I LOVE this girl

Absolute favorite picture.

EVER! Although, this is a close second:When Averie gets really excited her eyes get huge and sometimes she goes cross eyed. It is so funny. I just can't get enough of her facial expressions.

Our little Averie has been quite the pleasant surprise in our house. She is a really good baby. She sleeps really good through the night (so far), she is content as can be, and she is finally starting to breast feed without too many tears shed from her or me. We had a little trouble getting the hang of it, but I think eventually we will have it down.This week has been very busy. It is amazing how fast time goes by when you are not waiting for your little one to arrive. I just wish I could freeze time at this point. I am loving every minute of being a mom, and I hate that every day passes and Averie is a day older. I just wish she could stay this stage forever. It is so fun to see her change every day though. It will be so fun to watch her grow up.

So far this week Averie has been to the doctor twice and had her newborn pictures done. (Unfortunately, they won't be available for a couple of weeks at least) She is doing pretty good. When we took her to the doctor yesterday she had lost 10 ounces. This is pretty normal, but the pediatrician was a little bit concerned and sent us to a lactation consultant. We had her weighed again today and she gained 4 ounces back. We were so excited. There is one member of our household who is not too thrilled about Averie.
Sergeant is a little depressed right now. It is the saddest thing. He hasn't been acting like himself lately. This picture is so funny because Sergeant LOVES balloons. He will jump around and play with them for hours. He would get the balloon as close to his mouth as possible and just lay down on the ground and sulk. He would hardly play with it. I think he is just having a hard time adjusting, but eventually I know he will love Averie as much as we do.

I just want to thank everyone for there sweet comments and congratulations. We are so lucky to have such great friends and family. I am so grateful for my mom who has gone above and beyond helping us. We have had dinner every day this week which is a record for us since I hardly ever cook. I love you Mom!

Here She Is!

Averie Lee Anderson

April 25th, 2010 3:56 pm
7 lbs 1 oz 19 inches

Our little Angel finally came Sunday afternoon. I cannot describe to you the feelings and emotions that I have been experiencing the last day. All I can say is that being a mom is the best thing that I have done so far! I love this little girl more than anything. I am so grateful and blessed that Heavenly Father sent her to Brian and I. We are so lucky to have her.
Her arrival was a little bit tricky. Most of you know that I was a week over due and I was just dying to get here out! I tried almost everything under the sun to get her here. I really think that there was a reason why she was not coming on her own-which I will get to in a bit- and I am so grateful that everything worked out the way it did. Even though at the time, I was completely frustrated and exhausted.
Brian and I checked into Riverton Hospital Sunday morning to start the induction process.I started getting my dose of Pitocin around 8:00 am and everything seemed to be well on its way. Around 9:30 my doctor came in and broke my water.
Owe!
It was a really interesting sensation. I felt like I had this giant water balloon break and the warm fluid just started gushing out. I mean technically that is pretty much what happened. It was just so weird to experience. At this point the doctor said everything looked ok but he was concerned that Averie wasn't tolerating the contractions very well. Everytime that I would contract her heart would drop significantly. He assured me that it was pretty normal for this to occur with over due pregnancies. The placenta gets old and stops doing its job. He said that he just wanted to keep an eye on it, but not to worry. Well I was about 3 cm dilated and 90 % effaced by the time he was finished breaking my water. Horray! This is way better than the 2 cm and 50 % effaced that I was a few days earlier. I knew that Averie was well on her way to entering the world. By about noon, I was experiencing really intense contractions. I am probably a huge baby, but how do you women give birth naturally. I could not stand it! I tried really hard to breath through the contractions, focus on the overhead sprinkler, and hang on to the bed rail for dear life, but I was done. I called for the anesthesiologist and got my epidural. I felt so much better after the epi was doing its job. Brian and I just watched Scrubs for hours. We kept a pretty close eye on the monitor since I could not feel the contractions any more. Averie's heart rate was dropping with each one. At one point she was in the 60s. It was so scary! The nurses came rushing in and had me get on all fours with my head down. Now this was a pretty site I am sure. My butt was hanging out in all its glory and keep in mind I am completely numb from the waste down. It was the longest few minutes of my life. Averie was still dropping so they gave me a shot of the terbutiline to stop my contractions completely. Averie's heart rate evened out and everything seemed ok. Except now it was like we had to start all the way over with the pitocin. The nurse decided to ask my doctor how he wanted to proceed. We decided to give Averie one more chance to do things on her own. If her heart rate started to drop again it was C Section time. I was so devastated when I started to know that a C section was going to be a possibility. None of this was going my way at all! I always pictured going into labor on my own and rushing to the hospital, pushing the kid out and hugs and kisses between Brian and I. At this point my parents, my brother Ryan and his girlfriend Holly came to visit me. My dad and Ryan gave me a blessing to help me get through whatever was going to happen. I am so grateful for them. The blessing made me feel very calm about the entire experience. I felt like everything was going to be ok and I was clam.
After my family left, we decided to start the pitocin again. Almost as soon as we started it, Averie tanked. C Section it is! I was a complete mess. I was shaking so bad and crying so hard, but some how I knew things would be ok.
Brian did so great. He has such a calming affect on me. Just having him with me made me stay calm. I can't believe how fast they can throw together a C Section. It was like as soon as we signed the consent, we were in the OR getting cleaned up, and the next minute they were pulling Averie out!We were so lucky that we decided to do the C Section when we did. Averie had the cord wrapped around her neck and shoulders. There was no way she was coming out the old fashioned way. Like I said, maybe there was a reason why she was not coming on her own. I am so glad that we got her out when we did and didn't keep trying to get her out with the Pitocin. It just goes to show you that everything does truly happen for a reason. I love this little girl. She is perfect. I am so glad she is healthy and even though things didn't go the way I planned, I have an amazing little girl to cherish from the experience.

Tulip Festival

The weather was so amazing this weekend. I just loved every minute of it. I sweet talked Brian, Andy, AmyLyn, and my parents and convinced them to take me to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. I was really excited to see the Tulips but I did have alternative motives of trying to walk myself into labor. Obviously, I'm not yet a mommy, but the flowers were sure beautiful!

Not all the tulips were in full bloom, but here is a picture of something that is:


39 Weeks and 6 days! I look like I am going to pop!
Here is my sweet Bri Bri. He was loving the weather he didn't even mind that we were there to look at flowers. What a good sport.
AmyLyn gave me this idea for a picture. I think it is such a neat shot. I took it at the gazebo in the gardens.
Here is my honey and me after our long walk through the gardens. You can see there is a smile on my face so all that walking didn't really kick start things like I had hoped. Oh well, less than a week at this point!

As we were leaving we were looking down over the bridge at the waterfall and look what we saw:
It was so weird to see this huge guy. I thought he was fake for a minute. Just snoozing away on the rocks.
Here are my pedicured toesies that were all ready for the delivery room. I may have to go get them redone because they are growing out already. Oh well just an excuse to get another pedicure. Oh how I will miss the pregnancy excuse to be pampered.
Well I am absolutely positive that by this time next week I will be a mommy. Looking forward to posting pictures of the most beautiful little girl you will ever see!

Hopefully the last bit of whining

So I had to laugh. I have pretty much blog stalked everyone that I know that was having babies around the same time as me. Guess who is the only one who hasn't delivered yet?!? I should definitely get a prize for this. I can't wait to meet her. Anyway, I am starting to perk up a little bit. I saw the doctor yesterday and I still have not made any progress. He scheduled my induction for the 25th. There are some really awesome things about this day. First of all it is on a Sunday and my doctor was nice enough to do it so I would only be a week over. I was expecting to have to wait until the 26th. It is an odd number but it ends with a 5 so I am ok with it. I know, I know...Psycho! I have this thing with odd numbers though and I really wanted her to be born on an even number. Fortunately, I am ok with odds as long as they end in a 5. Really probably too much of a glimpse of my nutty side. Moving on. 25 was my jersey number in high school. I was #25 for pretty much every sport I played. So really, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. The only thing that makes me sad is that I really didn't want to have to be induced. Don't get me wrong I want her out, but I was really hoping it would happen on its own. I guess I am getting ahead of myself. I mean it still could happen any day, but it is easier to know that I will for sure have a baby in a little over a week. I guess I could wait and let it happen naturally, but lets be honest, I am not the most patient person in the world and I just don't think my body can handle much more. My last day of work is supposed to be tomorrow, but I guess I will be working another week (my poor coworkers that have to put up with me). So for those of you that have been induced, how is it? Should I be worried? I would like to hear some advice if you have any.

Now guess who is impatient?

Yup you guessed it. ME! I am doing my best to stay positive and have the attitude of "she'll come when she is ready", but as each doctor's visit comes and goes, I am struggling. Today I went to the doctor not expecting much of a change from last week. I feel exactly the same as last week-like nothing is happening. Well the doctor confirmed that indeed nothing is really happening. I am dialated to a two now which is progress but he could barely feel the baby's head because she is so high. I swear she is confused where the exit is. I keep telling her she is going the wrong way because every day she feels like she is getting higher and higher! I wanted him to strip my membranes, but he told me that he wanted to wait another week to see if she drops a little. Another week? I will be like 3 days away from my due date! Urgh. After all the pleasantries I dive into the induction conversation. When can we get this little girl out?!? Apparently Intermountain Healthcare has a policy that doesn't allow inductions for first time moms until they are a week over due. Umm I think I know what I will be investigating at work tomorrow. I cannot believe that they would make someone suffer for a week past their due date. Besides my last day is supposed to be the 16th and I really don't want to sit around for a week while I don't go into labor. This little girl is definitely her daddy's daughter. She is strong willed and she is going to make sure that she is born when it is her idea. I just hope she is not too stubborn, I'm dying here. Any suggestions on how to get her to drop? If I could at least get her out of my ribs I would be a lot more comfortable to do this for a couple more weeks.