The Story of Avery Jane Brown

Everything about Avery has been like a surprise waiting at every turn. From the moment I discovered I was pregnant with her…wha??? This soon? We weren’t really “trying” to get pregnant, but the pink plus sign don’t lie, ya know what I mean? And we ran with it. My pregnancy was fine…craved taco salad from Wendy’s and Little Debbie snack cakes. She had lots of hiccups in utero and I had lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions. It was late summer when I got really large and in charge with her, and we didn’t have a/c in our little white Boise house, so I switched all our living room furniture around so that the couch (with a hide-a-bed) was directly in front of the swamp cooler and Mark would fetch me food and water (and Little Debbie’s), and Maryn learned every word to the Winnie the Pooh song (from watching the video a million times), and enjoyed playing peek-a-boo over my gigantic belly. Finally, the day arrived in early September (my due date was October 6th) that I was informed (at 35 weeks) that I was dilated to a 4 and over 70% effaced. It was early, and if I could slow things down a bit, that’d probably be a good idea. I was so scared that my baby was just going to “drop” out of me, I remember I walked really slowly out of the dr’s. office with my thighs pressed together tightly until I got to my car, and then drove very gingerly back home. I quarantined myself because that night I had crazy, bizarro (pregnant) dreams that she would pop out and just start walking around on her own! So I stayed home for 2 weeks straight…hoping that she could cook just a little while longer. Even though I was hot, and even though I was uncomfortable, I wanted her to be safe and healthy. But things weren’t meant to be predictable with her, or so I’ve learned. At 37 weeks, I awoke early in the morning to use the bathroom and heard an audible “pop” from my uterus and felt the gush. My water had broke and all systems pointed to Baby. Coming. Now!! I yelled to Mark in our bedroom, “it’s time to rock ‘n’ roll!!” Knowing not to doubt me (refer to Maryn’s birth story), he jumped up, grabbed my bag, the carseat, and the phone. He called his brother Dave and wife Melanie and they came to stay with Maryn.

By this time, it was about 4:30 in the morning. We got to the hospital around 4:45. In the triage, they finished breaking my water, and were checking things out when they declared I was at a 10, and it was time to push!! The nurse felt something “bony” starting to crown. Although that bony thing wasn’t her head like it should have been, it was the ball of her foot and she was coming out the wrong way!! They didn’t have time to tell me what a c-section was before I was whisked away into an operating room. Mark was in the bathroom of the triage and didn’t get to see me go. They shoved a gas mask over my mouth and nose and I was asleep before I even knew what was going to happen. (A general anesthetic for a c-section is not the ideal option. That meant that when I came to, I’d feel everything below the waist. But I’ll save that part for later.)

I was having an “emergency c-section”. The doctor told me later that Avery’s foot had crowned and that she (my dr.) had to push it back up the birth canal, and tried to pull her out by that foot and the other…except she couldn’t find the other foot. All she could recognizably feel was her bum. So she pulled her out by that, and when she did her other foot and leg came flopping out from being folded up by her head (she was basically in the splits position). Despite the tangled up ball she had been in my uterus, she was perfectly normal and healthy. She let out a cry and Mark said he heard it from out in the hallway. The nurse took some pictures of her having her cord cut and being weighed (6.14) and dried off. I was still out cold. They took her out to Mark and she stopped crying. She was still and with her wide eyes, studied his face for the whole elevator trip upstairs to the maternity ward. He had to give her to the nurses in the nursery and return downstairs to be there when I woke up from my anesthetic.

When I woke up, I could feel everything and it was incredibly painful. They had started a morphine drip, but I was allergic to the morphine and started throwing up. They had to switch it to something else and it took a long time. And I fell back asleep. When I came to again, it was much later in the day. I had given birth at 5:30, and it was probably after 1 pm when I woke up. I was groggy and disoriented. Mark stroked my hair and asked me if I wanted to see my baby. “Baby? What baby? Where am I?” I stammered. I was so overmedicated at that point I seriously didn’t know. But then it hit me, and I remembered. He wheeled the little crib in and lifted her up to me. I looked at her and was still a bit confused. I think I expected her to look like Maryn and I couldn’t place her face for a few moments. She was quiet and just let me study her. Eventually my brain made the connection and I knew she was mine.

The next morning, our pediatrician brought some issues to the attention of the doctors and nurses on staff. Avery’s leg was out of the socket. Actually, there was no socket. Because she had been in the splits in utero for awhile (possibly the last few weeks of the last trimester) she had a dislocated hip joint. She would need to be outfitted with a harness to encourage ligaments and muscles to form around her hip socket in order for it to not pop in and out all willy-nilly. They told us she’d be fitted before we left the hospital, but it never happened.

We stopped by a pediatric orthopaedist on our way home after being discharged and they rushed us through a fitting and quick explanation on what to do and how to care for it. It was awful. We were told not to remove it or move her too much. How are you supposed to do that with diapers and bathing and trying to nurse with this bulky contraption on? Needless to say, it was stressful and my post-partum emotions kicked in starting that day.

When we got home, Mark’s Mom and Maryn had decorated the house and things were warm and inviting. It was so good to be home. If it hadn’t been for Laurie for those first 2 weeks, we would’ve been in bad shape. She stepped in and took over, and cared for me and Mark and Maryn wonderfully. But then she had to leave, and with my c-section scar things were hard for another couple weeks. I was a mess of emotions too.

But then we had planned her blessing for the first weekend of October so that my parents could be there. And much to my surprise and delight, all 5 of my siblings showed up in wacky, surprise birthday party variety to celebrate the birth of my baby girl!! I seriously had no clue about any of them coming and was ecstatic and humbled beyond belief! It was the best surprise I could have ever imagined and immediately pulled me from my baby blues. I mean how could I be blue when my petite older sister is popping out of a red suitcase on my living room floor, or my older brother practically breaks his neck hanging from my front yard tree. I will always remember that day and how much it made me love and appreciate my siblings.

And I will always remember how my life changed when Avery came into it. I’m glad she’s my daughter and I hope she has an awesome sixth birthday, even if it’s by candlelight!!