Mason Avery

Mason Avery joined our family on August 26th at 3:24 pm. He weighed 7 lbs. 15 ozs. and was 20 1/2 inches long.


Here is the story of his birth -- told mostly for journeling purposes so if you don't want to read skip to the bottom for pictures.

I was 36 weeks pregnant and I went to the Dr. on Monday for my routine appointment. Because of my age they were doing stress tests on the baby at every appointment (they started doing this at about 34 weeks). You're considered high-risk after the age of 35 which basically means they are going to do a bunch of extra tests that are really annoying and make you see the Dr. a lot more than normal (I could ramble on and on about this but I'm sure you've already heard it from me so I'll spare you). Anyway, I was supposed to have a stress test done during this appointment but they were running behind so after about an hour I told them I had to leave so the Dr. wanted me to go to the hospital that night and do it. Well, since I was going to be at the hospital anyway, he decided at the last minute to add on a fluid test, just as a precaution. Larry and I spent 4 hours at the hospital doing these two tests. Needless to say, I was not a happy mama. I hadn't had dinner, I was tired and I had a nurse that was a bit snippy toward me (probably because I was a bit snippy toward her but isn't it her job to be nice to me no matter what??). We left with the assurance from both the nurse and the ultrasound tech that everything looked fine.

Tuesday afternoon I get a call from my Dr. and he tells me that my fluid levels are low. He tells me that the best thing for this is bed rest. In my mind I'm thinking, 3 weeks of bed rest?? Yeah right! and I actually laugh at him on the phone -- I'm sure he thinks I'm a nut. I explain to him my situation and tell him that there is no way I can go on bed rest so then he tells me the only other option is to induce me -- so we schedule it for the next night. I'm frantic! I'm not ready!! The baby's not ready, he still has 3 1/2 weeks to go!!! What about all the arrangements I've made FOR SEPTEMBER!!!! I hang up from the Dr. and want to call Larry but of course he's in the air and can't be reached so I call the next best person, my mom. I'm crying so hard when she answers that I can't even talk to her. She does her job and reassures me that it will be OK and we'll work everything out. By the time I get Larry on the phone I've decided that I'm going to try to convince my Dr. to let me wait until the weekend, that way I can finish out work for the week and so can Larry. He already had two weeks scheduled off in September that he can't change and I didn't want him to have to take off anymore work. But he's insistent that we just do what the Dr. wants cause he knows what's best for the baby and that's what's most important.

So, Wednesday night at 7:00 we check into the hospital. By nine o'clock they've given me the medicine that's supposed to start things moving and a big fat sleeping pill to knock me out for the night. When I woke up Wednesday morning I was having contractions. At about 11:00 the Dr. came in to do my epidural, which was no easy task. He had to stick me twice and use a special, thicker catheter to poke through the scar tissue in my back, but he made it work and I LOVE him dearly for it. Shortly after 3:00 the Dr. came in to check me and I was at a ten, in fact the baby was already making his way out so they quickly tore down the bed and after one push he was here. It was very easy and very fast.

I am so grateful that everything went well and that he was big and healthy.

My mom's first words were "He looks like Jaxson!" Which he did that first day but then he started changing and now I'm not sure who he looks like. But he's definitely a Hanna boy!

I have to tell this story because it's my kids' favorite, they think it's hillarious and love telling everyone. When the Dr. put him on my chest right after he was born he peed on me. A nice big stream that hit me on the cheek and ran down my neck and back. The worst part is I didn't get a shower to wash it all off till the next morning. Oh well, it wasn't the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last!

Dad steals the first kiss!





Haley and my mom were also there for the delivery.



The boys were so excited to finally meet their little brother.



This picture is funny. It looks like Mason really doesn't like his grandpa but really he's just yawning!


He really didn't like his first bath. Because he was early he had a lot of that white sticky stuff all over him and the nurse really had to scrub to get it off.

We are so blessed to have another perfect baby boy join our family.