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My sweet little Ava was born on September 6th, 2016 at 1:37pm. She weighed 5lb 8oz and was 19 inches long! She is the light of our life and we are so happy to finally have her home 
. She was born at 34 weeks exactly due to PROM. It all started on August 30th at 6:30am. I awake around this time when my OH had to go to work and I noticed I was leaking. At the time I did not know it was amniotic fluid. I originally thought that maybe I peed myself. About two hours later I had "peed" myself 4 times, two of which felt like quite a bit of fluid. I started to get really worried, as I am sure anyone would in this situation. So I called Triage and they told me to go in to get checked out. I arrived at triage around 1pm. After I got there I had two different tests done they were able to confirm that it was amniotic fluid. After the confirmation they informed me that I would need to stay in the hospital until after Ava was born. They wanted to induce me at 34 weeks because it was a safer gestation to have her at and to lower the risks of infection. This meant I had 7 days to go and then 2 for recovery. During my stay in the hospital I was on an IV drip and antibiotics. I also was given antibiotics in a pill form every 4 hours. The hardest part about all of this other than the fact my sweet girl was coming early was bed rest. I was only allowed to be wheeled around in a wheelchair for 30 minutes twice my entire stay. I was driven insane (as anyone would be in a hospital for that long) and I really missed my daughter Riya. She was all out of sorts the entire time I was in the hospital and it broke my heart. My OH would bring her to visit but it was hard for her to see me having my blood pressure taken so often or having to have a shot of insulin (I had GD). Two nights before I went into active labor the contractions really started kicking in. They were about 5-7 minutes apart and pretty damn painful. Not only did I barely sleep up until that point but it was made even worse with the painful contractions. I had originally thought that maybe I was going to go into labor but it was just a false alarm. They took me off of the monitors and I "tried" to get some rest although impossible as it seemed. The next day was pretty uneventful other than me having emotional breakdowns over everything that was happening up to that point, including things surrounding my daughter Riya. That night, the night before I went into active labor, the contractions started again. This time they were a little more intense, but about the same distance apart. I was keeping track of them on my smart phone. The monitors were having trouble picking up 50% of the contractions. The contractions kept getting more and more painful. Two hours before I had the epidural the contractions were killing me. Around 6am I was given Pitocin. My contractions did not last as long but they were 10x more painful. I was not allowed to have the epidural until they were closer together (2-3 minutes). By the time I got the epidural (around 8am) I was in excruciating pain. I even attempted to use a birthing ball, which helped mildly. I was so exhausted by this point that I was even falling asleep sitting up between contractions. After my nurse begged my doctor to approve the epidural I was in heaven. I spared no time and pretty much passed out after receiving the epidural. I woke up periodically until about an hour before I gave birth. I was given the peanut shaped birthing ball that I held between my legs. I was meant to help open up the birthing canal, which worked but was also painful. Even with the epidural I was getting a huge feeling to push. The nurse had me push while we waited for the doctor and just after 2 pushes I was told to stop due to the fact she did not want to catch my baby 
haha
. By the time my doctor arrived she had to have the two student nurses tie up her gown because my sweet Ava was coming! I spent about 45 minutes pushing and she was here!! Now came the really scary part, waiting to see how well she would do outside of my womb so early. I was allowed to hold her right after she was born which was a HUGE relief. She ended up staying in the NICU for 9 days and was discharged at 35w2d. She did amazing, and soared right through it just like her big sister Riya. It was without some emotional moments as I realized I had another premature baby along with some NICU drama, but now that she is here it was all worth it 
. I have attached some pictures of Ava including right after she was born and the first time home . Thank you to those of you who made it this far 
. You can read more about her NICU stay in my journal.
. She was born at 34 weeks exactly due to PROM. It all started on August 30th at 6:30am. I awake around this time when my OH had to go to work and I noticed I was leaking. At the time I did not know it was amniotic fluid. I originally thought that maybe I peed myself. About two hours later I had "peed" myself 4 times, two of which felt like quite a bit of fluid. I started to get really worried, as I am sure anyone would in this situation. So I called Triage and they told me to go in to get checked out. I arrived at triage around 1pm. After I got there I had two different tests done they were able to confirm that it was amniotic fluid. After the confirmation they informed me that I would need to stay in the hospital until after Ava was born. They wanted to induce me at 34 weeks because it was a safer gestation to have her at and to lower the risks of infection. This meant I had 7 days to go and then 2 for recovery. During my stay in the hospital I was on an IV drip and antibiotics. I also was given antibiotics in a pill form every 4 hours. The hardest part about all of this other than the fact my sweet girl was coming early was bed rest. I was only allowed to be wheeled around in a wheelchair for 30 minutes twice my entire stay. I was driven insane (as anyone would be in a hospital for that long) and I really missed my daughter Riya. She was all out of sorts the entire time I was in the hospital and it broke my heart. My OH would bring her to visit but it was hard for her to see me having my blood pressure taken so often or having to have a shot of insulin (I had GD). Two nights before I went into active labor the contractions really started kicking in. They were about 5-7 minutes apart and pretty damn painful. Not only did I barely sleep up until that point but it was made even worse with the painful contractions. I had originally thought that maybe I was going to go into labor but it was just a false alarm. They took me off of the monitors and I "tried" to get some rest although impossible as it seemed. The next day was pretty uneventful other than me having emotional breakdowns over everything that was happening up to that point, including things surrounding my daughter Riya. That night, the night before I went into active labor, the contractions started again. This time they were a little more intense, but about the same distance apart. I was keeping track of them on my smart phone. The monitors were having trouble picking up 50% of the contractions. The contractions kept getting more and more painful. Two hours before I had the epidural the contractions were killing me. Around 6am I was given Pitocin. My contractions did not last as long but they were 10x more painful. I was not allowed to have the epidural until they were closer together (2-3 minutes). By the time I got the epidural (around 8am) I was in excruciating pain. I even attempted to use a birthing ball, which helped mildly. I was so exhausted by this point that I was even falling asleep sitting up between contractions. After my nurse begged my doctor to approve the epidural I was in heaven. I spared no time and pretty much passed out after receiving the epidural. I woke up periodically until about an hour before I gave birth. I was given the peanut shaped birthing ball that I held between my legs. I was meant to help open up the birthing canal, which worked but was also painful. Even with the epidural I was getting a huge feeling to push. The nurse had me push while we waited for the doctor and just after 2 pushes I was told to stop due to the fact she did not want to catch my baby haha. By the time my doctor arrived she had to have the two student nurses tie up her gown because my sweet Ava was coming! I spent about 45 minutes pushing and she was here!! Now came the really scary part, waiting to see how well she would do outside of my womb so early. I was allowed to hold her right after she was born which was a HUGE relief. She ended up staying in the NICU for 9 days and was discharged at 35w2d. She did amazing, and soared right through it just like her big sister Riya. It was without some emotional moments as I realized I had another premature baby along with some NICU drama, but now that she is here it was all worth it . I have attached some pictures of Ava including right after she was born and the first time home . Thank you to those of you who made it this far . You can read more about her NICU stay in my journal.
