Sunday, August 3, 2014

Avery Elizabeth Holden

Avery Elizabeth Holden was born at 3:07 PM today at Piedmont Hospital.  She weighed in at 6lbs 10.5 oz and 19-1/4" long.  Baby girl surprised us all during pregnancy and her birth was no exception.

We all slept in a little late after the fireworks last night.  Mom woke up, got cleaned up and picked up some stuff upstairs before heading down to breakfast around 9:30, a pretty typical Sunday at the Holden's house.  The boys were very excited because their first butterfly emerged from his cocoon that morning (Carter sent off for his butterflies from his birthday gift a few weeks back).  While eating she started feeling some contractions which we have had a few of over the past few weeks.  They weren't very strong but Dad started to realized they were coming with some frequency, about every 5-8 minutes.  So Mom called the OB while Dad got our bags ready and the boys dressed,  and given Mom's history the OB said to come on in.  So we packed up the car and the boys and headed to Piedmont thinking there was a good chance they were going to send us home a little later.

We arrived at the hospital at 11:10.  At the hospital, the boys helped Mom get checked into a delivery room.  Parker was adorable telling everyone about the baby in his belly and how his belly hurt like Mom's and he needed to see a doctor as well.  Dad and the boys then headed to the waiting room while Mom got checked.  
To her surprise she was dilated to a 5 and baby girl had dropped.  The Dr said we were going to have a baby today.  Quite surprised, Mom let Dad know to track down Mimi so we could get the boys squared away.

Mom and the Doctor decided to go ahead and get an epidural and then break her water to get baby here.  That gave time to get in a round of antibiotics (Group B test was positive) and some fluids while we got the boys squared away so Dad could be there.  We were concerned that if we broke the water immediately, baby may not wait long to arrive.  The doctor also needed to run some tests since Mom's BP was a bit high.  

Mimi got the boys around 12:30 and Mom got the all clear for the epidural at 1:30.  Our anesthesiologist (Dr K) proved to be a vital resource and helped mom/dad come up with a final name for baby girl (for some reason this always ends up being a delivery room decision).  Avery was the top name we considered for a while based on it being the runner-up to Jordan when she was born and Elizabeth was mom's middle name.

Meanwhile Mimi and the boys got home to see we now had 8 butterflies that joined the Holden House (something must have been in the air with all the new life emerging). 
At 2:00, the doctor came back to check mom (at a 7 now) and break her water.  Mom rested for a bit and around 2:30 Dad went to get a bite to eat from the vending machine.  As soon as he left Mom realized she had constant pressure and called the nurse.  They checked Mom and she was a 10 with baby completely dropped.  They quickly called the Dr who grabbed Dad (Dad got a little lost as it turns out, there were no vending machines and he had to find the gift shop in the hospital) from the hall and made it into the room at 2:50.  After two pushes baby was born at 3:07.
Avery came out crying and we immediately did skin-to-skin while dad cut the umbilical cord (a first for us!).  We hung out in the delivery room, snuggling baby for two hours before the baby nurse did all the official measurement and gave Avery her first bath.  
Then at 5:30 we moved over to postpartum to wait for some special visitors to arrive.

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