Welcome to the World Avery!

Avery Ellen Bahn is here! Yes, it is a little earlier then expected. Avery was born at 8:38 p.m. and was just a little peanut at 4 lbs. 12 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. She is breathing totally on her own, and came out crying, just like she was supposed to Yea! She is just the most tiny, beautiful thing we have ever laid eyes on. She was due on December 16th, but decided she just couldn't wait to meet us! She arrived about 6 1/2 weeks early. Everything went pretty well, and she is doing great, but since she was born before 34 weeks, she did have to go to Children's hospital, just standard procedure. So Cullen and Avery's Grammy Bahn are there with her and my mom is at the hospital with me. They said if all goes as planned, they will discharge me in the morning to go up to Children's and be with her. It is so hard to be away from her right now, but I know she is in great hands, and her Daddy is there with her. I just can hardly wait to get up there and see her tomorrow!
Avery Ellen Bahn!

Getting all cleaned up, weighed and measured


So here is what happened:

On Wednesday at our Halloween party at school, I started feeling my stomach getting very hard and tight. We had a regular dr. appt. that day, and he said it was probably braxton hicks. So we went home and everything was fine. Through the course of the night, they were getting worse and worse, so on Thursday morning we went in to the hospital. It turns out I was having contractions, but they were pretty far apart yet, so they just sent me home and told me to rest and that they would subside.

I did just that, but they didn't subside. By the end of the evening on Thursday, they were coming about every 7 minutes or so apart. They told us to keep track, so that is what we did. Thankfully, our neighbor is an OB/GYN in town, so Cullen ran over to ask him what we should do. We had no clue! He said definitely go in, so back to Waconia we went at about 10:00 p.m.! When we got there, we were right and they were real contractions about 6-7 minutes apart. They gave me a pill to try to stop them, and then a shot of some sort as well. They did eventually quit (temporarily) and sent us home again.

We got home at about 2:00 a.m. on Friday morning. I was able to sleep a little bit, but woke again around 6:00 and they were in full force again! I called the dr. and they set up an appointment for me at 1:00 that afternoon. Cullen had to go to school because he had to give a permit test that day, so my dad came over to sit with me. By about 10:00 they were pretty strong and seemed to be coming closer together. I called the hospital again and they said to come in. So thankfully Grandpa Larry was able to take me to the hospital. When we got there, they were about 3 minutes apart, and it turns out I was in active labor. The tried to stop them again so they gave me another shot of something, and a shot to help Avery's lungs. They really wanted to get me to hold off until Sunday, when I would have been 34 weeks. But around 3:30, my water broke. We knew then that she was coming. They had different doctors on the phone and were debating transferring me to Abbott to deliver, so Children's would be right next door, but things were moving pretty quickly, and with rush hour and such, they decided to bring a team out here.

I continued to progress pretty rapidly. I also had an epidural, which was wonderful! I was scared to death of it, but it was fine and made me feel SO much better! At around 8:00 p.m. it was time to push. I pushed for about 1/2 hour and then she was here! The funny thing is we were signed up for have our birthing class tomorrow morning! Oh well, we managed just fine without it. When she was born, they had given us a couple different scenarios, but she came out crying and scored great on the APGAR scale (Yes, she passed her first test!) so we got to snuggle before they had to load her up into her "spaceship" to go to Childrens. The first picture on this page is of her in her thing to transport her. We called it her spaceship because that it totally what it reminded you of. I didn't witness that part, which was probably a good thing, because it was hard enough seeing her go off, when I had just met her! They didn't rush transport her or anything, because she was totally stable and breathing, so that was super reassuring. Oh my gosh, what a whirlwind. It was truly the most amazing day ever. I can't believe she is here. We are totally in love already!