It's been almost 2 weeks since our beautiful Princess Olivia Louise came into our lives and I'm finally ready to blog about it!! As I type this blog, I am staring at our baby girl enjoying her bouncy seat....she looks as if she is smiling, but I'm sure it's just a little something she's working on that I will have to change in a bit!
Friday, April 23rd was a pretty eventful day! After being up all night having contractions, I couldn't sleep and decided to make my way downstairs around 5am on Friday to try and get comfortable. This is when I started timing my contractions (by the way, there's an App for that!). They were pretty consistent and around 6-7 minutes apart. As the day went on, they got farther apart and then closer together and then farther apart and so on. So, I didn't know what to make of it. Lee and Andrew went on to Andrew's baseball game that evening and my contractions started getting more and more intense. Even though they weren't 2-3 minutes apart, they were super intense and I decided to call the doctor. I was scheduled to go into the hospital on Saturday evening at 7:30 for them to start my induction, so when I called the doctor, she just told me to go ahead in and they would just admit me and get things going! Wow, this was scary.....this was really happening! My next step was to call Lee to let him know it was time. I got myself together and Lee called Pops to go pick up Andrew at his game so Lee could come home and get me.
We got to the hospital around 8:45 Friday night and got checked right in to the labor and delivery room. By 9:00 I had my IV and antibiotics and petocin were flowing! I was still only 1 cm dilated, so we thought we were in for a long night. The petocin was definitely kicking in and my contractions were getting closer together and way more intense. By 10:30, I was already 5 cm! So, 11:00 rolled around and I just couldn't take the contractions anymore, so the Doc was called in to give me the epidural. This had been something I had been dreading since I learned what it was (probably in middle school or something). See, I am a HUGE baby when it comes to needles, so this HUGE one that was about to be plunged into my back wasn't something I was super excited about. Even though I knew it would take the pain away, I was still completely freaked out about it. And, rightfully so! This Doc picked the wrong patient to mess with. My back was swollen and it made it very difficult for her to find the right spot. So, she had to do it 3 times. Yes, 3 TIMES! I was a complete disaster. Lee was so awesome through the whole thing and my nurse who was supposed to have been off at 11, stayed through the whole process to make sure I was ok. Thanks Buffy!
The nurse that took over for Buffy was absolutely fabulous too. I don't know how I would've made it through this process if it weren't for Lee and my nurses. They really knew how to make me feel better and focus on the task at hand. After the epidural FINALLY took, we were both able to relax for about, oh, 20 minutes before my water broke! After that, all bets were off. Contractions were coming fast and furious and I was beginning to think the epidural didn't take because I was feeling so much pressure and it was taking my breath away. At about 1:45, I was at 8 cm, so they called my doctor. Once she got there, right at 2 AM, I was 10cm and ready to go! Everything happened so quickly that I didn't have time to process the fact that our daughter would be here soon!
14 minutes later, Olivia Louise joined our family! She came out screaming and was absolutely perfect. She weighed in at 7 pounds, 11.2 ounces and 20 inches long. Just perfect!
I felt so great after she came out that I was able to hop on the phone to call mom and dad to tell them the news. As much as I felt bad about calling in the middle of the night, I knew they would be happy to hear about the birth of their granddaughter. Earlier that week, my dad told me that a good friend of theirs had a birthday on the 24th. The funny thing about this is that his daughter's name is Olivia. I've known her since we were in middle school and played golf together on the Junior League at Hidden Creek. So, apparently I had the presence of mind to mention to dad that Olivia was born on Bryan's birthday and shared the name of his daughter. This went over very well when dad told Bryan about this. Neat story I think!
We got all settled in our room and Olivia went to the nursery for her first bath. She came back to us all squeaky clean and we kept her with us in the room while we tried to get some sleep. Sleep was hard to come by as she was hungry and ready to start feasting about every 30 minutes!
Later on Saturday we got our first visitors. Grandma, Grandpa and big brother Andrew came in first and had their visit with Olivia. Not sure how we didn't get any pictures of Grandma and Grandpa with Olivia, but we did get some of Andrew and Nana and Papa when they arrived a bit later.
Auntie 'Reen and Uncle Mark also stopped by on Saturday during the 11-1 visiting time. Of course, no pictures of them either! Olivia remembers they were there!! Grandma, Grandpa and Andrew came back to visit again during the 6-8 visiting time. She definitely enjoyed spending time with everyone!
Saturday night was the first full night she spent with us. She stayed in the room with us and managed to do really well. She let me know when she was hungry and let Lee know when she needed a diaper change! I'm not sure either one of us got much sleep that night, but it was great to have her with us the whole time.
Sunday was a new day and was spent the same way we spent Saturday. Eating, pooping and sleeping were on the agenda for Olivia again! More visitors too! Grandma and Auntie 'Reen got more visiting time in.
Sunday night, Grandma and Grandpa brought Panera for Lee and I to eat (so wonderful because the cafe food was NOT so good!) After their visit, Lee got ready to leave so he could take care of Andrew since he had to go to school on Monday. That left me alone with Olivia for the first time. It's a stretch to say alone since I was surrounded by nurses who were there to take care of Olivia and me. I decided I would send her to the nursery for the night so that I could get some sleep. Little did I know, sleep would not happen for me that night! Right around 11, I wheeled her into the nursery and let them know to bring her to me when she was ready to eat again. Right around 11:10, there was a knock at my door and it was a nurse coming in to take my blood pressure and temperature.....at 11:18, there was another knock and this time it was Olivia being wheeled in because she was super fussy and wanted to eat. What a greedy little thing huh? So, I fed her and called he nursery to come get her again and sure enough, about 30 minutes later, she was fussy again! This time, I decided to just feed her and keep her with me for the night. There was no sleep had that night!!
Excitement occurred early Monday morning when Olivia was kicking her legs so hard that it woke her up. I went to pick her up out of her crib and the next thing I knew, 3 nurses busted into the room to make sure Olivia was with me. Um, what? She had kicked her legs so hard that her little ankle security bracelet came unclipped and set off the "somebody stole a baby" alarm throughout the hospital! Good to know that system works well!!! After they got her clipped back in, the morning continued as planned. Lee came back after getting Andrew off to school and we waited for all the discharge things to happen. I met with my doctor who said I was ready to go and Olivia met with hers. We were all clear to leave. We got her all ready and walked on out to the car for our journey home.
Lee had brought all his camera gear home the night before so we didn't get any pictures of her in her going home outfit until we got home.
Cute right??? We also got to introduce Olivia to Farley when we got to the house. He was SO confused!!
Our family was all together at home on Monday. Here we go!
