Our sweet baby Avery Mikell!

I wanted to try and blog our birth story before I forgot all of the little details! Our sweet baby girl was due to come on August 2, 2016. Zach and I had also been able to go do a temple session on our little babes due date. It was such a special night and something that I had really wanted to do before we had her. The day ended up coming and going and we had to wait a little bit longer to meet our love. Our doctor throughout our pregnancy has been Dr. Alexander Larson. He has been wonderful but when I was 38 weeks pregnant he told us that he would be leaving out of town on our due date for a week! Both Zach and I were a little anxious about this knowing that we had that chance of going into labor while he was gone and having a random doctor deliver us. At our 39 week apt. we were able to meet Dr. Reynearson who is Dr. Larson's partner and he was willing to step in and deliver us if we went into labor while Dr. Larson was gone. The week of our due date I felt like we were finally ready to meet our baby. I was able to work full time up to 40.5 weeks pregnant. I decided I would take Monday off and if we still hadn't gone into labor then we would be getting induced that Tuesday at 41 weeks. Friday after work we packed our bags and also loaded up the hospital bags "just in case," and went up to Evanston. I had been feeling great and had the expectation the we would be getting induced. On Saturday we hung out with my family and helped my brother plant some flowers and trees in his backyard. That evening we went to the rodeo grounds and watched Makell, Kyson, and Kolby race their motorcycles. When it was over Zach and I were holding hands walking back to the car and I made the comment to him, "I have given up on the idea that my water will break on it's own. I think this little babe is going to have to be forced out." We got home at about 11 pm and showered and went to bed by midnight. I woke up at 1 am and had to go to the bathroom. At 1:35 am I woke up from my sleep feeling a warm gush of fluid....I sat there for a minute and realized what had just happened. I turned to Zach and said, "honey I think my water just broke." His response...."no way" and he stayed in bed. I hoped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. Yep my water had definitely broke! I was smiling and got so excited. I hurried and hopped in the shower to wash my hair and when I got out Zach was still in bed haha. I said, "Babe my water is broke we probably need to go to the hospital." He said, "Are you sure? Isn't there supposed to be a huge puddle of water or something?" haha it made me laugh and I said there had been. (The poor guy was in a little bit of shock) I called the hospital and let them know my water had broke. At this time I didn't feel crazy contractions so I wanted to make sure I wasn't jumping the gun to go in right away. The nurse said, "Yes we suggest you come in asap." I went upstairs to borrow the blow dryer from my Mom's room and she woke up. I told her to not freak out, but that my water had broke so we were getting ready to go to the hospital. When I went back down stairs my sweet husband hugged me and gave me an amazing priesthood blessing. I felt so comfortable and at peace, and knew everything was going to be ok. I am so grateful for such an amazing man in my life. We hurried and loaded up and headed to Mckay Dee (we got there at about 3:00 am). When we got there they checked us in and put me on the monitors. I was having regular contractions every 2-4 minutes! They started my IV and gave me penicillin and started Pitocin. I was strep B positive so I had to receive antibiotics prior to having the baby. When the nurse checked me I was only dilated to a 1, but she said my cervix was paper thin. Once the Pitocin was started my contractions got a lot more intense! I started having them about every 2 minutes. There is no way to really describe how they feel. At 8 am the nurse came in to go over some papers with me and said, "you look like you're in a lot of pain." As I was just trying to breathe and not move through the current contraction...she said that I was having really big contractions and that it might be time to get my epidural. The anesthesiologist would be heading in for a c-section at 9am so I would need to get it before that or after he got done with the c section. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it another hour and a half so I said to do it. We had Dr. Houden for the epidural and he was amazing. He came in and Zach sat in front of  me and put my feet on his lap and held my hands. I could honestly hardly feel the epidural going in because of the pain of the contractions. After a few minutes the pain lessened and I felt like a million bucks. I was finally able to lay down and rest a little bit. I was amazed that I could still move my legs and lift myself up after the epidural! We felt so grateful to have had Dr. Houden. Dr. Seale was the OB/GYN on for Sunday. He came in and explained that Dr. Reynearson had a family function come up and that he could be the one to care for us. When Zach's family found out we would be having Dr. Seale deliver us they were so happy! They said that he had been the doctor to deliver the twins and that he was amazing. Yet again we felt like we had been watched over and that we were being blessed. Not long after my epidural I started shaking and wasn't able to stop. I had spiked a fever to 102 and they needed to contact Dr. Seale. He ordered r a couple different IV antibiotics and oral Tylenol as well as IV Tylenol. I had been in labor for so long that I had developed chorioamnionitis. With my fever being so high and from shaking so much I was exhausted and felt like I couldn't keep my eyes open. I remember thinking, "I am so tired...how am I possibly going to be able to push to have our baby." They checked me just after 5pm and said that I was dilated to a 10! They wanted to wait about an hour to let me rest and to let the contractions help lower the baby. The nurse came in around 6 and we got ready to push. She told me that with first time moms usually you will be pushing for 1-2 hours. With my Mom on my left side and Zach on my right we got ready to push through my first contraction. I pushed three times with that contraction and the nurse calmly said, "Ok stop, the baby is ready." Zach immediately said, "Wait. What?" We laughed and she said She was going to go get Dr. Seale. I had Zach get his sister Keeley because I really wanted to be able to have some video and pictures of when the baby first arrived. Keeley came in and stayed up by my head. When Dr. Seale came in he said, "Well I wasn't expecting this to be so quick haha." We got ready and pushed through two contractions and he said she has a bunch of dark hair! On the third contraction the most amazing experience of my life happened and our little baby was born! She did amazing and we were all in awe. Zach cut the cord and she was immediately put to my chest. She stopped crying when they put her to my chest and I couldn't help but think that this is what heaven felt like! I felt so blessed that she came into the world so healthy and without any problems! I felt like we had been guided and helped every step of the way, including how quick she came after we started pushing. With how sick I had become at the end of the labor I don't know if I would have had the stamina to push for 1 or 2 hours. I had to stay and be monitored for a while so Zach went with our sweet baby girl. He helped them with her first bath and picked out her pink bow. He said that she loved the bath and that she stayed so calm while they ran the warm water over her. Because of the infection I had developed they needed to also treat our baby for possible infection. She would need to have IV antibiotics and be monitored for a couple days as well. My parents and Zach stayed with our baby while the nurses cared for her and attempted to get an IV in her. She was dehydrated and they ended up poking her 9 times before finally getting an IV in place to the right side of her head. I was so grateful that Zach was able to be with her through all of that and to hold her hand and kiss her head! When they brought her back to the room we attempted to nurse her. She was so tired and lethargic and couldn't nurse. It completely broke my heart to see her try but couldn't because she was so wore out! Zach then said he wanted to give her a blessing. We didn't have a name for her yet so we decided that he would just bless her as "Baby Morris." He then gave me another blessing too. I know there is power in the priesthood and I am so grateful to have him in our lives! Zach and I had been undecided on a name throughout the whole pregnancy. Our top names were Gracie, Mikaylee, Sage, and Avery. Early that next morning when I was holding her Zach and I just kept going back to Avery. So right then and there we decided she would be Avery Mikell Morris. Because of the IV antibiotics and extra monitoring our baby needed she would be staying in the TLC unit. This is a step down unit from the NICU. The nurses would keep her for 2 hours and then brought her to us for 1 hour so that she could nurse. We did this from Sunday until Tuesday when we finally got to go home! We didn't get released from the hospital until 9pm Tuesday night. We were both exhausted and had been kept up with an exception of a few hours for the last few days because of all the antibiotics I was receiving and having little Miss Avery brought in to eat every 2 hours. We stopped by Mtn Green for a few minutes and then headed to Evanston. We didn't get home and into bed until around 12:30. We had fed and changed Avery and put her in her little bed. It wasn't 60 seconds and she was crying haha. We ended up being awake with her until 3:30 that morning when she finally settled in. She wouldn't sleep in her bed so we held her in our arms for a few hours. This ended up happening until Friday. We struggled with nursing, getting her full, not sleeping, etc. Zach at one point turned to me and said, "Well this isn't what I was expecting." haha we both just looked at each other and laughed. I'm so grateful that we were able to spend time in Evanston those first 10 days after having Avery. My Mom was my Angel here on earth to help with Avery and helping us with nursing. I will always remember when we had Avery, because we would be sitting on the couch watching the 2016 Sumer Olympics and trying to get her to nurse.....for hours and hours haha. I'm grateful we had the Olympics to give us some entertainment during the struggle. It was a good 5 weeks before our little one started to get the hang of nursing. Once we were able to get her full and content she started sleeping well and would typically go to bed around 10 and wake up to eat at 2:30 and 6:30. We truly feel blessed beyond words for this sweet spirit in our home. I look at her everyday in awe of how such a miracle was made in my body, and that such a perfect baby was born. It amazes me that those movements and kicks I felt everyday in my belly was this little Angel. She has been so pleasant and easy going. She loves everyone and is the snuggliest little babe.