Glitter & Cinnamon: Ava's Birth Story

Over this past year, I have joked with many people about labor and delivery with Ava. I have said that if her birth story were a song, it would have been written by The Beatles during their "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," days and it would have been called "Glitter and Cinnamon." I am not a song writer, but it sounds like a catchy song title to me! As I tell her birth story, the Glitter and Cinnamon part will become apparent.

I was admitted to the hospital on Sunday night (December 12th, 2010) at about 5:30 pm. Two nurses, Andrea and Marie, helped me get into my gown and get settled in. Dr. Chwe was the doctor on call that day, so he was the one I saw until my doctor (Dr. Rosenstiel) came on call the next morning. This was a planned induction, so Dr. Chwe placed Cervidil in my cervix to help me dilate. I was dilated to 1.5 and not really effaced. Marie (my nurse) went ahead and put my IV dock in my left hand so that we could get an early start. Andrea came in and gave me a sleeping pill (Lunesta) so that I could sleep all the way through the night. Jeremy made his bed on the couch in the hospital room. Luckily it unfolded into a bed, so his 6'3" frame was able to scrunch into it. 

Before I went to sleep, Jeremy gave me my push present. If you know us, you know how impatient we are with gifts. We don't wait to open them! Instead of waiting to see if I would actually be able to push this baby out, he went ahead and gifted them to me. The first gift was for Ava. It was a beautiful silver birth certificate holder in the shape of a scroll. He had her name and birthdate engraved on it. The second gift was for me. It was a Willow Tree figure of a mother and father holding a newborn baby. I cried so hard when I opened it. That figure now sits on my nightstand. I will never move it.

Shortly after our festivities, we prayed and went to sleep.

A nurse came in and woke me up the next morning. I was able to take a shower and blow dry my hair for the big day. I did not curl my hair or put on make-up. I am pretty plain and simple when it comes to occasions like this one. I knew I would probably cry my make-up off anyway! 

The nurse put me on Pitocin right away. The nurse's name was Belinda and she was great! I loved her!! She sat with me the whole day and read my charts. She was very sweet and encouraging. After a few hours on Pitocin, Dr. Rosenstiel came in and told me that he would like to break my water. He told me that he would not do it before I had my epidural in because he was afraid I would never speak to him again :) About a half hour later, Dr. Verzino came in to put in my epidural. It stung a little bit, but I don't remember feeling much pain at all. He was quick and efficient.

I felt immediate numbness and warmth. This is where the glitter and cinnamon comes in! I felt like if someone were to do a human dissection of me at that moment, my blood would have looked like glitter. That is how I felt. I felt like my blood slowed to the pace that glitter slows to when placed in oil and turned in a kaleidoscope. Weird, huh? The warmth I felt reminded me of the warmth I always felt when my dad would make cinnamon toast for breakfast. It was nothing to look at on a plate, but that first bite was warm, sugary, cinnamon-y, and buttery. As I felt the epidural course through my veins, I thought of the warmth I felt when I would take that first bite of cinnamon toast. Those two thoughts stayed with me all day. I felt like glitter and cinnamon.

I don't remember too much after the epidural. The doctor did break my water and I felt a gush but that was about it. My belly felt very different with all the amniotic fluid gone. I could really feel the shape of my baby. I had lots of visitors and guests. Many of them stayed for several hours. I was dilating very slowly and I felt almost certain that I would have a Caesarean section. It was not the delivery of choice, but whatever we had to do to get my baby girl into this world safe and sound was what we had to do. At about 6:00 pm, my doctor came in to examine me. I was finally at 5 cm! It was taking forever! At that point he sat down and had a talk with us about how we would deliver. He would be on call until 6 the next morning, but if there was any distress, we would go immediately into surgery.

He left the room and our family came back in. We talked and laughed for a few more minutes until my nurse reached over and put an oxygen mask on me. She assured me that there was no problem, but our baby's heart rate was slowing down. She said that sometimes that happens during delivery when the mother is not getting enough oxygen. I did not panic, I was really proud of myself. Just to be certain, the nurse did another internal examination. She looked surprised and told me that it was time to start pushing. I had dilated another 5 cm in less than an hour! As it turned out, Ava's heart rate slowed because I was dilating so quickly.

The TV was still on in the room, so I watched Lynette Jennings Design as I pushed. Even though I was numb, I could feel something on my left side that alerted me to when I would push. I could tell when I needed to push before my nurse even saw it on the screen. My doctor came into the room and laid out all his tools. Jeremy had been on my left side holding my leg and he switched to the right side so that the nurse could see the monitor. He was holding my leg in one hand and his phone in the other! At one point, I smiled at him and said, "Jeremy, I am certainly not mad, but put the phone away." He laughed because he didn't even realize he was holding it. He snapped a few pictures of the doctor and then put it away.

I continued to push for a few minutes and the nurse said, "I can see her head!" Jeremy and I were so happy!  The doctor had to get a vacuum suction to pull her the rest of the way out, but Jeremy saw her before I did. He told me that she had a lot of hair! The doctor held her up so I could see her and said, "She's peeing all over me!" She was a lot smaller than I thought she would be. Jeremy cut the umbilical cord and the nurses placed Ava on my chest. Ava screamed and cried and Jeremy and I cried with her. Her delivery was the most amazing experience I have ever gone through. It is so amazing and wonderful how you can instantly love a person who has only existed inside of you for 9 months. It is so amazing how you feel like you have known this person forever. And it is so amazing how she just fits into your life like there was always this place for her, you just weren't aware of it.

Her APGAR scores were 8 and 9. She weighed 6 lbs. and 15 oz. She was 19 in. long. Ava did not like her first bath. She screamed the whole time! After the bath was over, we held her and kissed her all over her face. She was so peaceful and content. God really blessed us when he gave us our Ava Catherine Pate!

 I just had my epidural put in

 Minutes after she was born

 Her first bath later that night

 Snuggle time with Mommy

 From the beginning, she has always been a very alert child

 Daddy burping his little girl

Yummy feeding time!