because they were probably contractions. For the next hour and a half I had my timer going on my phone so I could keep track of how far apart my contractions were. I scrolled through Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Blogs and anything else that seemed interesting at 2:00 in the morning. My OB/GYN said not to come into the hospital until I had contractions for two hours that were five minutes of less apart.
Steve was asleep the whole time.
At 3:00 or 3:30 a.m. Steve finally woke up and asked what I was doing. I said I just couldn't sleep so I was on my phone. He didn't really believe me. I told him I thought I was having contractions but they weren't close enough together so he could go back to sleep. I got up and went to the bathroom and when I came back into the bedroom he was fully dressed and ready to go to the hospital!
She's a terrible liar, so I knew right away something was up.
By this point the contractions were getting stronger and stronger. But they were all over the place time wise. I would have contractions two minutes apart for ten minutes and then it would just up to contractions every eight minutes, to every five minutes to every fifteen minutes, to every four minutes... they were all over the place. So I knew it wasn't time to go in yet because of what my OB/GYN had told me previously.
By 5:30 a.m. I called the doctors office and explained what was going on. It was an "on call" doctor that I talked to since it was 5:30 a.m. This doctor told me to wait as well because my contractions weren't close enough together yet. She told me if I felt like I really needed to go in I could, but they would probably send me home because I wasn't close enough. She said she would call the hospital and tell them that I would be coming in sometime that Monday morning.
At 6:30 the contractions were still getting stronger but as I was timing them they were still ALL OVER THE PLACE! I would have contractions that were six minutes apart then it would jump to twenty minutes then back to three minutes then every minute...
I decided at 6:30 a.m. I wanted to head in to the hospital and if they said I wasn't ready yet then we would just go home.
Traffic was a little busy but not too bad. We live about fifteen minutes from the hospital. We got there at 7:00 a.m. As they were getting ready to check me they asked me my symptoms and I explained it all to them. The nurse also said since your contractions aren't consistent you probably aren't dilated far enough yet. But we will check anyway.
The nurse checked to see how far I was dilated and was shocked that I was already at a 6!! At that point they checked me into the hospital. All of the nurses all of a sudden were rushing around to get me ready.
The way the nurses started rushing around, we both assumed we were about to have the baby any second (and by "we" I mean Jessica). I guess we really weren't though...
Apparently I was dehydrated so they hooked me up to the IV and got the liquids going. I couldn't get my epidural until I was hydrated.
At 10:30 I got the epidural and fell fast asleep for two hours. Epidurals are wonderful! I felt NOTHING!!
At 12:30 my doctor came in. She wasn't the doctor that I found a month earlier because my real doctor was out of town the week I went into labor. So this was my new doctor, Dr. Penrose. She checked to see how far dilated I was... I was still at a 6! Dr. Penrose decided that we was going to break my water in hopes that it would speed up the process. It didn't; it made it worse!! Once she broke my water (and put the contraction monitor and baby monitor in me... at least that's how I understood it all dazed) my epidural STOPPED working!! Who knew epidurals stopped working!?!? NOT ME!! I didn't realize that it stopped working because I didn't know that could happen. I just kept thinking to myself, if this is what it feels like with an epidural, I can't imagine what it would feel like without one.
The next 3 hours and 45 minutes I don't remember! I just know
I'T. WAS. NOT. FUN!!!
She's right. It wasn't fun. I thought I was emotionally braced for watching my wife go through labor. I wasn't. Watching your wife go through intense pain for hours is something I don't think you can really prepare for.
Once her epidural quit working and the real pain began, I wanted to be there for her as much as I could. Unfortunately, the feeling wasn't mutual. The nurses told me my job was to try to help her relax. So I tried...I kept telling her things like "you're okay","just try and relax", and "you're doing great." She responded to my encouragement by angrily glaring at me and responding, "I'M NOT OKAY! QUIT TELLING ME TO RELAX!" And there may have been a few expletives in there...or more than a few...I decided after that I would keep my mouth shut and provide silent emotional support. Jessica liked that a lot better.
As the pain continued to intensify, the nurses continued to monitor her progress. At this point Jessica had decided she wanted a C-section and kept telling the nurses to take her in for one. They obviously weren't about to go that route as she was progressing quite quickly at this point. In fact, after hours and hours of being stuck at a 6, she was getting to a 10 real quick!
The on-call doctor was busy with another delivery next door. Yep, we could here the lady screaming bloody murder through the wall, which didn't help my already high anxiety. The nurses started to panic a bit as Jessica had progressed really fast and wasn't able to keep from pushing at this point, despite her best efforts. The nurses kept prepping everything as best they could, as it appeared that our little girl was now in a hurry to come. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting for the doctor to arrive, she finally came in.
I pushed for 30 minutes! And then our baby girl was here.
At this point things were pretty intense as Jessica's stomach was moving and contorting in ways that didn't seem humanly possible. The next half hour is kind of a blur, but finally little Averi's head poked through for the first time. A few minutes later she was out completely and I was cutting the cord. I'll never forgot how incredible it was to see her for the first time! I knew right away this little girl was going to have her daddy wrapped around her finger. I also had an overwhelming sense of gratitude and pride for my amazing wife for doing what she just did!
Averi Jayne Flint
July 27, 2015
Born at 4:15 p.m
21 inches long
8lbs 9oz
They put Averi over in the baby bed in our room. Daddy got to go see her close up. My blood pressure was really high as well as my heart rate. They wanted to wait for that to mellow out before they put her on me. Plus Dr. Penrose had to stitch me up. I had a fourth degree laceration/tear. It took her over two hours to get the rest of the placenta (because some of it fell off in the uterus) and sew up the tear. They were worried about how much blood I lost. Dr. Penrose said I lost more blood then a C-Section delivery. They would check my blood levels the next day to see if I would need a blood transfusion. After an hour of waiting to see if I could hold Averi before they took her out, daddy and baby went to a different room so that Averi could get her shots and could have her first feeding with donor milk. Daddy got to feed her for the first time.
I thought all the excitement was over once that baby came out, but things weren't going well for mommy. The doctor was concerned with how much blood she had lost and how high her blood pressure was. So much so that she wasn't even able to hold Averi at all. Jessica continued to cry out in pain as they worked on her. After an hour of working on her, she still wasn't stable and baby Averi needed to go get taken care of and fed. Jessica insisted I stay with Averi and the doctor's assured me Jessica would be okay, so I left with my new little angel.
In the newborn area, I got to feed her and soothe her while she got her shots. The tough little girl didn't even cry. Daddy almost did though. After all that, baby and I just sat there and looked at each other for the next two hours while they took care of mommy. It was a pretty amazing feeling to just stare into my little girl's eyes for those two hours. Nothing else seemed to matter at that point.
After a couple more hours and some insisting, the nurses finally cleared Averi and I to go back to mom. It had been four hours since she was born. Mom still looked really pale and her blood pressure was a bit high, but we were just glad to be by her again.
Wednesday afternoon we were headed home with your little munchkin!
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| My legs were still so swollen |
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| Leaving the hospital |
Our first day home!!
The weekend after that all of Steve's brothers and sisters came out to see baby Averi. (I didn't get pictures of all of his family holding baby Averi but all his siblings came out.)
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| David, Jazmyn, and Scott came earlier in the week. |
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| Averi's first bath at home. |
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| At mommy's two week check up there was a tornado in the sky and we had to get to shelter. |
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| Daddy's first time putting Averi in a dress. He put the dress on backwards. Averi was not impressed. |
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| First family photo |
The Flints ~ XOXO
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