Avery Lynn

We can't adequately describe the moment our third beautiful little girl entered the world in the wee hours of yesterday morning.  Saturday evening as Steve and I walked the halls of the hospital to speed up labor, we talked about how excited we were to be so close to knowing whether the baby I was carrying was a boy or girl, and how thrilled we would be with either.  Three hours later the doctor held up a gorgeous baby girl- a mix of both of her big sisters, with a full head of dark hair-- and suddenly our family was more complete than it was before.  God has given us THREE little girls to raise for Him and even though the littlest one is only a day old I can't imagine having it any other way!  Here's the tiny face we were gazing at just minutes after the birth:

I don't think Steve or I ever pictured ourselves as the parents of three girls, but honestly can it get more wonderful than this?  Watch out, world, "The Deterding Sisters" are here!  Grace and Leah are completely smitten with their little sister and love to hold her and talk to her.  More pictures of that will come, I promise.  For now I thought I'd share Avery Lynn's birth story...it's not a long one:)

Saturday, March 26

Two days after I wrote about being peaceful in waiting for real labor to begin, I was still feeling pretty content.  At 1 pm I got a very sharp pain covering my entire abdomen, and then mild contractions began hitting every 5 minutes.  For four hours.  They were barely uncomfortable and never lasted longer than 30 seconds.  By 5 pm they were 4 minutes apart but still hardly worth timing, in my mind, because they were so weak.  The girls were packed up and sent off to Grandma and Pa's house so that Steve and I could look forward to a good nights' rest (I wasn't convinced that this was really labor and was becoming less content by the minute!).  At 7 pm they were 3 to 4 minutes apart, so I called the doctor on call to see if I should get checked out.  When he heard that it was my third pregnancy he asked me to come in, even though the contractions were only lasting 15 seconds and still very weak.  By 8pm we were in triage (I checked in to triage at around 8 pm for all three pregnancies, isn't that interesting?) and I was 3 cm dilated, 90% effaced.  We were told to talk a stroll around the labor and delivery unit for an hour, then check back to see if there was any progress.

After our walk I was no longer doubting that we'd have a baby that night.  I was having contractions every minute and was 4-5 cm by 9:30 pm.  Upgrade to the delivery room, and we barely had enough time to call the grandparents before labor got intense.  At 11:03 I got my epidural (5 cm) and settled in to wait for the next 5 cm.  By 11:45 the epidural had worn off of my entire right side, so for the next 15 minutes we tried to readjust my position to get the medication where it needed to be.  6 cm.  As midnight approached Steve finally pushed the button for an extra dose of the epidural, thinking that I'd have a while to go waiting to progress 4 more centimeters...but had I known...

Sunday, March 27

At 12:05am we called the nurse and doctor back into the room because I suddenly became aware that the  baby was coming.  I mean, coming OUT.  I had made it to 10 cm in about 2 minutes and my doctor started throwing on his delivery gear.  The nurse told me I could push a little bit to relieve the pain, so I gave a little half-hearted effort at one push.  As the doctor slipped his last arm into his gown and sat down in the chair, out came the baby at 12:08!  It took her less than a minute.

It all happened so fast, I'm still trying to get over the shock.

Avery Lynn Deterding was born Sunday March 27, 2011
12:08 am
7 lbs. 9 oz.
20 inches long

We're so happy that our friend Stacy was there to document Avery's birth.  Thanks to her skills with the camera, she was able to beautifully capture every moment-- fleeting as they were!   Thank you, sweet friend for giving us this beautiful gift of being able to relive our girl's birth day in photographs!  I'm so excited to share them with you all, too.

To view a slideshow of Avery's birth, click on the link below.  Be sure to turn on your computer's volume and have the tissues handy.  God is so good, I'll tear up every time I watch it.

Avery Lynn's Slideshow