Keeping Up with the Kramers

I woke up with stomach pains. I thought they were the "I've held my bladder too long" variety and thought nothing more of it. Shawn went off to work and I made plans to take Sam to the mall for a kiddie craft event with a friend and her toddler. But as the morning wore on, I decided I wasn't feeling up to it and I'd better stay close to home. The pains just wouldn't quit despite my attempts to rest, drink water, clean, cook, etc. I finally decided to start timing these pains as they would start and then distinctly end. However, I wasn't feeling the contractions radiate through my back and into my lower abdomen, as I had read they would if it was the "real deal." I had texted Shawn to be on alert, but not to rush home. But when they started to really take my breath away and were only 3-4 mins apart and lasting about 45 seconds, I thought I had better call in back up. 

I had packed some things I knew I wanted to have with me, but we hadn't really packed for the hospital. And I certainly hadn't packed for labor! I was suppose to have a scheduled C-section! Shawn arrived home and started collecting things while I, between contractions, wrapped up some cooking that I'd been doing and packed up Sam to go to our neighbor Angela's house (She kept telling me "I'll take care of it! Just go!" HAHA). We hesitated to call in family members for help just yet, in case this was just false labor. 

We arrived at the hospital sometime after 2 p.m. I remember stopping at the valet stand to work through a contraction. We got ourselves checked in and were sent to the triage desk. As I gripped the counter, the nurse asked me how far apart my contractions were. I waved two fingers in the air, as I breathed heavily, unable to speak during each contraction. Then she asked me if this was my first child. I continued to wave those same two fingers to indicate that this is my second child. They immediately took my vitals and found me a room since they could see that this baby could be on its way.

I was a bit concerned that they would send me home in pain when the nurse said that she couldn't see my contractions on the monitor. She told me that there wasn't much progress being made and that they were going to try to give me fluids and medication to make the contractions stop. But after a couple of hours had passed, it turned out I had dilated to 3 cm and was completely effaced. The nurse then said, "looks like you're having this baby tonight!"

The hospital had set a record of over 100 births in the previous 48 hours though and there was no sign of things slowing down for them. The nurse repeatedly asked me if I wanted to try to deliver vaginally, but I insisted on having a repeat C-section. After 12 hours of labor, the nurse anesthetist finally arrived in the triage room to give me an epidural. Sweet relief! I could finally talk, joke, even sit up in the bed! The doctor also came to visit me and said that they were working as quickly as they could to get me in to the OR, but there were several other patients ahead of me. Everyone was very kind and treated my case with urgency. Through all of this, we worried a little bit that our Girl would want to make her appearance before a spot in the OR became available.

After the epidural.. and 12 hours of labor. Yikes!

I was finally wheeled upstairs and things moved swiftly from there. Our little Girl was born at 9:26 p.m. weighing in a 8 lbs, 1 oz and measuring 20 inches long. She had a full head of dark hair and good pair of lungs that she used to announce her arrival. She had a bit of a cone head too since she had been engaged in the birth canal before the surgery.

First photo of Avery Anne

Meeting our precious girl for the very first time

Nursing went off beautifully from the start. We did have some issues later with her being too sleepy to eat, which really concerned us since Sam had eaten every three hours on the dot. But we were reassured that it was normal; that she would eventually wake up from the trauma of birth and be hungry. Till then, we were encouraged to practice skin to skin to form a good bond. You don't have to ask us twice to snuggle a sweet, new babe!



It wasn't until the day we were to be discharged from the hospital that we finally decided on her name. We had narrowed it down to Charlotte Noelle, Avery Anne and Sarah Paige. But as Shawn sat with her in recovery, he thought to himself that she just didn't look like a Charlotte. And I agreed. We finally announced on her second day of life that we were going to call her Avery Anne, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to make it official with the birth registry. We just weren't sure. Shawn finally took a dry erase marker and wrote her name on the marker board in our room. Somehow seeing it written on the wall helped make us feel more confident about our decision. We chose Avery because it means "wise" or "ruling with elf-like wisdom". We chose Anne for Shawn's mother, whose middle name is Ann (if you recall, Sam has my father's middle name, Preston). We also really love that it means "full of grace."


Sam and my mother came to visit us the morning after Avery arrived. He was very hesitant with me, which we couldn't blame him for. I was in a big hospital bed and had several wires and tubes all over me. He took to his baby sister well though, proclaiming "that's so cuuuuuuute!" when he finally took her in. He might have also been warmed up with a Buzz Lightyear that Avery so thoughtfully picked out for her new big brother (*wink*). For about two weeks after she came home, Sam would wake in the morning and ask "where's the sister?" And even now, when friends or family come to visit, he asks them to look at his baby sister. He lovingly pats her on her head and will even give her head a little kiss too. It's just so sweet, and we are thrilled that he seems to love her as much as we do.

Buzz Lightyear, to the rescue!

Our family is complete! We are overjoyed!