olivia's story

I had a moment so I thought I would take the time to tell Olivia's story. Keep in mind this is a fairly long post. Only read it if you're bored and having nothing else to do!

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I got up at 7am to get Shailey and Eli ready for school on Monday morning. Not long after that (and after Danny had left for work) I started getting contractions that were less than five minutes apart and somewhat uncomfortable; uncomfortable enough for me to call Danny and say, "So, how long do you want me to wait before I have you turn around and come back home?" He turned around right away.

After Danny came home he took the kids to school and I called the midwife. She wanted me to come in to be checked. So we left for her office with Isaac in tow. When I was checked over the weekend (see my "false labor" post), I was only 2 cm so I wasn't expecting much more than that. She checked me and I was 4-5 cm. So off to the hospital we went!

Danny had to drop me off so he could take Isaac to a friend's house. It was weird being in labor and walking into the hospital, getting checked in and going to the Women's Unit by myself. Luckily, I had the best nurse in the world! Her name was Aleta and she was fantastic! She got me all set up in my room and hooked up to the monitor. At this point it was about 9:30am.

Once Danny got back to the hospital Aleta was about to start my IV so that I could start getting antibiotics. This, to me, was the most uncomfortable part of my labor and delivery. I know some of you may be thinking I'm crazy but seriously, this part was the worst. She had to try and insert the IV three times before it finally worked. I hate needles. And when you've got itty bitty veins like me, this can be very uncomfortable. The first two times the needle went through my vein. It hurt so bad! The third time she found a vein on the side of my wrist that worked much better. Like I said, this was the worst part of the whole day.

After the IV was in place and the antibiotics were given, we waited. We had to wait and hope my water didn't break for the next four hours so they could get the second dose in my IV. Luckily, my labor progressed slowly during this phase. It probably helped that I just layed in my bed the whole time. After awhile I asked Aleta about getting an epidural. I wasn't really uncomfortable yet so I hesitated in getting it right away. But I had never had an epidural before and I was pretty sure I wanted one this time. So Aleta paged the anesthesiologist. Luckily we caught him just in time. Had I waited until I was uncomfortable I may not have been able to get the epidural at all. He had two other patients he had to help later that day.

Getting the epidural wasn't even that uncomfortable. It was way better than getting the IV. The doctor was awesome. He was so nice, he was quick and did a great job. Immediately I started to feel my legs getting warm and tingling. It was so cool! I was having contractions and barely noticed them. I felt like I was somehow cheating since I never really got into the uncomfortable part of labor before getting pain relief. The only downside to the epidural was that my blood pressure dropped a bit and I got a little dizzy so they put an oxygen mask on me. But during that time I just rested and got a little nap in. :o)

At one point I felt like a science experiment though. I had the two monitors strapped to my belly (the one that measures the contractions and the one that keeps track of baby's heartbeat), the thing they put on your finger to monitor your own heart rate, the blood pressure band that would go off to take my blood pressure every few minutes, the oxygen mask, the IV in with the pitocin tube attached to it, the epidural catheter and the other catheter so I wouldn't need to get up to use the bathroom. It was so weird to be hooked up to so many different things all at the same time.

When the time came for me to get my second dose of antibiotics (around 2:30pm), things moved much more quickly. I got the second dose and Aleta checked me and I was only 6 cm. So I was put on pitocin to make my contractions stronger and more regular. A little while after that, my doctor came in and broke my water. I knew things were going to go quickly from there.

Around 4:30pm, they checked me and I was 8-9 cm. I was so excited since at this point they started getting the warmer ready for the baby and wheeled in all the stuff they were going to need for delivery. Sure enough at about 5pm I started feeling pressure so they came in and checked me. I was fully dilated and the baby was +2 or +3 so they started getting things ready to go!

Once everything was ready they told me to push on the next contraction. One contraction and three little pushes later, we were able to meet our sweet little Olivia face to face. She was so tiny and so sweet. Every time she took a breath in to cry she sounded like a little squeaky mouse. She was perfect and I was so happy to finally meet her. The one unpleasant moment after the birth was the migraine I started to get. Whenever I get a migraine, my vision goes all weird on me and it's hard to see things. So I was bummed that the moment had finally arrived to see my sweet little baby girl, and I couldn't make out all of her perfect little features. But I didn't let it get me down. I knew I would have hours upon hours ahead of me to look at her beautiful little face. :o)

So that's Olivia's story. She is the sweetest little thing and we feel so blessed that she's joined our family. So far she has been a great baby. She hardly ever cries and sleeps pretty well. I can't wait to watch her grow up but right now I want to cherish every moment of her being this small. I remember how quickly it goes by!