She's Here...Birth Story

I have so much to update on. First of all...Olivia is here! I know, where did the name Olivia come from?? She just didn't look like any of the names we had chosen and Pat suggested Olivia out of nowhere and I really liked it and we intend to nickname her "liv" and "livi". I love my nicknames.

I'll start out with our arrival at the hospital. I was scheduled to be induced at 7:30am, Saturday, August 1st. We got there and I got all hooked up to the monitors and they discovered I was having little contractions. I was about 1.5 centimeters dilated and 75% effaced. Dr. Mackie decided to start out with cytotec. It is supposed to "ripen" my cervix and initiate some contractions. Well...it kind of worked. It did get my contractions going, but they weren't doing what they were supposed to do. My timeline may be an issue here because my labor lasted 22 hours. The next step was to break my water. This wasn't easy to do because I still wasn't dilating past 2 centimeters. Once my water was broken my contractions got stronger...I definitley started to need to breath through them. I went into labor knowing I wasn't going to be able to have an epidural. The intrathecal that was available to me only lasts 3 hours...so the game plan was to wait til I was dilated to 6 or 7 so that it would last while I was pushing. Around 6pm on Saturday, the nurses started the pitocin. I'm not sure if it was before the pitocin was started or after that I was offered statal (not sure if it's spelled right). I recieved it through my IV and it was supposed to help me relax between contractions. It did immediately. I felt drunk and I felt like my eyes were crossed haha. It did help, but not with the pain so much.

The rest is so fuzzy to me because I was drugged and I was just waitinggg to be able to have the intrathecal. I made it to 6 centimeters and I could not wait any longer. I don't even really remember getting it. I remember I was leaning over the side of the bed and holding onto Pat. Pat said that was the only thing he couldn't handle watching. I was having really strong contractions during the intrathecal and I didn't even care how it felt. I couldn't even tell you if it hurt. Afterwards I felt nothing. I passed out for 3 hours! Thank god I did because I needed it. When I woke up...the intrathecal was wearing off though. My contractions weren't full blown, but I knew they were coming back. The nurse checked me and I was dilated to 8/8.5...so she gave me ideas of what to try. Pat and I walked, I sat on the toilet, I sat on the stability ball, and I sat on a damn birthing chair. It took about an hour and after which, they told me I was ready to push. I was in so much pain...and it was too late to even give me any more statal. I started pushing around 4:30 am, Sunday, August 2nd. My mom and my sister were both by my legs and Pat stayed up by my head and coached me through everything. It ended up working the best that way. It was so weird because I had no idea how to push and it took me awhile to figure it out. I pushed for about an hour before I was ready for Dr. Mackie to come in. I didn't feel as though I was getting anywhere until I could see the head. I reached down and felt. It felt impossible, but as soon as her head came out the rest was easy...obviously I suppose. It was very overwhelming.

Olivia wasn't crying at first and had a lot of mucus in her lungs. So they brought her over to the warmer and worked on her. Dani and Pat stayed by me. Because of where my placenta was located, it caused me to lose a lot of blood. Not completely sure why? Also, having a 9lb baby didn't help. I ended up with a 2nd degree tear and that took about 30 minutes to sew up. I was very lightheaded and woozy. It was surreal, I felt unable to even hold my baby. I didn't really understand the situation at the time. I recieved to shots in my legs to stop the bleeding, which had not so nice side effects later. After everything was said and done, Olivia had to go to the nursery because I had lost so much blood and they didn't want to move me into my room until later. I felt awful the first day...I cried because I felt like I should feel better and be able to take care of my baby. I couldn't though. It was rough...but all is better now. Everything was worth it. I love Olivia and I really did have the best team there to support me. They deserve a lot of credit. It was a long and hard 22 hours.

On a funny note...a 9lb baby?!!! We all guessed how much she was gonna weigh before the nurse put her on the scale. I guessed 8lbs 1oz and Dr. Mackie guessed 8lbs 6oz...and then when they said 9lbs 1oz we all almost peed our pants! Where was she hiding?? Dr. Mackie could not believe I had delivered a 9lb baby...and neither could I! That is most likely the reason my labor didn't progress the way it should have.

Onto Olivia...she is so alert. I think its because she is a bigger baby. She looks a few weeks old haha. She definitley loves to eat. We have to be really careful because she sucks her bottles down so fast! I will post some pictures tomorrow. We just got home today and I will have more energy tomorrow to post some pics.