Birth Story with photos =)

Finally!

My water broke and we were on our way to the hospital. This is me at 39 weeks and 5 days pregnant.

The most joyous part of this is that we had decided to induce on Friday night, May 29 since nothing was happening and we were ready for the baby to come. We had still planned to do things as naturally as possible after the induction. We were really praying about if we should induce and although we felt like it was ok we still weren't super excited about it. I had been praying all day that God would make it very clear if we shouldn't go ahead with the induction. I was exhausted and just wanted to meet this baby girl. I left work that day about 11:30 AM and then Josh and I spent the afternoon shopping and ate a nice early dinner around 3:30. We got home around 4:30 and were finishing packing and cleaning house before our time for induction which was 8:30 PM. At 5:15 PM I coughed and to my amazement my water broke! I was still not quite sure since I wasn't having contractions so we went to the hospital.Here I am in triage. Most definitely water has broken they said. There was meconium in the fluid so this meant baby was in distress, she wanted out. It also started the timer, she needed to be delivered within 24 hours. We walked for 3 hours while we waited for a room to open up! There were a lot of babies being born this day but I was so glad that God answered my prayer. I have no doubt that He heard our cries for direction. We are so blessed to serve the Master Physician!
After 3 hours of walking we were only at 60% effacement and barely 1 cm dilated. We decided to start pitocin to see if that would help. We gradually turned up the dosage for a few hours and tried to labor without the epidural. The pitocin started contractions hard and fast and they were unlike anything I have ever felt. After 3 hours of these contractions I still had not progressed any more. We decided to start the epidural. They started me on a prett high dosage which did not react well with my low blood pressure and ended up having to give me some other drugs to keep my blood pressure up which in turn kept the baby's heart rate up. It was a very long night and morning with having to be monitored so often due to the BP and heart rate issues. Around 10:30 AM, May 30 I was finally dilated to 8 cm, and baby was at station +1. I was finally able to push around 12:00 noon on Saturday, May 30.
Exactly 19 hours after my water broke precious Avalyn Marie entered this world. I only pushed for 15 minutes. She was posterior which typically takes a while to push or ends in c-section and that also explains why labor was taking so long. From the looks of her head she was stuck for a while on my pelvis! She came out a little bit blue due to her cord being wrapped twice around her neck but they got her some oxygen and suctioned out all the meconium from her mouth and she was good to go!

Our doula, Nicki. She was amazing and it was so nice to have a familiar face join us in the delivery room after such a long night!Who needs a boppy when you have a sweet black Lab princess??

Hopefully she'll fill out these pants soon!
Our lives have totally been turned upside down and we are so happy that God chose to bless us this way. We cannot fathom His love for us, that he would entrust us with His creation. That He created Avalyn for us to enjoy just as he made the mountains and the trees and the clouds in the sky, she is part of His masterpiece-wow.
We love you sweet girl, your life is a miracle to us.

Avalyn Marie Easterling

She has arrived, in case you are a blog friend!
The details-
Avalyn Marie Easterling
Born: May 30, 2009 at 12:15 pm
6 lbs 13 oz
20.5 inches long
Most fun part of delivery...when she came out totally posterior (face up) and cord wrapped twice around her neck. I will share more of the story soon!

37 weeks...

This might be the last week I post a photo of myself. On Friday I took Josh on a date to the Mona Lisa Fondue Restaurant. It was a lot of fun! The food was delicious! This picture was us on our way out the door. Josh is looking especially slim lately after having his tonsils, uvula, and part of his soft palate removed. He lost about 12 pounds while on his liquid only diet! All is well here, we are just ready and waiting for this little princess to arrive! We can't wait to meet her in person!! I will try to post pictures this week of the nursery since it is really finished now!

Also, last week Josh went to get some coffee where 95.1 was broadcasting live and he won me a nice little gift basket!And since I didn't post it earlier, here is me at 36 weeks, I apologize for whatever was going on with my hair...apparently I didn't think to brush it before the picture! Oops!

a few photos

All credit for these photos goes to www.daronshort.com.

Daron Short is a good friend of ours and took some pictures for us. He is SO talented and has such a creative eye. This was his first maternity shoot but I think he did an amazing job!









35 weeks!

35 weeks

We are at 35 weeks. Wow. The time has seriously gone so fast, we have the nursery all done and filled up. And I do mean, FILLED. We have received so many generous gifts from family and friends. This weekend we had some maternity photos taken so instead of taking our own little funny looking picture I will wait until we get those photos back to post a 35 week picture. Little Miss is still very active although her kicks are getting lower, YAY! :) My ribs are excited about this too although once in a while she still manages to reach up there.
We have her bag packed for the hospital but won't pack ours until a little bit closer to the due date. Please pray that she has hair, I am bringing some bows just in case. :)
We have our last childbirth class this week and also will have our doula who has taught these classes at the birth with us. She does the classes and doula service as a ministry and she is really a wonderful lady. We have enjoyed getting to know her through her teaching and I know she will be a great blessing during labor and delivery.
I am also working on a playlist for labor and delivery, any recommendations?? :) I am thinking peaceful, soothing music that will provide nice background noise as this sweet creation enters the world, no Welcome to the Jungle or anything like that!
We were reminded last week in our class that this child is a gift from God, that God saw fit for us to raise and show His love to. That was such a great reminder because I get so nervous sometimes that we are going to "mess up" or not have the right things for this baby and then I was struck with that reminder and thought, "Hello, God has entrusted this little person to us. He will provide everything we need as He already has done." Then I was reading in the Psalms and came across this passage and I was again struck by His provision...

Psalm 139:15-16

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Before she was even placed in my womb and entrusted to our care, God knew. He has already written her days.

Praise God! We are merely his vessels and caretakers for her. What an amazing calling!

32 weeks

Here we are at 32 weeks! We had a baby shower last weekend so my mom flew out. It was so nice to have her here! We have the nursery organized for the most part and I am having another shower this week at work so we'll see what else we get from that one and then probably have a few last minute things to still pick up. While my mom was here we went and picked out a rocking chair and that arrived last night. It is in about a million pieces so that is Josh's weekend project! I have been working out the details of my maternity leave for work and my boss is very supportive and helpful. Praise God!

29 weeks!

My first baby...still trying to figure out how she will handle the change of sharing the attention!

Taking a little break because that is how we do now. =)



Well here we are at 29 weeks.
We went for a hike today and then did some cooking. It was a lot of fun. Baby Girl has been a lot more active lately so that has been way cool.
In the past week I think I have counted:
10 frog kicks
2,768 alternating leg stretches
20 hand waves
2 hiccups
87 rib kicks
=)

We also got to see her (briefly) in 3-d last week. She was pretty shy but it was fun to see what we were able to see. She only showed about half her face at a time but we could see a very active mouth and some little eye lashes. Also looks like she is getting some round cheeks already!
On other fronts, ankles have started to swell so I have been trying to consume amazing amounts of water!

27 weeks

Here we are at 27 weeks (+1 day). Made the mistake today of eating a whole chimichanga at On The Border. Forgot how little room my stomach has to expand. Not dealing with heartburn or indigestion but with difficulty breathing since my stomach is now pushing on my lungs. HA! Oh well, I will just have to lay down for the evening.
Love you all!

Oh yeah we also created our registry yesterday at www.babiesrus.com.

congrats

A friend from college just had a little boy, he looks so sweet. I personally am praying that God would bless us with a very similar L&D story! Welcome, Eli!

pictures

We are long overdue on a post and I do have a few planned but I do not have the necessary pictures with me at this time so instead I will post some of the pictures that I *do* have here with me.
These are from the last ultrasound we had where we found out that little miss e is a girl. I am not going to share those pictures because I don't think you should show your parts for all the internets to see. But I will show you how this little princess is developing in other ways.

Perfect little spine.The cause of my current state of discomfort.

Blowing bubbles I presume. That is her leg raised to the left there.

Little Miss Owl-you can also see her little arms down at her side, let's hope she is already learning her manners in there and will keep her hands to herself like a good little girl.

Also, BGE's movement=much more frequent as of late. BGE's much more frequent movement=sore ribs, sore stomach, sore bladder that needs to be emptied every 20 minutes, and much interrupted sleep. This is just training for what is to come! :)

Have a blessed day!

it's a...

Survey says.....It's a girl!

Ultrasound says.....It's a girl!

We say.....YAY! A baby! :)

Everything is looking good and we are progressing right along. We got to see all her organs through the ultrasound and spine and brain. She was flipping and turning and then had her feet crossed. She also had her hands up by her face like she was praying and that was cute.

We are so thankful that everything is going well.

Can't believe we are halfway there!!

Continue to pray for us as we now delve into birth plans and all that crazy stuff!

19 weeks + 1 day

Ok seriously did not think it would be this long between posts. Sorry pals!
Here is the latest and greatest. The bump is moving higher and getting more round (I think)! Also, had to take out the belly ring this weekend. The thing looked like it was about to rip out of my skin.Also, I sewed a bunch more diapers over Christmas break but I still have tons more to go. :) We find out Thursday if it is a boy or girl so stay tuned! Then we get to do the fun task of registering. Oh joy! :)
Also, haven't had any nausea for quite some time but just had a few random gags from the dog food smell. That is the only thing that has consistently made me gag but only a few times I actually lost it. TMI-I know!

nausea

The sickness has begun. It started with just nausea which I could easily deal with. Then last week driving home from the gym one morning I couldn't control it. I lost the few crackers and Vernor's I had to tide me over until breakfast. This happened in the car, mind you. Then the next day it happened at home. There have been a few other times and of course it's not that bad but it's definitely not the most fun!
So sorry for the TMI!
Anyway, most days I just feel nauseous. I have a few more weeks until they say it should settle down so we will see. It is interesting how your body reacts to this. The little person is the size of a grape today and has arms and legs. The joints are developing and it can move the arms and legs around. The tail, gone! Maybe it will still have a small tail though, that would be cute.
Pictures coming soon! I have a very tiny little bump right now.