The birth.....August 19th, 11:48am

Now that I've taken y'all through the pre-birth.....we'll get on to Avery's big debut into this world.

At around 9:30am, on the 19th, I started the "pushing part" of my labor. Now....I have heard many women describe birth. They will tell you what parts of labor are do-able, and what parts challenged everything in them. Now I could do everything all over again, but when it came to pushing....I felt this was the hardest part. Why? Because up until this part, I could personally DO something about being uncomfortable. Changing positions, pain meds, focusing, breathing. When it came to pushing....I had to do just that. PUSH!!! For what seemed like, days! Ugh! But I digress. My nurse Lynn started prepping me for the pushing she told me that we would be pushing in 10 second increments. I would breathe all my air out, and then bear down for a count of 10. Now I know what 10 seconds (in real life) feels like....and the 10 seconds that I was made to push at a time, were NO WAY 10 seconds. It felt like I was holding my breathe for 10 minutes at at time. EXHAUSTING! Thank God for Keith because he really helped me focus. My mom and him were standing on each end, holding my legs and reminding me to breathe, telling me what a great job I was doing. I didn't feel like I was doing a great job, but hearing it changed my mind a bit. At one point, the nurse was telling Keith to look because Avery's head was crowning. They were gushing over how much hair she had. This made me even more motivated to push.

After 2 hours of pushing, I was giving up....telling everyone that I was done, there was no way that I could do this anymore. At that point, MANY medical professionals were starting to flow into my room. We had the OB doc, the residents, the high risk delivery team, the NICU. I think all in all, there were around 12 people in the room with me. They were telling me that I only had a few more pushes and Avery would be here! I was more motivated than ever! I remember the FINAL push. My nurse told me that they were going to start counting til 6, as 10 was getting too much for me. Lynn was also starting to tell me that they would stop me from pushing once the baby's head was out as they needed to suction. Lynn got me going, as a HUGE contraction hit. 1-2-3-4-5-6 (I forgot to stop pushing and kept pushing til 8.....) and then WHEWSH! I felt Avery escape me. The doc literally caught her in mid-air. She was OUT!!!! There was no time to suction her.....she wanted out!!!!! I waited for a few seconds and then heard the most beautiful sound......Avery was CRYING!!! She was OK! I couldn't see anything as it felt like everyone in the room except the NICU team was looking at my neather-regions. Not sure what was so exciting down there but I wanted to see my daughter!!! Like NOW! I remember asking if I had a girl....they confirmed that it was (I figured all of this was so unplanned....God might want to toy with me a little more and grace me with a little boy instead of the well-planned out daughter that we expected). Thank goodness it was a girl.....all that pink was here to stay!

After what seemed like FOREVER, they placed her in my arms. I stared down at her and started bawling. "This is what life is all about"......I know I say it out loud and I meant it with every fiber in me. Although my daughter had had some trauma coming out (lots of bruising on her head, scrapes, scratches, a huge bright red blister on her nose and a smooshed in face), she was the most beautiful being that I had ever seen. I looked over at Keith who was crying, saying "That was by far the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed", I looked over at my mom who (without words) confirmed what Keith was saying. And then I looked down at Avery, who was looking all around the room as to say "Hey! What the heck!?!? Who are you?". I know some people say that it takes some time to really know how to love your children. But at that moment, I really knew all about love. Now in a totally different way than I had ever experienced. I remember thanking God for allowing me to be a mom, I remember kissing Avery's little face as she was whisked away to the NICU.....I remember everything......I especially remember, forgetting all about the difficult labor that I had just endured, and focusing on what was to come.....

The next 2 1/2 weeks would be the most difficult time in my life here on earth.....read more for the rest of "Avery's story".