The Room of Waiting

Why do they ask pregnant ladies for our birth plan? I think it's to see how flexible and fluid we can be.

I knew in my first trimester that I wasn't going to write out a plan, as the little man would be running the show, not me... boy was I right! I had a small list of things that I didn't want, and although I was really hoping to accomplish all of them, I was also fairly comfortable with any last minute changes IF something was going to happen... who knew!?

My little wish list included:
My OB doctor to run the delivery show
No induction
No IV's
No pain meds, including an epidural
No C-section
No internal baby monitor (that corkscrew thingy in the baby's head)
Joe gets to cut the umbilical cord

Thankfully, we didn't need the corkscrew thingy... but we were graced with everything else. Yes, my doctor was in France during the whole event watching Lance in the Tour de France. She did return the day after the birth and we laughed about the birth plan being thrown out the window. After being induced at 42 weeks, and being in labor for almost 24 hours, it was a no-brainer when the doctors said, "You could continue to be in hard labor like this for another 2 days or you could have your baby in your arms in an hour with surgery."

This would be the group of people I would want in case of a fire... they had the room ready, paperwork signed and Joe and I dressed for success in less than 15 minutes. The actually delivery-surgery lasted less than 10 minutes! Joe was sitting beside me through the whole procedure and the Anesthesiologist stood behind us, giving me a subtle idea of what was happening (not a play by play). At one point he suggested Joe to stand up and watch as the babe's head would be coming out. As he stood over me I could see his face at the exact moment we heard the little coo-cry. It was so magical to see Joe's face light up and know that our little miracle finally made his debut.

After a few teary moments and several stitches later, we were whisked into the recovery room where some of the family met us for the ooh's and ahh's to begin. Once I could wiggle my toes and have one successful feeding we were moved into our tiny room for 4 more days.  Here, Avery learned his name and showed us some of his new skills. He could sneeze and yawn and do that 'smile' thingy right before a big tarry poo. Yup, that's our boy!

On Wednesday night, my OB doctor arrived at the hospital from France. We were so excited to see her and retell our story ... which thankfully I could laugh about finally - 'what birth plan?'  She checked in on us for the next 2 days and on Thursday we received our discharge papers.

Really? This hospital thinks we can bring home this fragile little nugget? Looking back, we were pretty worried about breaking him. We were also looking forward to getting home to a good night's sleep without hourly visits and nurse poking.



Here we are leaving Rochester General. It was so hot and muggy, I had completely nested into the hospital's 72 degrees.  Arriving home was just as surreal as leaving the hospital. We spend months preparing a safe and cozy home for the little one and in a flash we hope that everything we need is ready and accessible. Joe is an amazing partner and father!

We were also really excited to introduce Avery to Caliente, her big sister. We greeted Cali outside to get her floppy running out and then brought her inside to meet her little brother. She gave him a couple sniffs and one big face lick... that was love. Cali has definitely become the protector in the house. She is alert when he cries and enjoys following us around, even sleeping next to his crib at nights instead of in our room.

We are grateful to have such a wonderful circle of friends and family. Thank you to everyone whom has stopped by the hospital or home, or has sent wonderful well wishes through mail. We look forward to sharing more photos as he grows up, hopefully slowly!! We just really enjoy staring at him all day and all night, look at that angelic face :)   



Welcome Avery Ross to our home and our lives. It's so awesome to finally be a family of 4! So, here's our little bundle of joy... he was born at 9.8 lbs and 22.5" long. He lost about one pound in the hospital and has successfully gained it all back, and then some by his 2nd week! Oh, you have a great home to be in if you like to eat good food.