Ava Madeline Kelly

Sorry for the silence! I've been wanting to share Ava's birth story forever now, but I'm finally finding the time and energy to type it out! Here it is:

During the last few weeks of my pregnancy, I had been waking up in the middle of the night uncomfortable with some back pain. At 38 weeks, on March 26, 2014, I woke up at 2am feeling the same type of pain, and hung out in the living room to try to get comfortable. Around 3am, I noticed my back pain increasing and then going away. I started timing when the pains occurred, and after 45 minutes, I came to the realization that baby was coming. I woke Matt up at around 4:30am to tell him the news, and unlike with Leah, Matt popped up and got ready to go! I called my parents at 5am to drive up to take care of Leah. I was hoping I could wait until they got here to go to the hospital, but at 5:30am, the contractions were getting really strong, and we woke Leah up. She was such a trooper, and was in a good mood. Since she didn't really understand the urgency of needing to leave the house, she insisted on eating her breakfast first, which I couldn't deny her. :) So I patiently waited for her to finish her waffle before we left the house.

Last picture of Leah as an only child

As we were driving, Matt and I looked at each other and finally decided on the name! We arrived at the hospital at around 5:45am, and I was 3 cm when I was checked in Triage. My parents got to the hospital around 6:15am, and I was actually so sad to see Leah go. I teared up a little bit when she left the room. This was my last moment with her as my baby. I was moved to Labor and Delivery, and they asked me if I wanted to get the epidural now or wait. With Leah, I waited until I was 5cm dilated, but the contractions the second time around were way more intense, and I asked for it now. I felt like a million bucks after the epidural, and now it was just a waiting game. The epidural did slow down my labor a little bit, but once my water broke at around 9am at 4cm, it picked back up. At 11:30am, the nurse came to check on me, and I told her I was feeling the urge to push, so she said she would tell the midwife to check on my status. The OB resident walked in around 11:45am and said I wasn't quite ready to deliver yet. Then the midwife came in at noon, and lo and behold it was time! The staff quickly prepared me and the room for delivery, and then I finally heard the word to push! This delivery was different from Leah's, in that they rolled me on to my side. I pushed literally for a second or two, and the midwife told me to stop and to blow! At first I was totally confused what she meant by blow, but then I got the hang of it. At 12:29pm, after about 3-4 pushes and several more blows, out came Ava Madeline Kelly in less than 10 minutes at 7 lbs 11 ounces and 20 inches {a pound bigger than Leah}! It was pretty insane how quickly this all happened. Matt and I were so excited to meet the newest member of our family.

My parents came back to the hospital with Leah at around 1:30pm, and Leah was thrilled to meet her baby sister. She sat with me on the bed, patting Ava and admiring her. It was the sweetest thing to see. She said "Baby not in mommy's tummy anymore. That's funny!" haha! Having my two girls next to me was such a special moment. Welcome to the world Ava! Our family is officially complete!

I'm hoping to share what life has been like the past 3 weeks soon!

*Last 4 photos by Bob Cho

Leah's Arrival!

On Sunday, Matt and I attended Thao and Leslie's wedding in Costa Mesa. I was a bridesmaid, so my 38 weeks pregnant body waddled around praying my water wouldn't break in front of all the guests. We got home that night, and I went to bed thinking I was feeling Braxton-Hicks contractions. At around 1am, I woke up uncomfortable and unable to sleep. I paced the house trying to determine if I was feeling contractions. As the moments of uncomfortableness got increasingly more painful and more regular, I finally faced the reality that I was in labor. I didn't want to wake Matt up yet since I knew I was still in early labor, so I did yoga poses to help get through each contraction, showered, and packed my bag. Since I thought for sure the baby would be late, I didn't pack a bag yet, and we hadn't even picked up my brother's infant car seat!  Oops!  At 4am, Matt woke up telling me to go back to bed, and I replied that it was time to go to the hospital. He quickly got up and asked if he could shower and pack a bag too. I said he could shower but not pack a bag. :)

We arrived at Kaiser Sunset at 4:45am, and I kept telling Matt how nervous I was. I checked into triage, and I was 3 cm dilated. Since I was still early and my contractions weren't that regular, they wanted to keep watching me, but, to my disappointment, I wasn't able to get an epidural yet because they wanted to make sure that I would keep progressing. Matt was scheduled to be in the OR, and since the doctor said there was no way I'd deliver before 3pm, when Matt usually finishes with his cases, we decided he should continue with his work day. He would check up on me in between each case.

I was admitted and moved to the LDR unit around 7am.  This week was actually supposed to be my last week of work, so I emailed my boss that I wouldn't make it in because baby was on the way! The nurses were great and walked laps with me around the garden to try to progress my labor faster. I'm not sure if the nurses were extra nice because Matt was a physician there, but I sure appreciated their kindness. By 12:00pm, I was 5cm dilated. Woohoo! I was officially in active labor. A midwife came in and had an OB resident rupture my membranes which felt like I peed all over myself. Afterwards, the anesthesiologist came in to administer the epidural. Unfortunately, the first epidural only numbed my legs, so I was still feeling pretty strong pain in my back and pelvis, and I had to get the epidural redone. The second one worked great. I immediately felt relief and was able to relax. At this point, I called my parents to let them know the baby was coming and continued to play the waiting game.  I watched TV, texted and chatted with friends, and Matt rejoined me at 3pm.  The day was full of so much excitement that I wasn't hungry or tired.

By 5:00pm, the midwife came back in with a General Medicine resident to check my progress. Matt felt uncomfortable having this resident check me so we asked at this point to only have the midwife  or attending check.  I thought it was cute that Matt was so concerned over this. The midwife announced I was fully dilated and would be ready to push within the hour! The midwife asked me who my OB was and, lo and behold, my OB happened to be on call that night! What perfect timing. Dr. Dubow came into the room at 5:30pm and told me it was time to push! She pressed a couple buttons, and all of a sudden, the "living room" turned into a delivery room. The pushing part was a lot less dramatic than I had imagined. I had always pictured a room full of random people, sweating and screaming.  The only other people in the room besides Matt and I were a nurse and Dr. Dubow. It was very calm and every time I felt the pressure of another contraction coming I pushed 3 times for 10 seconds each. In between each contraction, Matt and I would chat about how we couldn't believe this was happening. I had no idea how well I was pushing though. Dr. Dubow kept telling me I was doing great, but I wasn't sure if she was saying that to be nice or telling me the truth.  After a handful of pushes, Matt said "OMG babe. You have to see this. Her head is out!"  Even though he made it sound really cool, I didn't want to look and get freaked out. The next time I felt a contraction, Dr. Dubow told me to stop halfway into the set.  All of a sudden I felt this weight release out of me, and I heard the crying of my beautiful baby girl! The entire push time was about 45 minutes.  Matt cut the umbilical cord and I held her tight in my arms just staring in amazement.  She was already super alert with Apgar scores of 8 and 9.  Matt laughs that she came out with arms flailing and one eye open looking all around.  I was really happy I didn't tear, didn't feel pain, and that it happened quickly!  Praise God!  I was so overcome with emotion and so happy to have Matt by my side. 

The next few hours were a big blur. Between bonding with Leah, her being cleaned, vitals taken, me getting cleaned, texting and calling everyone, my parents coming, and being moved to postpartum - all I could really think was OMG LEAH NOELLE KELLY IS FINALLY HERE!  I feel so blessed to be able to experience motherhood and am looking forward to the journey ahead.