Olivia's Birth Story

I promise this won't happen often. Actually, I take that back. This is my darn blog and I'll write about whatever I darn well please haha. No, but really. I've been wanting to write Olivia's "birth story" since I had her two months ago. You may think this is stupid but I think it will be neat to have to look back on and to show her one day when she is older or maybe even having her own babies.

I had a pretty uneventful pregnancy all around - besides passing out once because of a quick drop in blood pressure from not having slept in two days. As the end of it all drew near, I of course started to get more and more anxious to see progression. My official due date was January 5th but on another ultrasound they said December 31st so we thought maybe there was potential for a "tax deduction baby." Well, that didn't happen. We missed it by a hair. Dang it. I actually went in to the hospital on the 31st because I thought my water was leaking. They said no and sent me home. On the first day of the New Year my whole family went to the Chinese buffet dinner which has been our tradition for a long time. After dinner, Matthew and I went home and took down all the Christmas decorations. He drank several beers and I ate several sausage balls =) I also bounced on my exercise ball in hopes of it causing something to happen. Around 11 I took a bath. I remember I was all paranoid that it was too hot of a bath and that I was going to boil my child. After my bath we watched a little TV. Then at about 1am I got hit with a terrible stomach ache. It started to feel better and I crawled into bed thirty minutes later. I was just starting to doze off when WHOOSH. It was the weirdest sensation. Literally like something just popped my water. Just like the movies. Rushing flood and everything. Matthew was sleeping and I sat up in bed and said "Matthew, my water broke." His first reaction was unbelief but when he saw how much water there was he believed me. Of course he was concerned about having drank a few beers and now he was going to have to drive me to the hospital. I was like are you freaking kidding me!??? By the time we got the dogs where they needed to go, it was about 3:30. I was barely having any contractions at this point.

My sister, Jessica, is a labor and delivery nurse. She was scheduled to work that day but when she talked to the nurse manager they were able to put her on call instead. Jess got a hold of her close friend and coworker, Robin so that she could request me as a patient. This ended up being such a huge blessing. By the time I got into the hospital room and filled out the paperwork they checked me and I was not even dilated!!! BOOOO!!! Robin got the order for potocin and hooked me up. That stuff is nuts. By this time my mom, Jessica and Kariann got to the hospital to be with me. The potocin worked quick and a few hours later I was in TERRIBLE pain and about four cm. They gave me some sort of pain med. through the IV which was crazy...I felt so high haha. My sister told me later I kept on talking about sausage balls. I tried to hold off as long as I could so that I could progress but at this point I needed an epidural BAD. Finally the anesthesiologist showed up with the good stuff. Thank GOD for Robin, otherwise I would probably be paralyzed today. The Doc said I did good...guess my bad posture finally paid off haha.

After the epidural, things calmed down. I was most excited about not having to get up every two seconds to go pee. It's so weird to not be able to feel your legs. If I wanted to move I had to get Matthew to move my legs for me. My doctor, came in a few times through out the day to check me. Turns out he is a total douche bag. Seriously, he did not say hardly anything to me the whole time I was in the delivery room. I think he was scared at all the women in the room. Remember how I said my sister was put on call? Well at 5pm they needed her so she had to work for two hours. By the time she got off at 7 I was fully dilated and it was time to start pushing. Robin stayed past her shift to be with me and then the night nurse also came in. We had quite a crew in there and that was a good thing.

Looking back I remember vividly thinking there was no way I could do it. After an hour of pushing and there being no progression I really thought I was going to have to have a c-section. There was no way I could have done it without all the "cheerleaders" I had in the room. I pushed for three hours. My epidural ran out and got shut off by the time she was ready to come so I felt everything. Giving birth to Olivia was the hardest thing I have ever done. I hadn't slept in 36 hours and was so exhausted. During the whole ordeal I remember praying so hard. At 9:59pm she came. 8.2 oz and 19.5 inches long. Poor baby girl had such a cone head....she had a little scrape on her head too from my pelvic bones.

Of course every bit of pain was worth it. I would do it all again times a million for my sweet baby girl. I love her so much!!!!!!!!