D Day

          We were set to be induced at 2:00pm on Thursday, August 11. Clay flew in from a business trip at 11:00 am that same day, so we had a few final hours together as a family of three. Austin stayed home with Grandma, while Clay and I headed off to the hospital. We got checked in, got to our room and got all settled in....then waited 2 hours for them to finally give me the meds to get things going. I was starting to feel the contractions a little around 6:30pm when my doctor got there and decided to break my water. Then things really started to take off. Around 8:00 I was really starting to be in pain, so they called the anesthesiologist and we got my epidural in. Clay watched the doctor put it in, and for the rest of the night would cringe when he looked at me thinking of the huge "drill bit" they just shoved in my back. 
          Ava Kawena Perry was born at 10:47 pm on Thursday, August 11 2011. When she came out she had her left arm and leg up by her neck and the umbilical cord wrapped around them both. When the doctor unwrapped them both she could immediately see that there was something wrong with her left leg. The nurse took her over to the cleaning table before I was able to see her, wanting to make sure she was ok. I could tell clay was in panic mode. He later told me that he was too scared for his little girl. He didn't even want to take pictures, he just wanted to know what was wrong and fix it. They told us there was something wrong with her hip, that is may be dislocated or have formed wrong, and they wanted to keep her in the NICU overnight to make sure she was ok. They re-assured us that everything else looked great, her lungs and heart sounded great, and she was very responsive. They finally brought her back over to me for about 30 minutes before they took her off the the NICU so I could try to nurse her. She was the most beautiful baby! No mis-shapen head, no red battle wounds on her face from birth, she was perfect! It was then that I started to share in Clay's panic. What had caused this to my poor little girl? How would it effect her in the future? Would she ever be able to walk, or to run with her big brother? What would my beautiful little girl have to suffer through in the future to get it fixed? Clay and I took a moment to cry together for her before we separated, me to get cleaned up, and Clay to watch over his new little girl as the doctors checked her out.

          It is amazing how quickly things can change..... How quickly things can go from good to bad.... How quickly we went from an amazingly exciting experience, to a living hell, stuck in a hospital with no answers. What should have been such a happy moment, in an instant turned into the hardest night I have lived through.