A Birth Story: Olivia Margaret

Like I shared before, our sweet Olivia Margaret was born on April 25, 2018 at 9:47pm, weighing 7 pounds 1 oz and 20 in long.

Rewind about 15 hours and Ryan and I were on our way to the hospital.

I had a scheduled induction at 7 am.  Surprisingly, I was able to get a pretty good night’s rest the previous night and it was sort of nice to get up and get ready at our own pace. The verse that I claimed in my heart for the day was Isaiah 26:3-

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Ryan and I were pretty nervous and had no idea what to expect, but this verse steadied me through it all.

They started me on pitocin right away and it was a rather quiet, slow morning. I did a lot of reading, writing in my baby book, and chatting with Ryan. I hated not being able to eat anything except clear liquids (I ate soooo much jello). Contractions didn’t really start picking up until my doctor broke my water at 1 pm.

Ryan coached me and comforted me through the contractions.

I fell more in love with him that day than I ever thought possible. He was such a rock and encouragement.

After a couple hours I was feeling ready for some relief and called in for an epidural. This was one of the hardest parts of the afternoon- dealing with the contractions while they were prepping and administering the epidural, especially because Ryan couldn’t be near to comfort me through them… I know it was hard for him too- I could see the tears in his eyes as he had to watch. He said he felt helpless just sitting there. To make it a little more difficult, my anesthesiologist was super nice and chipper and kept asking me all these questions, when I just really wanted to suffer in silence. 😉

Rocking that hospital gown and feeling the relief from the epidural!

Once the epidural kicked in, it was pretty great. Haha. They did an awesome job of getting the dosage so that I could still feel pressure from contractions and could move my legs around, but didn’t really feel pain. My body must have needed the relief from the epidural because I went from being stuck at 2 cm dilated all afternoon to 8 cm in 40 minutes. The nurses were quite excited and even mentioned that we could have her by dinner time. Obviously, much to our disappointment that didn’t happen.  Around 7:45 I was finally OK’d to start pushing. The delivery nurse looked at Ryan and said, “OK, you’re going to help. Hold her leg and I’ll hold the other.” He had not anticipated being that up close and personal with the process, but he totally stepped up and did a great job.

I pushed for almost 2 hours when my doctor came in and gave us some options.

She said I was making progress and I wasn’t at risk for a c section, but it would take probably another hour to get her out (her head was stubbornly stuck). Or, she could help things along with the vacuum and we’d be holding our girl within 15 minutes… my strength was starting to fade and I wasn’t sure if I could really push for another hour. I had complete trust in my doctor and her suggestions so we decided to use the vacuum. Within three sets of pushes she was out! My doctor caught me eye during the last set of pushes and told me to look- I was able to watch her being born!

When they placed her on my chest there was a flurry of activity all around, but for me it was as if

time stood still,

everything faded in the background.

and it was just me and her.

Olivia let out a good healthy wail when she first came in to the world but as soon as they set her on my chest she quieted and was completely wide eyed, alert, and calm.

I can’t even describe the feeling of seeing her for the first time.

It was the most surreal, beautiful moment, and the tears were flowing freely for both Ryan and I. Realizing God had blessed us with this tiny perfect gift was almost too much to take in. It was love at first sight. Or maybe not… We’ve loved her since the moment we found out I was pregnant. But to see her and finally meet her after the months of waiting and praying was overwhelming.

Lest I make it sound too sentimental though, I was ready to call up for some pizza delivery pretty much right after I had her. SO hungry.  Luckily, a thoughtful nurse snagged me a sandwich from the cafeteria just before it closed.

With the quick delivery aided by the vacuum in the end, I had a 3rd degree Episiotomy/tearing, and Olivia had a bruise on her head from where the vacuum was placed, but overall it was a healthy, wonderful delivery.

All of the staff at the Hospital were simply amazing. We couldn’t have asked for a better team! I’ve been asked if giving birth was anything like I expected- and I have no idea how to respond! Nothing compares or could have truly prepared me for it. It was all so worth it!

Check out a few more photos of our little family in the hospital here!

#birth #family #Motherhood #Pregnancy