The Swearingen Family: Ava Marie Swearingen

Ava Marie Swearingen blessed our lives on Tuesday, September 20th at 4:06 pm. She was 21 inches long and weighed 7 lbs .03 ounces.

After going to see my doctor on Monday, September 19th I was not dilated and with Ava's due date in four days, it did not look like she would be arriving anytime soon. Disappointed that I had not made any progress, we scheduled two appointments for the following week and talked about inducing labor the week after that. I went home that evening swollen, tired, and sore and prayed that Ava would arrive on her own without having to induce labor.

Several hours later my prayer was answered and I awoke at 12:30 am with contractions that started at 6 minutes apart. I woke up Travis and together we timed my contractions and he helped to comfort me as I labored at home for the next eight hours. Once at the hospital and was examined, I was happy to hear that I was three centimeters dilated, however my doctor wanted to ensure that I was in labor so I was told to walk around the hospital and to come back in an hour. After the longest hour of my life and walking around in a gown on the main floor of the hospital, I was examined again and had progressed to four centimeters. By 11:45 am I was in my labor room with my epidural and it was an easy labor after that. After eleven minutes of pushing, Ava Marie was born into the world and was welcomed with tears, happiness, and love at 4:06 pm.

Fourteen days later I feel like this time has flown by and I also cannot imagine my life without our daughter. We have had sleepless nights, and we both find that we do not have anytime to do anything except to care for Ava, but it is worth it. Ava loves to smile and you can tell that she is very curious by the way that she looks at everything through her big blue eyes. She has a lot of blonde hair and it is soft and fluffy like a baby duckling. We are currently taking it an hour at a time and sometimes she is peaceful and happy and other times she just the opposite.

Her day is like any typical baby and she eats, sleeps, and poops. We have had several accidents where I find myself washing her changing pad several times a day, and yesterday Travis put her in an infant carrier that he wore and this shifted her diaper and caused her to have an accident which resulted in her pooping on Travis. Surprisingly she enjoys her sponge baths that I give her every other day and yesterday she lost her umbilical cord so now we can give her baths in her baby bath tub.

Today we went back to the pediatrician and at two weeks not only is Ava back to her birth weight, she has succeeded it and is now 7 lbs 9 ounces! Our pediatrician was happy about her weight gain and everything else checks out great!

We are so fortunate to have a healthy baby girl and are touched by all of the love and support that we have received from our family and friends. Ava is one lucky little girl to be loved by so many. Thank you God for this amazing gift.