Ava’s Birth Story

This pregnancy was by far my hardest one. I found out I was pregnant the DAY we moved into our new house! Whenever I’m pregnant, I am always really tired. But witb this pregnancy, I was always completely exhausted. I stopped and got a Starbucks refresher (always extra strong) literally almost every day. I felt sick a lot more often, I never slept well, and my body just felt the pregnancy a lot more this time around! Everything hurt all the time. I’ve been really lucky in the past and felt pretty good throughout, but this time was different. Chasing after 4 kids all the time and trying to get projects done all over our new house probably didn’t help either! BUT I was SO excited. I couldn’t imagine what this new little baby would be like and could hardly wait to meet her! 

March was such a busy month! We had Morgan’s 30th birthday one week, Mason’s 8th birthday the next week, and then his baptism two weeks after that! I was trying to get everything done around our house and ready for our baby to come April 8th, but was planning on getting induced even a week after that. All my babies had been late, usually induced, and had super long labors (like all over 20 hours). One of my best friends, Suzy, was coming to AZ to visit during their spring break with her boys. We miss the Hicks SO much and the news that they were coming made me so happy! They were going to stay with us for a few nights of their trip and we couldn’t wait! This was great because it gave me a date to have everything done by and was the last little push I needed! The Hicks got to our house Thursday night, March 25th. It was so great to see them again! We spent the day together on Friday, and then Friday night they went to go see Suzy’s brother and his family. Morgan was out of town, so it was just the kids and I for dinner. We got Mexican food delivered and I couldn’t get enough of their hottest hot sauce! After all the kids were in bed, I noticed I was having a lot of contractions, but they weren’t painful at all, so I chalked it up to being Braxton Hicks. When Suzy got back later that night, I gave her a heads up just in case things got crazy in the middle of the night so she wouldn’t be totally confused if I had to come wake her up at 3 or 4 in the morning! My contractions woke me up around 4 am but then I ended up falling back asleep an hour later because they settled back down. The next day, she was going to her nephew’s hockey game and spending some time with her family, and then we were going to take the kids swimming at my parents house later that night and order dinner. They left around noon. I called Morgan and told him to come home and that this baby would probably be here by this time tomorrow. Around 2 or so, I started noticing that my contractions were getting a little more painful. I decided to take a bath to see if that would help. It didn’t really do anything and around 3, I called my brother Michael. I told him no rush at all, but to finish up what he was doing and then please drive me to the hospital so I could go get an epidural. Paige called me and asked if she could come pick up the kids. At first I said no, that we could drop off the kids at my parents house where they were staying because my mom and dad were out of town. But thankfully she insisted and said she would come get them right then. I had everyone throw some clothes in a backpack and started hurrying to pack my own bag for the hospital. I was trying to hurry and pick up our house a little so it wouldn’t be a total wreck, and while I was loading the dishwasher, my water broke everywhere. That’s never happened to me before, so at first it freaked me out and I thought maybe the baby was coming out right then! Right after that happened, Paige got to our house and got all the kids. I was SO grateful in that moment that she was there and got everyone loaded up so I didn’t have to worry about anyone! Michael got there right then too and we got in the car and headed towards the hospital. We hit EVERY red light on the way there!! At this point, my contractions were really strong and I just wanted to get to the hospital and get my epidural! We pulled in there around 4:00. We walked in and they sent us back to Labor and Delivery so we could get checked in. The lady checking us in and getting all my info was so slow. We finally finished and she went to go get a nurse to come get us. No one was coming and Michael could tell I was super uncomfortable so he asked the lady at the desk if there was any way she could hurry someone up here because I was about to have a baby in the lobby. Finally, someone came and got us and took me back to a triage room. Michael went out to go find Morgan because he had just pulled into the parking lot. I told the nurses this was my fifth baby. They checked and I was at a 9. They hurried and got me back to a delivery room. Morgan walked in right before we got into the room. As soon as I saw him, I just started crying. At this point, I was begging them for an epidural!! I told them I didn’t care if I had it for 5 minutes before my baby was born - I wanted one ASAP! The anesthesiologist came in and said it was too late. I had the sweetest nurses! I had tears streaming down my face and kept telling them I couldn’t do it, but they were so sweet and encouraging the entire time! I kept almost passing out every time I had a contraction, (and kept hoping that I would!!) and it was like I was in a movie where everyone’s faces were looming over me. Dr. Beck was on his way and about 5 minutes away but all I could think of was that if I pushed this baby out, everything would be over. So I pushed as hard as I could and was screaming at the nurses to pull her out!! After a few pushes, our little baby was finally here! They laid her right on my chest, but I was in shock and couldn’t move for a while. I looked over, and Morgan had passed out and was in a chair surrounded by nurses trying to get him to wake up.