Avery’s Birth: Visitors

In case you missed it, click here to read Avery’s Birth Story. This post is a continuation of our time in the hospital.

After I nursed Avery Thursday night/Friday AM they took him to the nursery for the rest of the night so we could get a few hours of sleep. We knew the next day would be filed with family & friends who would want to meet our sweet boy! They brought him in once in the night to nurse. Friday morning I was antsy to see my little boy. It was after 7am and they still hadn’t brought him in, so we ventured down to the nursery to visit our little man. He was wide awake and completely content! They wanted to check his bilirubin levels because they thought he looked a little yellow.

We had to get a few pictures with our little guy! They kept him in the nursery for about another hour and then brought him down to our room for his next feeding.

Not long afterwards my Mom and Adelyn came up to meet Avery. To read about Avery meeting his big sister you may click here. After our time as a family Grandma Cindy got her chance to “officially” meet Avery. And, of course, he was greeted by his Grandma with tears! So sweet!

Love my Mama!

We had a low key morning, just the 5 of us hanging out. Adelyn kept busy with her big sister gift and we had more bonding time with Avery! {btw…love this picture that my Mom captured of my boys!}

My Step Dad came up around the noon hour to meet his newest grandson as well. Soon after Grandpa & Grandma took Adelyn back to our house so she could get in a good nap.

Early afternoon Kyle’s Mom, Grandma Sharon, and his Grandma stopped up to meet Avery!

This is Grandma’s 7th great grandchild {if I counted right!} and she has 2 more on the way this year!

Auntie M {my sister} & Uncle P stopped by in the afternoon as well. They had a big weekend ahead of them and had to squeeze in a quick visit before they left town. 

Our children’s pastor from church, Pastor Doug, stopped by as well!

Later in the afternoon a few girls from work stopped by, Linsey, Lori, and Nicole.

My Dad, Grandpa Steve, stopped by as well!

Our good friends and Avery’s “adopted” Auntie & Uncle, Mark & Kathy stopped up to wish us well.

And they brought food! Kyle was a happy camper!

My Grandma stopped by later in the evening to meet her 8th great grandchild!

My two sisters and Hayden drove from Omaha that afternoon/evening to come & see us! I was so happy to have them come! Aunt Wendi & cousin Hayden

And Hayden was very excited to hold “baby boy” and give him some love! Wendi says that Hayden talks often of “baby boy”!

Avery’s last visitor he met on his first day was Aunt Stef!

So thankful for my sisters…wish it would have worked to have them all there at the same time to take our “traditional” picture…might have to do some fancy photo-shopping! {see this post here to see the “traditional” picture I’m talking about}

Saturday morning, my Mom, Adelyn, and Aunt Stef came up first thing to get in some more snuggle time with our sweet boy! Later on our room was quickly filled with my family, Aunt Wendi, cousin Hayden, and Grandpa Steve all came to visit!

It was quite interesting keeping two busy toddlers busy in a confined space! Mickey Mouse on my phone worked for a while {until they were fighting over who would hold the phone!}

Since it was the weekend I had a different Dr discharge me. He stopped in and had everyone leave so he could go over a few things. Once he was done with us, we had the green light to go home! Stay tuned for Avery’s going home post!

Avery’s Birth: Meet Big Sister

My Mom stayed with Adelyn at our house while we were in the hospital. I wanted Adelyn to have her own time to meet Avery before we got busy with visitors. First thing Friday morning Mom and Adelyn came up to our room. I was so anxious to see my sweet girl! She walked in and squealed “Daddy, Mommy” and gave Daddy a hug! She was quite leery of me, I think it was ‘cause I was sitting in the hospital bed and she wasn’t sure what to think of it, but quickly wanted up on Mommy’s lap. Avery was in his crib at this time.

We talked to Adelyn about how baby brother wasn’t in Mommy’s tummy anymore.  This whole time she was very serious and didn’t say much, not like our normal Adelyn at all! My Mom had all four of us sit on the bed and talk about Avery’s arrival and capture it on video. Still, Adelyn was very quiet and held tight to Daddy! I had the idea to sing Happy Birthday to Avery and Adelyn liked that, in fact she said “again” twice when we were done singing! She would blow Avery kisses when we asked her, but didn’t want to get much closer. I didn’t want to push it, so I just let her do her own thing. {our first picture as a family of 4!}

She quickly warmed up to “the place” and we decided to give Adelyn her big sister gift. This was, of course, a big hit! She got a few color books, crayons, fish crackers, and 2 sesame street books.

She had to use her new colors right away! It was nice way to keep her busy while she was visiting!

Daddy took Adelyn on a few walks around the floor. Or when I needed a refill of water he’d take her with him to the kitchen. She loved it! Kyle said she had to open & explore every cupboard. One time while Avery was napping both Kyle & I went out for a walk with Adelyn. I wanted to make sure to give her some of her own time as well during this time of transition.

Before Adelyn went home for the day she was eager to give “baby brother” kisses goodbye! Completely melted my heart!

Now that we’ve been home for a little over a week, she is more & more interested in Avery everyday. Adelyn held Avery for the first time on Sunday March 11th. When I asked if she wanted to hold Avery she excitedly said “Yes!” and held out her arms! Now she asks to hold him throughout the day and loves to give him kisses. When Kyle brought her home from daycare a few days last week, she ran right past me and yelled, “baby brother” as she ran up to Avery in his swing! I know their relationship will continue to grow and she will be a great big sister.

Avery’s Birth Story

Thursday March 7th we had a scheduled induction, which also happened to be my due date! Our little boy was measuring big, so my doctor didn’t want me to go any later. Before leaving the house we had to get one last picture as a family of three! We dropped Adelyn off at daycare and headed to the hospital around 7:30am.

We checked in and went up to the 4th floor at the hospital. Our nurse, Jadie, met us & took us to our room. I put on the {ahem…very stylish} hospital gown and they hooked me up to the monitors for contractions & baby boy’s heartbeat. Dr Olson stopped in shortly after.  She was hoping to break my water right away, but wasn’t able to because my cervix wasn’t in the right position. She said as I would walk & the baby’s head comes down it will help bring my cervix to the right position. I was 3 cm dilated at that time.

The lab stopped in my room next, around 8:15am, and drew my blood. I’m not very good with blood draws and have been known to pass out, so I always let the nurse/lab tech know this. While the lab tech was taking my blood she kept my mind busy by chatting about Hawkeye football and then all of the sudden I felt this cold down my arm and Kyle says, “Don’t look Darci!”. The tech said the vile didn’t close when she pulled it out, so all the blood she drew from me was ALL OVER my arm, the bed, the floor, the chair next me, etc! So she had to take my blood AGAIN. Not how I wanted to start the day, but I survived!

After the lab tech left Jadie put in my IV and started Pitocin around 8:50am. To get things going I wanted to walk, so at 9:30am we started the first round of what would be many walks on the OB floor that day! I still wasn’t feeling much of anything. We took another walk at 10:30am and Jadie also increased the Pitocin at that time.

Dr Olson came back around noon and {thankfully} was able to break my water. At that time contractions were about 2 1/2 minutes apart. I could feel them, but they weren’t painful. Once again, we went out for another walk around 1pm. When we were back in the room Jadie offered me a popsicle! I was excited…something besides ice chips! Not sure why, but I didn’t get one when I had Adelyn.

As the afternoon went on the contractions got more intense and Jadie continued to increase my Pitocin. At 2:30pm I was dilated to 4cm. And once again at 3pm we took another walk. One of the nurses suggested that each time I had a contraction to hold the rail on the side of the hallway and squat as I breathed through the contraction. I took her advice, but didn’t quite squat as low as she demonstrated!

Throughout the day the main topic of discussion was what we were going to name our baby boy. We just couldn’t nail one down. Kyle likes simple names and I wanted something a little less common. We went over our list of favorites multiple times and Kyle got a “name book” from the nurses station.

Mid afternoon I started to get discouraged. I really thought things would be moving quicker by now. Kyle looked back to my labor with Adelyn and  I was at about the same place now as I was with Adelyn. Everything I had heard said the 2nd one goes quicker and I just wasn’t feeling that way. Thankfully I had a great “team” and both Kyle & Jadie encouraged me and I was able to re-focus on the goal…getting our baby boy here!

Dr. Olson came back to check me at 5:20pm. I was dilated to 6cm and 60% effaced. At this point I was focused and breathing steadily through each contraction {and if I was up I’d grab the rail on the side of the hallway, squat, & breath through each contraction}. I wanted so bad to make it as far as I could without the epidural {but of course had plans to ultimately get one}.

At 5:50pm we went for another walk. It felt SO much better to be up during contractions rather than sitting in bed. But the contractions were starting to get more intense. At 6:10pm I had to get back in bed to be monitored again and Jadie checked me, I was dilated to 7-8cm. This is when I decided it was time to get the epidural. If I could have walked/stood longer I could have made it longer, but sitting in bed was a completely different pain.

At 6:30pm Colin showed up to do the epidural. Colin was not only our nurse anesthetist, but he is also a family friend and he did my epidural for Adelyn as well. I was so thankful he was able to come do the epidural for me!

Post epidural…feeling good! Dr. Olson came back around 7pm to check me and I was 8cm dilated and 70% effaced. Unfortunately our baby boy didn’t make his arrival before 7pm, which meant our awesome nurse Jadie didn’t get to be there for his birth. Our new nurse, Jess, was awesome though! I had actually met her when I had Adelyn and she did the pre-natal classes at our hospital as well.

Once I had my epidural I felt almost drugged, so I took advantage of feeling good and tried to take a nap. At 8:15pm Jess checked me and I was almost 9cm and 80-90% effaced. About a half hour later she increased my Pitocin to 12 and again another 20 minutes later to 13.

At 10pm Dr. Olson checked me again and said that when I was contracting that I was “complete”, but when I wasn’t contracting I was still at an 8. She said I needed to “labor down” and let my body do the work before I could start pushing. However, I had that strong feeling that I wanted to push. For the next half hour I was, once again, focused & breathing through each contraction, holding back the urge to push.

Jess checked me at 10:40pm and determined that I was now complete, even when I wasn’t contracting, and was ready to push. At 10:45pm Dr. Olson came into the room and quickly realized she needed to gown up. Another nurse quickly called the the nursery nurse and I began to push. Kyle, Dr. Olson, and the nurses were all encouraging throughout each push…but for some reason I didn’t let myself believe them. I remembered all too well that encouragement I got when I pushed for 2 1/2 hours for Adelyn’s delivery and didn’t want to get too excited knowing that this could be a long, hard part of the labor.

Little did I know, but after only 15 minutes of pushing our sweet boy made his arrival at 11pm on the dot! Dr. Olson placed him on my chest and they rubbed him down and he made his first cry! Love that sound! Kyle and I cried and embraced each other. A complete miracle, a healthy baby boy! Dr. Olson had Kyle clamp the cord and cut it!

They took him across the room to get him cleaned up, weighed, measured, checked, etc. And the guesses began as to how big he was! I was SO curious!

Before long, the nursery nurse announced 9lbs 11 3/4 oz and 22in long, big boy!

Once the nurses were done with him and Dr. Olson was done with me, Kyle and I had some sweet time to get acquainted with our son! I was able to nurse him right away and he latched like he knew exactly what to do, an answer to prayers!

At this point we still hadn’t chosen a name yet. It wasn’t until the following morning, before we sent out the announcement, that we chose Avery James as his name. It may have taken a while, but it fits him perfect & we love it!

We couldn’t be more smitten with our sweet boy and we are so thankful that God has given us the opportunity to be his Mommy & Daddy!

Announcing…

Avery James Bangert

Arrived 3.7.13 at 11:00pm * 9lbs 11 3/4oz * 22 in long

 

Nursery Reveal

I finally feel ready to say that I’m ready for Baby Boy to make his arrival. We didn’t quite get the early start that we did on Adelyn’s nursery, but it still came together and I’m happy with how it turned out!

We purchased a silent auction item last fall for a local painter to paint the nursery. I set it up in December and he wasn’t able to come paint until mid-January. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was starting to get nervous. Up until that time the nursery was still serving its prior purpose of a guest room. We chose a light gray for the walls from Sherwin Williams called “Amazing Gray”. On the paint sample it looked more tan, but on the walls it’s the perfect light gray!

You will see from these pictures that Baby Boy’s nursery has two doorways. You can either access his room via the hallway where our bedroom & Adelyn’s are {it’s a pocket door to the hallway} or there is also a doorway right off the kitchen. Not the most ideal option, but it was our only remaining bedroom.It is the largest bedroom of the three in our house though!

Kyle replaced all the baseboard & casing in the room from the original honey oak trim to a nice crisp white trim! He also replaced the closet doors. The old ones were 2 large doors that only allowed you to see half of the closet at a time. We purchased white bi-fold doors and are very happy with the result. Kyle and his Dad did a great job installing them!

I had a hard time finding/deciding on curtains. I ended up finding an orange panel curtain at Hobby Lobby for only $11.99 {after using the 40% off coupon}. The windows in his room are short and directly above the vent, so I knew I didn’t want floor length curtains. Now I am NOT a sewer AT ALL, but thankfully Kyle’s Mom is, so I had her cut the panel in half and hem it. Worked out great!

The dresser was mine growing up. My Mom gave it to us to use in the nursery. Kyle and I had perfect weather over Thanksgiving break to re-finish the dresser {using this tutorial here}. Check out the before picture {the only one I remembered to take}:

And here’s the beautiful after! I was very happy with how it turned out! And Baby Boy’s crib is on loan from my wonderful friend, Sara {they have 3 girls now and still just might need it again!}.

I chose the patterns for his bedding and the wonderful Holly at Modifiedtot made my vision come to life! She did a perfect job and was so easy to work with. She also made the changing pad cover to match the bumper.

I designed the prints in Publisher. The one above the dresser/changing station is a favorite praise song of mine and the the one above his crib is the verse Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart.”

The frames with orange & aqua were a Hobby Lobby find…I couldn’t believe how perfect they fit in with the nursery!

For the most part, that sums up the tour of baby boy’s nursery. Once we choose a name and get our maternity pictures back I have a few more things in mind I want to do. I’ll make sure to do an update post! Four days from today is this little boy’s due date!