Princess Avelyn makes her grand debut!

On Wednesday afternoon, the doctor stripped my daughter's membranes in the hopes of moving the labor along. (After months of bedrest for pre-term labor, who would have imagined we'd end up here!?) She said it didn't hurt, wasn't even really uncomfortable, but later that night she noticed a difference in the intensity of the contractions (which had already been 5-7 min apart for the past several weeks).

The next morning it was business as usual - she was uncomfortable, but not any more than she had been.  After work, we decided to go watch my son's JV football game to get her out of the house. About halfway through the game, she looked at me and said - "These are really starting to hurt, Mom..but I don't wanna go to the hospital just to get sent home again." It was about 8:00. We watched the game a little more, and after watching her flinch and squirm more and more, I finally convinced her that we should go get her checked out.

We got to the hospital a little after 9:00 pm, and when they checked her progress she was already at 5cm!  We were both so excited and relieved that it was finally going to happen! The next few hours were pretty uneventful.  She decided she wanted to forego any medication, so we walked around the halls - some close friends stopped in to check on her - but it was pretty quiet.  At about 2am I thought that maybe the jacuzzi tub might help keep her comfortable through the contractions, which were still not all that bad. Let me tell you, I think that was the game changer!!  At first she was relaxed, the warm water and bubbles felt good, and then in an instant everything was irritating her - the water felt cold, the bubbles were annoying, the position was uncomfortable - so I helped her out.  The contractions started getting real intense, real fast!  By 3:30 she was dilated to 10, and pushing!  At 4:16 I witnessed the miracle of life as I watched my first grandbaby enter the world....and I got to cut the cord. *tears*

Avelyn Mae entered the world on Friday, September 21, 2012 at 4:16 am.

And my life will never be the same. :)