Please welcome Olivia Michelle!

I am a week late on my blog but I have good reason for it. Our little b made her appearance into our world last Monday 8-24-2009. She was three weeks early and extremely unexpected as you can imagine.

Here is how it all started..

Last Sunday Jason and I ran errands all day. Through out the day I kept having these annoying pains in my lower stomach that I chalked up to be Braxton Hicks contractions. I really never knew what a Braxton hick’s contraction was going to feel like and figured that I was finally feeling them being so close to my due date. We got home later that day, Jason installed the baby seats in our cars since you never know when it’s going to happen (good thing huh!) We bought the paint for her bathroom earlier that day so Jason took down the mirror and was prepping it to paint the next day. Jason and I went to bed around 12:30am and while I was still feeling the contractions, I didn’t pay much attention to them. I decided to read up on my pregnancy book and was reading about labor. I laid in bed until about 2:30 wondering why I couldn’t relax and fall asleep. Around 3 am I was laying in bed and my water broke. Completely shocked, I jumped out of bed. I checked my underwear to make sure that’s what happened and that I wasn’t crazy. Sure enough it definitely was my water that broke. I know that once your water breaks, some women still go a week without delivering, I tried to go back to bed and relax. The very next contraction was so much more intense I knew that these weren’t Braxton hicks. I woke Jason up and let him know that my water broke. We timed my next contraction and they were about three minutes apart. We got up and I had him draw me a bath to see if that changed the timing of the contractions. The next one I had was so intense and I had to use the bathroom, I noticed quite a bit of blood which I had just read was one of the differences between false labor and real labor. A little blood was normal but more then 2 tablespoons worth was an indication of real labor. I told Jason that and asked if we should call the hospital. He said he would rather take me to the hospital but I really didn’t want to since I wasn’t sure how far long I was. The next contraction was pretty intense and I agreed with him to leave for the hospital. We got to the hospital around 4; they took me into a room and checked me out to see how far long I was. To everyone’s surprise I was 7-8 cm dilated! They admitted me into my labor room around 5 (so my wrist band said lol) the contractions were pretty intense but not at all what I expected. I had strong pressure in my lower back and upper thighs with each contraction. The staff at Sutter downtown was absolutely amazing. They looked at my chart, and recognized that we were using the Bradley Method and asked for our birth plan. We gave it to them and they never once asked if I wanted medication (as my birth plan requested) and left us alone during them to relax and concentrate. Jason was absolutely amazing through the entire process. Through each contraction I had him press on my lower back to help relieve some of the pressure which was sooooo relieving. The contractions were intense and as Jason pushed I kept telling myself that I knew I could do this. The feet of the bed lowered almost to the ground and I sat on the edge of the front with my feet on the lowered half in a sort of squatting position through each contraction. My memory is a little fuzzy on when I went through transition but around 8 I started to feel a strong sensation to push. I changed positions to face the head of the bed and held on to the back of it during the next few contractions. The urge to push came in between the contractions and started to replace the contractions shortly after. The change in positions was great because it changed the pressure from my rear to my pelvis. I pushed in that position until she crowned which I believe was about 8:40. I wanted to have her on my chest immediately after delivery and had to return to the squatting position front ward. I turned around and I was so tired that I wasn’t sure if I could continue to push. Jason encouraged me and said he knew I could and that she was almost here and I only needed one more good push. I pushed a few more times and at 8:50 she was born!

I can’t express the feeling of her being born. It was such a huge relief. Labor was nothing as I thought it would be but in a good way. Even with everything I learned, I thought the pain and pressure was going to be so much more then it was. It went by so quickly I couldn’t believe that it was over and that she was finally with us. Which I only contribute to the positive and focused mind I had during labor.
They put her on my chest and it was so amazing to finally see her. She had sooo much hair I was shocked.

I had a second degree tear and the doctor stitched me up as I held her in my arms. I delivered the placenta without help but had some more bleeding then normal after and they wanted to give me pitocin to help slow it. I agreed since I had my precious daughter in my arms and it would no longer affect her. She weighed 8 lbs exactly and was 19 inches long. Her temperature was a little low, she was making some grunting noises and had low blood sugar which we were told was normal for nearly term babies. They took her to the special care unit nursery for monitoring and to raise her temperature. They took me into my recovery room which was a shared room but luckily no one was in the other bed. The nurses were so nice and said I would only be there for a little bit as they were cleaning up a private room and would move me into it as soon as it was ready. I called my family and let them know that b had arrived early. The nurses wanted to know if we had picked a name but we were still undecided and luckily they said we had a day or so to decide.

We finally decided on Olivia, there were several names we liked and I had gone over them with my mom and she researched what Olivia meant for me and I just loved the meaning behind her name. We weren’t sure about middle names yet and decided to keep thinking. We decided on Michelle after a visit with my dad who like most people threw out a variation of his name but I just loved it and for everything he has done for me I felt deserved it as well. The nurses brought us Olivia to let us know that they wanted to keep her in the special care unit for a day because she was 3 weeks early and wanted to run tests to make sure there were no problems. After the first day her grunting stopped, blood sugar went normal and her temperature rose but her billurubin levels were a little high giving her jaundice. We were a little upset but knew that it would best to let her have the phototherapy hoping she would only need a day. Well we learned that the first 5 days it only gets worse before it gets better and they kept her there until Saturday when she finally reached a level they found to be acceptable. Jason and I stayed at the hospital the entire time even after they discharged me on Wednesday. The nurses allowed us to stay in a lounge area that had couches so
I could breastfeed her every three hours as they required her to be fed. That made for quite an interesting schedule but it was necessary since I didn’t want them to give her formula and wanted her learn to breastfeed and not become dependant on a bottle.
Saturday came and I was sure they were going to say they wanted one more day but luckily they discharged her and we were able to take her home.

There are no words to express how we felt when they told us we could take her home. It felt like we had been in that hospital forever and each time we thought we could take her they told us no. Finally hearing we could leave was the happiest moment I can think of with the exception of the first time I saw her. We got our stuff together and took our little Olivia home!

She is the sweetest mellow baby and I couldn’t feel luckier to have such a wonderful beautiful daughter. It is still so surreal that she is here when really I was still supposed to be pregnant and approaching my due date.

As hard as it was to stay much longer at the hospital knowing she is healthy and happy is such a relief.

We have her pediatrician appointment tomorrow. I will let you all know how it goes and update this blog with many pictures on Friday. Please come back to see our precious little girl!

Love you all and have a great week!!!