So I've had a ton to blog about but haven't, I felt like I needed to record Olive's birth story before I did anything else but wasn't quite ready to relive it yet. I think I'm ready. For those that don't like birth stories don't read on :)
After feeling like I had been on the verge of labor for a couple weeks and walking around at a 3+ for a week, I talked to my doctor and decided to be induced at 39 weeks. I was super nervous because I had never been induced and I usually like to let things happen on their own but I decided it was what was best for me and my family. My girls desperately needed a normal mom. We got the call early on the 16th to come in at 7:50 so we headed out. We got to the hospital and got all set up and ready to go. Our sweet nurse Shauna came in and tried to get my IV in, which didn't work out so well, after she had missed twice she went to get another nurse. The second nurse missed one more time and then finally got it in. I've never heard two people say so many times, "I haven't missed for the longest time!" It was a hard way to start the day. The nurse waited about an hour to start my pitocin because Olive's heart rate was really high because I was dehydrated. After we got some fluids in me her heart rate came down and we got things going. Dr. Green, the awesome anesthesiologist that did my other two epidurals, came in and made me pain free. After that we just waited, watched some tv, chatted with out cute nurse, etc.
Around 2:30 I was at a 10 and the nurse got me started pushing. I did one "practice" push and she had me stop so we could wait for Dr. Brown. At this point the crowd showed up. We had my Dr., the nurse that had been with us all day, the new nurse that showed up at 3:00, the med student, the nursing student, and the cord donation person. It was the most people I had ever had in the delivery room! Of course, it was my decision to have them there so it was not a big deal. It was actually kind of cool to have the nursing student there, it was her first time attending a birth and she was pretty much in awe and telling me how cool I was the whole time.
Dr. Brown showed up and I pushed about three times and little Olive was here. She came out calm and quite like my other two girls. She was born at 3:09 and weighed 7lbs even. She looked really great. The nurse tucked her into my gown and we tried to nurse but she was too sleepy so the nurse turned the lights down and we snuggled for awhile until it was time to go up to recovery.
I felt really great afterward. My mom brought the girls out to meet her, Izzy was so excited, Lucy was just there to sit on my bed and eat cookies. I sent Sean home with the girls so he could be with them that night, I usually send him home because I think it's silly for us to both be there in the middle of the night. I tried to get some sleep but I had started to feel A LOT of pain and even with the Motrin and Lortab it just kept getting worse. When it was time to take more Lortab I was begging for it, I hadn't been to sleep at all and I was exhausted. The nurse was concerned that I was still in so much pain, so after pushing on my stomach way too much, she went to get the charge nurse. The charge nurse came in and started pushing on my stomach and trying to feel around. Then they basically took turns pushing on my stomach just to make sure that I had had enough :) They decided that my bladder was not draining all the way so it was making it so my uterus couldn't do it's thing and causing me a lot of pain. So at around 3:00 in the morning I had to have a catheter put in to drain my bladder, not a lot of fun when you are no longer numb. I was pretty much bawling at this point, I was so tired and in so much pain and I was really wishing that I hadn't sent Sean home, I felt so alone. After a few not so restful hours of light sleep they came and took the catheter out and brought me Olive. The next day went okay, Sean came and had not planned on staying (because I told him I didn't need him to) but he could tell that I needed him so he bummed around the hospital all day with me; it was so nice to have him with me after such a hard night. The rest of that day was nice, spent visiting with family and cuddling my sweet baby. That night got a little bit rough again, when I called to make sure the nurse was bringing my pain killer they said she was on her way, well I fell asleep and woke up four hours later with no medicine yet. I was in SO much pain. She came in and said that she had asked someone else to bring it in and they hadn't. The rest of that night and morning were not fun. I spent a lot of the morning walking around the halls to try and ease some of the pain. I finally got in the shower and then called Sean to come and get me, I could not get out of there fast enough. I'm not sure I've ever been so happy to see my cute family as I was when they got there!
We spent the rest of the day at home with our girls. Sean was AMAZING, he took care of everything and basically didn't let me get off the couch.
The next couple of weeks were spent dealing with jaundice- light beds, heel pricks, etc., mastitis, allergic reaction to penicillin, and the crazy effects of taking steroids to get ride of the hives caused by said allergic reaction. All and all the experience as a whole left me feeling a little violated. I just felt like I had been poked and prodded and just felt super fragile physically, emotionally, you name it.
I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband who supported me and was so loving and patient and helpful, an amazing newborn who is so even tempered and basically slept through most of the drama, and an amazing support system of family, friends, and neighbors. I can say now that I will remember everyone coming to my rescue more then I will remember the sickness and inconvenience of everything that happened. I am so blessed to have all that I have, especially my sweet new baby :)
