Our Sweet "BEA"

Introducing Bradan Edward Avery

Born 5-6-09
6 lbs. 11 oz.
18 1/4 inches long

It is hard to believe he was 4 weeks early with those statistics.

The newest addition to the Avery family was born at 10:56 pm yesterday. Just like Stuart wrote the day before, I was started on the pitocin around 4 am yesterday morning. I had slight contractions but when the nurse checked my cervix at 3 pm, I had not changed at all since that morning. I was put on the highest dosage of pitocin allowed at that time and they were talking about getting me off the pitocin and redoing the cervadill if I had not made any changes soon. Not what I wanted at all. My doctor came in about 7 and checked my cervix which had dillated to almost 3 and contractions were getting stronger. Talk about a relief knowing that I was not doing a practice round of contractions but it was the real deal. We decided at the time to not break my water due to the risk of infection and knowing that there was not a lot of fluid there anyway. Well, my water broke an hour later and the next 2 hours, labor progressed very fast. Around 10 I was wanting to push and by 10:20, Dr. Hebard was ready and I was pushing. He came into this world at 10:56.
He didn't cry right away but after working with him for about 5 minutes and giving him some oxygen Bradan let us know he was here. After Stu and I got to hold him for awhile, they brought him down to the nursery. Stu went with him and watched as they performed all the newborn tests. Everything has checked out fine so far. After me recovering for an hour and eating, I was able to go down to the nursery and spend more time with him. Stu and I came back to our room were we both had a decent night sleep.
Stuart went to check on him this morning and he is doing great. No problems last night, he slept and even ate. Dr. Cogley, who is Shelby's pediatrican, will be checking him over this morning and giving us her thoughts on how long he will be staying here. I will hopefully begin nursing him this morning and get to keep him in my room. And as for me, my recovery process is doing great.
Stuart will be going to get his big sister later this morning so she can meet him. I am pretty excited for her chance to meet her baby brother.
As for the name, his middle name comes from Stu's grandpa who passed away when Stu was about 8 years old. Bradan is a name that I have always liked but Stu didn't. About 3 months ago, he changed his mind and I got my way.