Presenting Miss Olivia Natalie!

I have been meaning to post to update you on the end of my pregnancy, but then little Miss Olivia decided that she couldn't wait any longer.   She arrived on Monday October 8th at 11:05 AM.  She weighed 6 lbs 7.5 oz and was 19 inches long.  She is such a good little baby.  We really lucked out.   She is such a snuggler and loves to be held by both Mommy and Daddy.   It is amazing how our life can be totally turned around by a little girl who barely fits in newborn clothing.  It seems all we do is look at her, take pictures of her and talk about her.  I still can't believe that after all our struggles our little princess is here.  It makes all the pain and all the tears worth it.  I would go through all of it again if it meant that I would end with her.

We are all beginning to adjust to our new roles, including the cats.   Sean is a great help and nothing is better than being elsewhere in the house and hear him talking or singing to Olivia.   She is so lucky to have such a fantastic Daddy.   Even the cats are doing well with her.   They like to be near her, but they pretty much ignore her.   We will see what they are like once she becomes mobile and begins chasing them.   Overall, she is sleeping and eating well.  She easily downs a 2 oz bottle and we are planning on upping the amount today.  She is a really good sleep, though we had a slightly tough first few days at home.   We originally planned to put her in a pack 'n play bassinet in our room and we tried it for the first two nights.  There were lots of tears over those two nights, both from baby and from Mom.   On Friday, I really needed to nap so I put her down in her crib for a nap.  She didn't fuss at all and slept for an hour and a half.   We decided to try her in her crib at night.   Well, she loves her own bed.  For the last two nights she has slept in her crib from about 9 PM to 8 AM waking about 3 or 4 times.  Hopefully she continues to be such a good little sleeper.

I'm going to include my birth story below for those who want to read it.   I promise I won't make it too graphic.  For those of you who want to skip it, here are some pictures of my little princess.

Birth Story:


I went to bed early on Saturday (10/6) because I was absolutely exhausted.  I had gone to baby shower that day and it took a lot out of me.  (Ironically, I was worried about going since it was over an hour away and my OB said it was fine since I wouldn't be 38 weeks until Sunday).   About 12:30 I woke up and felt a slight gush.  I was sure I peed my pants.  I stood up and could still feel dripping.  I went into the bathroom and my underwear and pj pants are soaked.   I realize that it was probably from my water breaking.  I shouted to Sean that I thought my water broke and I had to call the OB but to start waking up because we may be heading into the hospital.  Sure enough that was the case, we were the hospital by 1:30 AM Sunday.

I went into L&D triage and the resident checked me; sure enough my water has broken and I was staying the hospital for the duration even though I was only a "fingertip" dilated.   They brought us to a L&D room and set us up.  Sean (who never truly woke up) got comfortable on the couch and passed out, but I couldn't fall asleep. Even the nurses kept commenting on how awake and bright eyed I was.   I was so sure something had to happen soon, right?  Wrong.  There were no contractions or anything. 

Come noon on Sunday (10/7) contractions hadn't really started yet, so they decided to start Pitocin at 1.   Once again I thought it wouldn't be a long because in our birth class we were told that they would deliver the baby within 24 hours of the water breaking.   I thought I was halfway there.  Wrong again!  The rest of the afternoon was sort of slow and uneventful, except for when Olivia's heartbeat began jumping into the 180-190s bpm.   The doctor figured I was getting dehydrated so they pumped me full of fluids and sure enough her heartbeat dropped into its normal 140-150 range. 

Contractions began around 5ish and continued to slowly come throughout the night.  By 1 AM, I was ready for some pain meds.  The resident on call checked me and I'm still a "fingertip" dilated.  WTF!   Definitely not what I was expecting.  I think this is the first time tears started to come.  It had been 24 hours since my water broke and no real progress!  I couldn't get an epidural yet, so they gave me a narcotic to help take the edge off.  It worked and I was able to get a couple hours of sleep.   Two hours later it had worn  off and I needed something else.  The resident checked me again and I was only 3 cm dilated "if that much".  Cue total break down.   I was in pain and didn't want another narcotic that will just wear off.   I wanted this baby out since it is past 24 hours, but I would rather not have a c-section.   The nurse definitely came to my aid and talked with doctor and convinced him that an epidural right now would allow me to get some sleep and recharge enough to finish the process.  

The anesthesiologist came in not long after to give me the epidural.  It definitely hurt more than I thought it would, but this pain was definitely worth it.  I was very grateful until we realized it didn't fully take on my left side.  The contractions were so bad and they radiated through my hip that I couldn't comfortably lay down, but because of the epidural I couldn't really move.  After a few hours of trying to fix it by giving some extra amounts of the medication attached to my epidural, the anesthesiologist came back in and shot something else in through my epidural.  I finally got some sleep.  Keep in mind Sean is asleep on the couch for a majority of this time.

When I woke up the next morning about 7, the pressure the from the contraction was definitely greater but still not enough that they wanted to check dilation again.  I was getting really frustrated and just wanted an end.  Once again I was in tears thinking that this painful journey may not come to an end anytime soon.   The nurse went and got the doctor to talk options with me.  He would like to wait another 4-6 hours before talking about a c-section but would give me one right now if I wanted it. This really wasn't the answer I had hoped for, but after talking with Sean and the resident on call (ironically the one who checked me during triage) we decided to give it some time and then talk.  By 1 that day if there was no baby I would request a c-section.

Sean doesn't do well sitting around all day no matter where we are, so for both of our sanity, he headed home to do a few things.  So that I wouldn't be alone, my mother came to sit with me for a bit.   After a while she notices that my contractions began coming more quickly and were definitely stronger, so we decided to time them.  They were coming about every two minutes and lasting about a minute to a minute an a half and even with the epidural the pressure was so intense it was painful.  The nurse came in minutes later to check on me because she noticed this new pattern and she decided to call the resident to check me out.  While we waited, my mom called Sean and told him to start heading back.  He had one more quick errand to do so we said to do it and then come.  The resident checked me and kept saying "Oh my..Oh my".  It turns out I was fully dilated and she could see LO head which was covered in hair.  I was ready to push!  My mom calls Sean and tells him to hurry up.  Luckily he was only about 5 minutes away at the time.

Right before Sean shows up, I start to get very nauseated and end up throwing up a little (thanks Mom for holding my puke bucket!).  The nurse takes my temperature and I'm running a low grade fever, so the NICU team is called in (they were already put on alert because my water broke so long ago) and I'm started on antibiotics.  The nurse lets me know that Olivia will have to go to the NICU team before I get to hold her and she hopes that is okay.  She really looked like she was waiting for me say "No it was not okay".  I really can't imagine how a mother would not want to do do everything possible to make sure her baby is safe even if it means not being able hold her within the first five minutes of her life.  However according to my nurses I was a very easy going patient throughout my stay. 

Sean comes running through the door minutes later and my mom heads out to the waiting room so she can come back once Olivia is finally here.    It is now about 10:30, and I begin to push.   I was waiting for this to be a long process, but at 11:05 Olivia was born.   I definitely know the birth process hurt and I have a second degree tear, but I honestly don't remember how much.  Just seeing her come out and be healthy made me forget it all.   She was quickly given over to the NICU team to be checked out, but I could see her across the room.  She was beautiful already.   Within moments, Sean was able to go over and touch her and take pictures and I was stitched up.   Once things were cleaned up,  I had Sean go out and get my mother, who in the meantime had got my father to come out.  They all come in to see my little angel.  It isn't long before I was finally able to hold her.   I had to give her back quickly though because she needed to head to the nursery to her first round of antibiotics because of my fever.  While she was in the nursery, the nurse helped to move us to our postpartum room.  By the time we go there and got settled, Olivia was brought into us.  

The rest of our two day stay was pretty relaxed.  It was amazing how quickly I became accustomed to her and how easy it was for me to take care of her.   Even after the long delivery, I felt good and was healing well.   It was a long 35 hours, but it was totally worth it.