Avery Paige Knudsen

Avery Paige Knudsen

Our little girl decided to come a little early. Around 5:45 in the morning, as Nick was getting himself pretty for work, Avery gave a little Kung Fu chop to my amniotic sac and got the ball rolling.

Next thing I know, Nick, being the crazy man that he is, went running around the house trying to pack everything that may be of possible use during labor, which included tooth picks, beef jerky and my sewing kit in case his expertise was need for sewing up my incision. After slapping some sense into him, we rounded up the troops (Nick and I) and headed off to the baby mill to pick up ours.

We arrived at the Hospital shortly before 7:00 a.m. and were briskly taken in and shown to our room (pain and delivery suite 512) . I quickly pointed out many of the interior design flaws of our accommodations and was seriously considering vacating our room for greener pastures at another hospital when Nick talked some sense into me and I reluctantly decided to stay. We settled into our room and the next thing I know, I'm being gaffed by 10 gauge needles and hooked up to several black boxes that monitored the baby's heart rate and my contractions.

Upon arriving at the hospital, I was about 2cm dilated. Shortly after, I was hooked up to Pitocin and that's when the fun started. I would liken the experience to being shanked in the belly or listening to Nick sing in the shower-both are not what you would call a pleasant experience. After a few hours of these little unpleasantries, reaching 5cm and Nick being unable to handle my verbal abuse, an epidural was ordered which changed my life. Having the epidural inserted in to my back was less than uneventful. I believe they used a power drill to put that thing in, but after it was in, I was singing the praises of pain meds. and Nick started talking to me again.

Around 1:00 p.m., Dr. Maresh came in and checked me out at 8cm. Not more than 30 minutes later I was at 10cm and started pushing. Avery was born at 2:22 p.m., tipping the scales at 7lbs 1oz.