Audrey's birth story

I've decided to take some time and write out each of my kiddo's birth stories. And since Audrey is the most recent, she's first. After all, you all get to be privy to my thoughts here - but this blog is really for me. :)

Audrey was well planned. Alex had been a super grouchy baby, and a very serious little girl, but she was pretty easy to deal with. She was getting closer to two, and we were getting closer to the end of medical school and moving. I didn't want to move with a newborn, but a baby would be okay - so I convinced Aaron that a third would be a good idea.

It took 4 months of trying. I get frustrated easily when things don't go exactly as I plan, and I was actively watching the calendar - counting down months until we were moving. Seriously, one more month - and I would have postponed her until after we moved.

We were excited that she was coming. That summer, we went camping to the Grand Canyon with Sissy and Robby and their boys. It was fun to see their wonderment, but not so fun to go camping while pregnant. The next week, we headed to Hawaii for 21 days of fun in the sun while Aaron completed an Ortho rotation at Tripler. I was tired - but the hotel had cable - so my 5 year old and 2 year old were easily entertained. And I wasn't about to let pregnancy keep me out of the ocean! I mentally told myself that fat old ladies still put on bathing suits - so I'd be fine. Haha. We had a great time.

Like a week after we got home from Hawaii, we had the ultrasound scheduled. Thankfully, we found out she was a girl on the first try. It was easy that she was a girl - we already had all the stuff. Officially, she was due on December 24th - but with a scheduled c-section, she came 12 days sooner - making her birthday fit into my numbers schema. A little neurotic, I know.

That was the semester of babies! Katee was in Florida working at Disney World, popping popcorn. Cousins Collin and Abby came within 2 days of each other in September. Jenna arrived at the beginning of October. 4 cousins in 4 months. My mom was in baby heaven.

Her name was a challenge. I wanted something different, a little unique. We discussed "Olivia" for a while, but when Aaron's mom called her "Ollie" it was all over! I kept mentally thinking something with a "D" - but no girls names with D really appealed to me. Aaron really liked Elizabeth (my middle name), but after being called "Sarah E-lizard-breath" by my teasing dad -I was against it. I was drawn to Audrey - after Audrey Hepburn, one of my favorite actresses ever. We endlessly debated on "Audrey Elizabeth" or "Elizabeth Audrey".

Some of the ladies at church threw me a little baby shower. It was intimate, there was only about 10 of us there, but so nice. We met at Wildflower Bread Company - yummy - and hung out for a while. Even when it's a "repeat" child, it was nice to have some new stuff. I got the cutest little Santa dress, hat, and booties for her that made perfect pictures for her birth announcements.

The night before we took Ben and Alex over to Grandma's house. Auntie Heather and a tiny Jenna were going to stay with them when she was born. We had discussed with my doctor my mom's desire to watch the surgery. He cleared it with the anesthesiologist, and allowed me to have 2 people watching. Mom was thrilled, and promised that she wouldn't pass out or get sick. :)

We found out a couple of days before she was born that the 12th was going to be residency match day. Holy cow! The pressure was on! The night before we had to head to the hospital, Aaron and I were beside ourselves. This decision was our lives for the next couple of years! What if he didn't get ortho? What if we were sent to Georgia? Or D.C.? Or Tripler? We couldn't sleep, so we sat up playing Lego Star Wars until like 1 in the morning. I headed to bed first. I was awakened by Aaron coming in, jumping on the bed, saying that he made Ortho and we were moving to El Paso. What a blessing to know, to get what he wanted, to be able to plan! We got dressed and headed to the hospital.

It snowed early that morning. In Phoenix, if you get snow, it melts as soon as it hits the ground. But we did see flurries as we drove to the hospital.

Dr. McKernan had been on call the night before, so as we got comfy, he downed a RockStar. :) (This is particularly humorous to me as I watch my husband bring home super-caffeinated beverages for this very reason.) My mom arrived at the hospital, and everyone gowned up. The OR was cold and I remember shivering as they were getting ready to put in the spinal. They laid me down, got me draped, and called in Aaron and my mom. My sweet husband was an old pro in the operating room, and discussed meds with the anesthesiologist. My mom was fascinated. Dr. McKernan opened me up and before he cut into my uterus, he ran his hand over it and said, "She has a full head of hair." We were expecting a big baby (Ben was 8 lbs 11 oz, and Al was 8 lbs), but out came this skinny little girl - 6 lbs 15 oz! Aaron followed our girl, taking pictures, and mom said, "She has red hair!" and stayed to watch them start to sew me up. Then, before the doc was finished, they shuffled them out to follow the baby to the nursery while they cleaned and stitched.

I ended up in the recovery room for a while. I guess my temp had dropped too much because I was kept in there longer than an hour under warming blankets. Aaron and my mom kept peeking in at me, but were focused on Audrey. They finally told me that she was having some trouble breathing, nothing too serious, but that she wasn't pinking up like she should. They said that sometimes that happens with c-section babies. It wasn't too long before both of us were in the room and settled. I did have a reaction to the morphine and ended up with a super itchy nose. I bruised it a bit from itching so much! A little benadryl worked to clear that up, and kept me doped up for a few days.

It had been a long day already! We had phone calls to make - not only to tell everyone that we had a baby, but that we had gotten the residency we wanted. So exciting! It was a good day, and by that afternoon, we were both out cold in the room - exhausted from all of the excitement.

And thus, Audrey entered our family. :)