Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Olivia's Birth Story

                                                                Olivia’s Birth Story

I wish I had an epic birth story to write. Like my water broke in the middle of the night and we rushed to the hospital to have our baby. Just kidding no I dont. Im a planner and this baby accommodated perfectly. We were all set on Sunday November 3rd to meet our baby the following day. My doctor agreed to induce a week before her due date and Im soo glad she did because I couldnt wait to meet my little one and I was totally over being pregnant :0) Micah and I felt like Sunday took FOREVER to end. We went to church, lunch, fed some ducks outside on our balcony and had a huge dinner at twisted root. Finally 830pm came and we left to check in at the hospital.
    Once we got there they started me on a drug to get things going for the pictocin the next morning. It all went pretty smoothly until the morning when they administered the pictocin and then broke my water.. yikes. The contractions were about 45-60 seconds long and about a minute apart. Micah showed me a “new” pain scale that has the smiley faces with different pain descriptions  and decided mine was on the level of “I see Jesus coming for me” and “being actively mauled by a bear”. They gave me pain medication designed for labor and it was the worst decision I made during that entire process. The medication did nothing for pain but made me feel very dizzy and panicky. So the staff came back in to start the iv for the epidural instead. Once the epidural was in and the pain medication wore off it was smooth sailing from there.
    At about 2pm the dr came in and informed me we were fully effaced but only at a 4cm dilated. But an hour later she came back and I jumped to a 9 and at 4pm we started pushing. I had thought about asking Traci , Micah’s mom, to join in on the birth for some time but waited to ask until the day of to see how I would feel. Im really glad I did because her and Micah were wonderful coaches and I couldnt have done it without them. Pushing really isn’t so bad (I did have an epi so I might be disillusioned) it’s just tiring. After about an hour or so of pushing the dr came in to finish the delivery.
    There isn’t one word to describe that moment when your baby comes out and you lock eyes for the first time. It’s exhilarating, heavenly, relief, happiness ect. She came out perfectly pink and gooey. But at the moment I couldn’t care less about the goo. They immediately laid her on my chest and I cried like.. well.. a baby.
    Micah cut her cord and they whisked her away to take her measurements and clean her up. After that I was left by myself with the dr while everyone fawned over my precious baby. But I was totally ok with it. I needed a moment to gather myself back together. I will absolutely never forget the feeling that day. Every pain, ache, scar I got from pregnancy and labor were absolutely worth it. I still feel a bit of that magical feeling I felt that day every time I look at Olivia. I cant wait for her to get big and ask about her birth so she can see just how much her mommy loves her when I think back on that day.

I asked my friend Lauren to come take pictures of her birth and I was soo happy with the way they turned out. Being able to see her birth brings back all those wonderful emotions too. Here are a few of the ones she took: