I wasn’t sure if I wanted to blog about Avelines birth like I did Novellas a couple of years ago. Emotionally, I have been processing a lot about what happened in those ten minutes of pushing her out and into this world, and the whirlwind of events that took place immediately afterward. However, I have always found healing through writing in my life, and I have had several people ask if I was going to write her story, as well as others asking about her shoulder that I mentioned in my announcement of her arrival. So without further ado, here is our story of Avelines big debut earthside…

As many of you know already, Novella was two weeks early, so everyone pretty much anticipated another early arrival for Aveline, but she decided that slow and steady wins the race and decided to arrive one day after her estimated due date. Around 7am on Saturday, May 21 I was awoken by some pretty intense and regular timed contractions. I got up and proceeded to do some chores while everyone was still asleep. After about 30 minutes I knew this was different than that past 3 weeks of prelabor I had been having, and decided to start timing them. After an hour we decided it was time to call the ob and determine if we should drive into Green Bay or not. The contractions were coming every 3-4 minutes and lasting a minute each. Our ob happened to be the labor and delivery doctor on call that day (a huge answer to prayers and a total blessing from God!). He advised us to go ahead and come in. We said our see you laters and we will miss yous, to Novella. Said farewell to my parents and Grandmother and headed to the hospital 45 minutes away. When we arrived, we were already pre-registered and they were expecting us. They had a room ready and admitted us upon arrival. I was 3cm, and 90% effaced, it was 1030.

I gave them my birth plan and asked as long as everything was going smoothly we wanted to labor with as few interventions as possible, with no epidural or pain medications. The labor rapidly grew to be much more intense, and once I hit 5 or 6 cm late afternoon we broke my bag to help move things along. Immediately the contractions grew closer together and more intense. I had back labor, front labor, labor was felt everywhere this time around (we would later find out that the intensity was due to her size). We would try a new position to help her lower down, and her heart rate would begin to drop, so we went back to me sitting upright for the entire labor to help her to perform at her best. As the contractions grew stronger, I began to dry heave uncontrollably  (just like I did with Novella) and my cervix began to get inflammed due to unintentionally baring down and pushing. My ob feared we might have to have a c-section if the inflammation didn’t subside.

He was busy delivering a handful of other babies during this time,  and when he finally got to our room, I was the last one there to deliver that day (another God moment). He checked me and I was stuck at 9cm, but my inflammation had decreased. He said with my next contraction he wanted me to push and he would move the rest of my cervix out of the way so that we could bring baby into the world. It was intense, but after 2 good contractions, I was ready to push. The delivery team came in and we were ready to go.

We began pushing around  1831, she was born 10 minutes later at 1841, but those 10 minutes were a whirlwind. After her head delivered I thought we were in the homestretch. Our ob saw her head and his first thought was, wow this is a big baby. Her head circumference measuring in at just under 38 cm. However, due to her large size her right shoulder got stuck. My delivery nurse climbed up onto the bed with me to begin helping to maneuver the baby in my stomach as I pushed. The rest of the delivery is a bit of a blur to me… but my ob and Ryan filled me in on the spotty details. They had to call in more help because she wasn’t  budging, at one point I had three nurses on the bed trying to help maneuver the baby out of me as I pushed with my knees to my shoulders. Finally the release, 4 minutes after her head was delivered, and the baby was here.

But wait, the baby wasn’t placed on my chest, Ryan wasn’t cutting the cord, there was no delayed cord clamping, there was no baby on me, there was no cry… there was me, on the bed, unable to go anywhere, no one telling me anything.  I kept looking over at the nurses where they had taken my daughter to the table.  “They are just stimulating her a little bit, she is fine”. Ryan turned my head toward him, and said, “look at me, she is okay Micah, look at me…” finally I heard it…a cry, a sweet soft new baby cry, she was alive! It seemed like an eternity,  but eventually they held up my sweet black haired pale skinned baby so I could see her face for just a moment.

Later, after my placenta had been delivered and I was all stitched up, she was assessed and stable, they brought her to me, hooked up to a pulse machine, in a diaper, and let me hold her pale body skin to skin. We attempted to nurse, but it took her awhile due to all the trauma. I sang Jesus Loves Me to her, I cooed her and she settled. After an hour her color began to come back, she began to drink colostrum, and all was well.

Her right arm was limp, she hardly moved it, but could still lightly grasp with her hand. They did not think it was a broken clavicle, but instead an issue with her brachial nerve. They told us physical therapy might be needed to help it to heal. In the meantime they wanted us to keep her arm in a sling position and not mash it against by body when we were breastfeeding. They described the incident of her shoulder getting stuck as shoulder dystocia. Her face, right breast, right arm, and right armpit were all pretty bruised up, but that will all heal… All of this news was scary and unexpected…but she is here,  she is alive and that is the most important at the end of the day. 9 lbs 14 oz, and 21″ with a head circumference of 37cm, she was a big baby. We spent the rest of the night snuggling, counting our blessings, and sharing the news of our daughter with friends and family.

Her blood sugars were off when she was born and it is suspected that I likely had gestational diabetes again. When I passed my glucose test around 27 weeks, I only passed by 3 points. My ob said they likely caught me on a “good” day, and that would also explain about her large size and blood sugars being off. We had to monitor her blood glucose levels for the first 12-14 hours of her new little life. Lots of heel sticks, but we were used to this, as it was done with Novella as well.

Fast Forward to her two week appointment, the pediatrician assessed her arm and said that he expects her arm to have 100% recovery, sooner than later. He also did not see any need to have us see physical therapy as she has shown great improvement in her movement all on her own! (And maybe a little love from her chiropractor! ) She also weighed in at 10lbs 8 oz, and 21 3/4″… big girl is growing fast….

I wanted to share one last thing before I end this blog post. God’s hand was without a doubt in the birth of Aveline. A week before her birth, our hospital had done a simulation training on shoulder dystocia. It is not something they deal with on a regular basis, so they had performed training to make sure their staff knew what to do, and it was fresh on their minds, and they totally rocked it! Next, our ob just happened to be the doctor on call the day we went into labor. Third, out of all of the labors and deliveries that day, we happened to be the “problem” delivery, and the last one of the day, which also meant that everyone was available in the moment when they called for more help; help was there instantly! If I hadn’t declined the epidural and pain medications I would not have been able to feel and push as hard as they needed me to in order to get Aveline out in a timely manner. God was definitely there in room 428 that day and night as we brought our second sweet girl into this world.

Ryan prayed over me during the labor and delivery, and he read a series of bible verses to me to help me to focus. (He also told me funny Novella stories to help when I asked). Here are the verses that meant the most to me that day, and that I will forever hold near and dear to me from that day forward…

John 16:21 (NLT) – “It will be like a woman suffering the pains of labor. When her child is born, her anguish gives way to joy because she has brought a new baby into the world.”

Romans 8:18 – “The pain that you’ve been feeling, can’t compare to the joy thats coming.”