Ava Kathryn Burckart

Ava is here! She was born on Tuesday, September 4th at 10:03 p.m., 2 weeks and 2 days early. She weighed 6 lbs 5 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long. She is absolutely adorable with her dark hair and petite features.


On Tuesday I dropped Maddie off for her first day of preschool (blog post to come)and headed to the doctor for my weekly appointment. I had had contractions the previous night to which the doc on call told me that if they weren't painful to "take a benadryl and go to bed". That night I slept very little but made it through. At my appointment, I had not progressed very far (2-3 centimeters) but my strep b test had come back positive which meant I needed at least 4 hours of penicillan via IV and since the contractions had been going on for awhile they sent me straight to the hospital. We then spent hours "just hanging out" and waiting for the penicillan to be done and the consistent contractions to begin. Here's my last picture with a baby belly:


Around 6:30 p.m. they considered me in labor. A few hours after that the pain began and so did the epidural. Unfortunately, the epidural didn't full take until it was time to push (which isn't the most convenient time). I pushed for 4 contractions and there she was! The proud parents: