Introducing Avery Madison Hedman

Baby Girl surprised us all and decided to come 3 weeks early!

This past week has been chaotic to say the least, but we have been having so much fun with our little baby girl.

This is her birth story.

Last Friday, the 5th, was a typical day for us. Tyler went to class, I worked, and that evening we went to our friend's birthday party for their daughter on the beach. After the beach we headed over to the church to play volleyball.

Most of the day I had been feeling "crampy", but that has happened to me before so I didn't think much of it. I went to bed thinking I would wake up and be back to feeling normal.

We went to bed around midnight on Friday and at 3:30 in the morning I woke up still feeling very "crampy". I also noticed my underwear was pretty wet so I got up and went to the bathroom and changed and went back to bed.

At that point I had a thought that "maybe this is labor" and I started watching to clock between contractions, but I still was really doubtful because it was still 3 weeks before my due date.

An hour later I was still awake and my contractions were about 5-7 minutes apart. I went to the bathroom again and then I knew for sure that my water had broken and I also lost my mucus plug (ick, don't they have a better name for that? Maybe this is TMI, but it is a birth story after all, right?)

At that point I just sat there on the toilet and bawled. I was NOT ready for this baby!! We still had to move apartments and I hadn't finished up all the things I needed to do at work before I went on maternity leave.

Because we hadn't moved yet, I had been putting off buying some baby stuff so I was thinking about all the stuff we still needed to get for our little girl.

So I sat there and cried and cried and then decided if she was going to come I didn't really have a choice and I better get ready.

So I got up and started packing a bag to take to the hospital. I also got online and read about all the signs for labor to make sure I was really in labor.

It was pretty obvious at this point, but I think I was in denial.

Meanwhile, Tyler was sleeping soundly the whole time.

I figured there wasn't much he could do at this point so he might as well sleep while he still could.

At 7am Tyler woke up and asked me what I was doing on the floor with a bunch of baby clothes and other supplies all spread out.

I told him "I think I'm in labor."

He was pretty groggy and thought I was playing a joke on him. I told him what I had been going through the last couple hours and he told me to call the hospital.

When I called the hospital they told me to come in since my water had broken.

But I feel like every birth story I ever hear about first babies is that it takes forever and I didn't want to be in the hospital any longer than I had to be so we took our sweet time and took showers and made pancakes for breakfast and Tyler packed up his bag with everything he would need.

The whole time I was having contractions about 5 minutes apart and it HURT like the devil! I couldn't believe how much they hurt!

A little bit after 9am we decided to head to the hospital. On the way we called my parents to let them know I was in labor.

Tyler took this picture while I was having a contraction. haha!

And here's me between contractions. Ahh, much better.

We got to the hospital at 9:40am. When we first arrived a nurse recognized me from the birthing class I'd been to 2 weeks ago and thought I was there for the breastfeeding class that morning. 

As she started shuffling me toward the class the other nurse I had talked to on the phone rushed over to say I was her patient and she had been waiting for me for 2 hours! They thought it was a funny mix up and I was too out of it to care what was going on. Contractions hurt! SO BAD!

So they got me into a room and changed into a hospital gown. The nurse came in to check me and found I was already dilated to a 7!

The whole time I was having horrible contractions and I just wanted the epidural!

They had to call around to find out the results of my Step B test from last week, found out I was positive so I needed the antibiotics and apparently I needed to have most of a dose before they could give me the epidural.

So the whole time I was waiting around watching the IV drip into me and trying not to be a wimp about the pain. 

But I will most definitely never go through birth without an epidural.

It is so painful! Whenever I felt a contraction coming on I would just cringe inside. I started counting down at one point. Thinking "I can only make it through 5 more of these, 4 more of these" etc. Not that I had any choice, but it sort of helped to feel like there was an end in sight. haha

Finally they anesthesiologist came in to do the epidural and he was being mister professor giving Tyler the run down on how to do an epidural.

The staff knew Tyler was a medical student and I think the Dr liked having his teaching moment.

Of course I couldn't see what they were doing, but I thought he was taking his sweet time explaining everything to Tyler and I was getting peeved about it.

"Just do it already!! Tyler can learn on somebody else!"

Tyler later told me that he was working away the whole time, just explaining it as he did it. But it felt like it was taking all day!

After the epidural kicked in... ahhhh, sweet relief!

After the epidural, I felt SO MUCH better. Once they numbed me up I just wanted to take a nap. I only got to lay there for about 10 minutes before the nurse came in to check me and told me I was at a 9. 

My Dr was there by then and wanted to put me on Pitocin, which I thought was totally unnecessary. (Why would you need Pitocin when you're already at a 9??)

The nurse agreed with me and told the Dr I didn't want it, but he came in and basically told me he was giving it to me. He said I needed to baby to come out fast since I tested positive for Strep B and they hadn't had time to give me the second dose of the antibiotic.

Who am I to argue with the doc, so I let him give it to me and then it was time to push.

Pushing was awful. I thought it wasn't supposed to hurt if you had an epidural, but I definitely felt it. 

I think they try to numb you up pretty good, but not too much so you can still push. I think I could have used a little higher of a dose, but oh well.

I didn't watch the clock but I pushed through probably 8-10 contractions and then they called the dr in. 

And on the first push with him, at 12:25pm, out came baby Avery!!!

They put her right on my chest so I could see my sweet little girl.

Tyler was right there with me the whole time and it was so sweet to look up and see him meet his daughter for the first time.

He was crying and it was really sweet to see him having such a tender moment with our daughter.

They let me hold her as long as I wanted and then they took her over to get cleaned up. Tyler went with her and took pictures the whole time. The picture above is Avery holding his finger. So sweet.

In the meantime, I was getting stitched up. (The Dr cut me a little bit. Again, another thing I was hoping to avoid, but he had his own agenda.)

I think by this point the epidural was wearing off because I could feel every stitch going in.

I kept saying "ow! ow! ow!" and finally he asked if I wanted local anesthetic, but by that point there were only like 3 stitches left to go so I told him I would just tough it out.

Avery weighed in at 6 pounds, 7 ounces and was 19 inches long.

I love this one of her and Tyler.

He is so in love with his daughter. It has been so sweet to watch him with her.

We named her Avery Madison Hedman.

The rest of the day was a complete blur.

Tyler was on the phone all day with his family, my family, and friends.

We were so excited to share our good news with everyone.

Every once in a while I would look at my sweet baby and think "this is crazy! I have a BABY!" I don't know how to take care of a baby so it was freaky to think that I was responsible for her now and she was counting on me to take care of her. At the same time, I've never been so overwhelmed with love for someone.

I can't believe how in love with her I am.

Every time she would open her little eyes and look at me I would be overcome with emotion.

I couldn't believe she was my little baby. My daughter.

We stayed at the hospital for 2 days and I have never been so exhausted in my life. They never let you sleep there!

Thankfully, having a new baby is so exciting that you don't even care.

Tyler had a final on Monday and on Friday that upcoming week so he was trying to study the whole weekend, but it was pretty tough.

Who can focus on studying when you have a little newborn daughter to hold??

They finally let us come home and I got my chariot ride out to the car.

When we got home Tyler had made a cute Welcome Home sign for baby girl.

Tyler had also cleaned our whole apartment which looked like a bomb had gone off in it when we left for the hospital.

He also got her little rocker all set up for us and bought us some pretty flowers.

I was so overwhelmed by his thoughtfulness.

I thought I was coming home to a huge mess and he made it so welcoming for our new arrival.

This last week and a half has been so crazy. Tyler had two finals and we moved apartments this past weekend and we've been doing all of this on practically no sleep. We've had tons of help though. My mom flew in last week and has completely moved us in in 2 days. We had lots of help from the guys in the ward to carry all our stuff from our old apartment to our new one. And the girls have provided us with meals for the last week, which we have been so grateful for.

But all the craziness has been worth it. We are so in love with our little Avery. Between me, Tyler, and my mom she is constantly being held.

We love our little babe-very.

She loves being swaddled and makes all these super cute squeaks and mews.

Sometimes she gets the hiccups and looks so adorable because she doesn't know what is going on. We can't get enough of her sweet face and we're always kissing her little cheeks.

It has been an adventure. And we are loving it!