Ava is Here!

So I want to start from the beginning of my labor story and get it all down before I forget.  My last update was around 6:30 yesterday morning...I was having some cramping.  Dr. Katz came in around 8 and did an exam and gave me the gel.  I was about 3 cm.   Everything was fine for about 2 minutes, then I started heavy contractions!  I would say my pain went from a 3 to a 8 immediately!!  I decided to get the epidural and by 830 that was done.  Getting the epi was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be-definitely less pain than one contraction!  John was great and held my hand as I got it and he later told me that the needle was HUGE!!!  I'm glad he kept that information to himself at the time  :)

I was feeling great, couldn't even feel my contractions.   Dr. Katz came in again around 9 and broke my water.  She also did an exam and I was up to 4 cm!!!  Mom and Dad came soon after and we all hung out for awhile...I was in absolutely no pain and happy to have everybody there to keep me company.  My parents took off around 10:30 and at 11 the nurse examined me and I was 6 cm!  I was surprised how quickly this was all moving along and started texting a few people give updates...Elissa wrote back that she went from 7 to 10 in about 20 minutes!  I was in shock so I called Mom and Dad and told them they should probably get here sooner than later.

Sure enough around 12-1230ish the nurse covering for my other nurse came in and said "you're ready to go!" I didn't really understand and asked her if I was at 10 cm--she said "yep, and you're ready to push!"  I was feeling a lot of pressure and thought for sure I was peeing my pants every couple minutes but they said it was the amniotic fluid.  So when my nurse got back from lunch around 1 they got me all set up and we started to push around 130.  We decided to have Mom in the delivery room taping which I'm so thankful I did...she didn't miss a thing but recorded the perfect angle (not too much).  The pushing was bearable and John was the best partner ever!  I looked in the mirror a couple times which was helpful-It was super motivating to see the hair on her head and made me want to push even harder-lol.  By 2ish Dr. Katz was there and things really went smoothly until the very end-I started to feel some pain.  By the time they got more meds in me we were just moments away.  Ava Rose Makely was born at 2:17pm December 14th 2009!!!!  It was the most amazing moment in my life and I was so elated to hear her first cry.  It felt like I was floating with joy...I was so happy to finally meet my little princess and I think all the meds were kicking in at the exact same time lol.  My entire body was tingly with pure happiness :)

Ava is absolutely beautiful!  She weighed in at 7 pounds 5 ounces.  I was so happy to hear that she was perfectly healthy that nothing else mattered at this point.  Not to mention I had the PERFECT delivery (no tear, no c/s, no horrible pain, no H's, nothing!)  We've been successfully working on breast feeding which is going to be a learning process for both of us but we'll get it!

Anyways, my computer is about to die and I'm tired but next post I'll put pictures on :)  I'm glad I got this down!