Averien Isabel Heileson

Today we welcomed our little new baby girl into our family. I had been having contractions all day and evening and then around midnight Enoch and I went to bed, well I tried. I knew that she would probably come in the next few hours or more so we made sure that we had everything that we needed. We packed up everything. I had already been packed but over the last few weeks things had started to come out of my suitcase. Enoch had to grab what he needed too. I was up all night with contractions. I would just concentrate on breathing and was fine most of the time. The contractions never really got where they were right on top of each other so I figured I was doing fine.

Around 3 AM I got up to go to the bathroom and the contractions were really painful then. I had to really concentrate. I was wanting to scream in pain but didn't want to scare Enoch. Maybe I should have. I accidentally dropped something while in the bathroom and Enoch right away asked if everything was okay. I said yes. I went back to bed and then 15 minutes later I told Enoch to call his Mom and get her to come. Enoch asked now or in a bit and I said "NOW." Well then I figured I still had lots of time (I didn't want to be at the hospital for hours) so I had Enoch take a quick shower. Well at about 3:30 we got dressed and then my contractions were really strong. I was in so much pain. Enoch was loading the car like a mad mad. We live only a half a mile from the hospital and on the way there I started to feel pressure. Enoch was driving so dang fast and was freaked out we wouldn't make it. He didn't want to deliver a baby in the car at

-27F.

He parked the car at the hospital doors and by then I was dying. I wasn't sure if I could actually get out of the car. Enoch took me upstairs in a wheel chair and when we got to the nurses station they started asking questions like name and and stuff. Well we hadn't registered yet because we had only decided a few days before as to which of the hospitals we would deliver at. When I told the nurses that I was feeling so much pressure they almost looked at my like yah right. They took me though to my room and helped me get into my gown and then they checked me. The look on the nurses face was shock. She yelled "she is complete" and then 2 nurses came running in. They were ripping that room apart getting it ready for Averien to be born. The nurses called my doctor but said she lived too far away and wouldn't probably make it. I was going to call her when we left the house but I was in so much pain I never did it.

The nurses looked at each other and asked if they were ready to deliver. Nurses can do it and know how but don't like to because of the lawsuits that can happen and all the paper work. They don't treat it like a doctor delivering. Well at this point I was in so much pain that I had to rely on Enoch and the nurse to help me breath through the contractions and not push. Another nurse at this point came in and said that Susan the midwife was next door helping another lady. Well they went and grabbed her. She came in with a gown on and said "alright lets push".

A funny tid bit is that at this point Enoch had not gone to move the car and the car was still outside running with all of our stuff in it. Well I realized that and as I was pushing I remembered the camera. We had left it in the car while we were in a hurry to get me into the hospital. I was so sad. I had this idea on how it was going to be and all the pictures we were going to get. So we have no pictures of Averien just as she was born because we had no camera. At least we have a good story on how fast it all went so it made up for not having the camera. The nurses thought that it was funny too that I was concerned most about the camera at this point of the birthing.

My water had not broken yet so they broke it and then Averien was born in a few pushes. It was so nice to have it over with. It was really hard and painful. The midwife was amazing too. She put Averien one me and she stayed on my stomach for at least 15 minutes. Enoch cut the umbilical cord after the umbilical cord stopped pulsating and then after a while they took her off me to weigh her. Everything is done in the room right there in front of us. It is really nice that it is that way.

After about 20 minutes of Averien being born Enoch finally filled out our admission papers and insurance information. The car ended running outside for almost an hour. Oops. Enoch really thought as did I that he would have had time to go and move it before Averien was delivered.
My Doctor came 3 minutes after Averien was born. Get this too, it was exactly 11 minutes from the time we got to the hospital that she was delivered and 14 minutes after we came in my doctor arrived. So everything happened so fast.

Averien was born at 3:54 AM. She weighed 6lbs 11oz and was 19 inches long. She is a small little thing. I guess she needed to stay as long as she could inside because if she had come any earlier she would have been really small. She has lots of dark brown hair too.

We got her name because we loved the name Avery but wanted something longer. Enoch came up with Averien. We wrote her name out 40 different times to see which spelling we liked. We loved this way because if she wanted to go by Averi when she is older she can and it also looked feminine this way.

It was so nice after she was born to just hold her and then Enoch and I took turns sleeping with her. Finally after a couple of hours the nurses took her to see the pediatrician and to bath her.