Ava-Marie makes her debut

Yesterday Krystal began having strong and more frequent contractions. They weren't too painful initially, but given that she was already 4cm dilated, she decided to go ahead and call the doctor. A short trip to the office to sit on the monitor quickly became a trip to Labor and Delivery. Unlike the two previous trips, there was no event that preceded the increasing contractions. She was just breaking through the medication at this point. Given that we had achieved 35 weeks, it was felt to be best to take the terbutaline pump off and see if Krystal's body would calm down on her own or proceed into labor.

It took several hours of contractions, but her cervix eventually changed from 4 to 5cm. Similar to last year, Krystal labored in her back, and the pain was approaching unbearable, so they proceeded with an epidural. Once the epidural was in place she was begun on oxytocin to augment the labor, and her water was broken. Things progressed fairly quickly from there. Within 3 hours Ava-Marie had arrived. It just took a little over an hour of pushing from Krystal.

We soon found out why. Despite being just 35 weeks and 2 days, Ava checked in at a solid 7 pounds 6 ounces and 20 inches long. Everything looked good, she was crying up a storm and pinking up quite well. Since she was only 35 weeks, they had the NICU nurse come over for the delivery. Due to her gestational age, Krystal having a fever at the time of delivery, and little Ava breathing 70-80 times per minute, they felt it best to take her over to the NICU at the very least for a 4 hour observation period.

At the end of the 4 hours, Ava's temperature had come down to the normal range and everything was looking good, but she was still breathing in the 70s per minute. Due to this and an elevated white blood cell count, she has ended up having to stay in the NICU. She's been getting IV antibiotics and IV dextrose as she's not able to feed yet breathing that fast. She has improved during the course of the day. At our last trip to the NICU, her last two counts had been in the 50s and 40s breaths per minute.

Temperatures and everything else are looking good. We're hopeful we may get to hold her either later tonight or tomorrow. Still not sure just how long she's going to stay, our primary pediatrician saw her in the NICU this morning and is anticipating 3 days to a week long stay.

Everything is looking good at this point. Prayers have carried us this far, and we thank you for continued prayers to bring her home with us soon. Pictures will follow within a couple days, just have to get home and be able to use a different computer.