Olivia Lucille: A Birth Story

Wednesday December 20th 1230 am- I woke up to a pretty hard contraction and I timed them for a little while but they were really far apart so I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't because the contractions were uncomfortable enough to keep me up. 

After a couple hours I just got up and walked around the house trying to get them to get closer together, but it wasn't working. Around 5:30 I told Greg we should just go to the hospital and see what they say. They had us walk the halls for 3 hours and I went from 3 to 5 cm, but the contractions weren't any stronger. I was stuck in early labor.

They admitted me anyway because I've already had 3 babies and anything can happen and happen fast after 3 babies. My doctor got there sometime around 12:45 and she wanted to break my water to get me moving. I was hesitant because I don't get epidurals and laboring with your water broken is so hard. Eventually, I decided to just do it. My doctor seemed so sure I would go quick if they broke my water and I really wanted her to be born by 2:50 pm because that is when Evan gets off the bus and I knew he would be wanting some good news.

They broke my water around 1 pm. Two contractions later-- we were in business. I was thinking "how in the world am I in transition already? There's no way, this is just going to be an awful painful labor." Nope-- I was in transition.

I was chatting with my nurse about how I wanted to be done by 2:50 and she said, "oh, you'll be done." I totally didn't believe her. My Nurse checked me at 2:30 and I was a 9. My doctor came in around 2:40 and wanted to check me too, so 10 minutes later and I was a rim. She said she wanted to check me during a contraction to see if the rim would go to complete during the contraction-- it did. She was in complete shock that I was basically ready to push. She couldn't stop talking about how she JUST broke my water and now we were nearly done. She said, "I'm sorry I'm just in shock!" (PS- you know your doctor is amazeballs when the nurses feel comfortable enough to call her by her first name and nearly all of them use her as their doctor. I lucked out finding her on my google search haha) Apparently, my demeanor had them all fooled. I guess I should have been losing my mind (I sort of was, but internally haha). I'm not sure if I just have a high pain tolerance or I'm just able to focus well enough to handle it.  Either way, I can do hard things... At least that's what I tell myself when I labor med free :)

Anyway

My doctor said she was going to get her gear on to be ready to push. I was so ready to get her out. I was exhausted and in lots of pain and my back labor was, as always, INTENSE. Greg always rubs it really hard and it always helps. A few minutes later I felt so much pressure and it was time to push. I pushed 3 times and her head was coming out, but she had her hand/arm on the side of her face. I've never experienced the "ring of fire" until I had to push an arm out with a head. I know all about that ring now! My doctor told me to hold one of my pushes and she was doing some stretching at the same time to get that arm through with the head. That was fun ;) All I could think was this baby is not getting stuck! Talk about gaining some strength to push real hard for a second. She was born at 2:50 pm. How funny is that?  Exactly when I wanted her to be born. I also tore through one of the branches of a varicose vein I developed and that took a lot of stitches to stop the bleeding. Poor girl had some serious bruising, swelling, and blood shot eyes from her quick descent and arm to head delivery. Greg's first reaction to seeing her and before her cries was, "Holy crap she is blue, is she alive!?" Like, totally freaking out. She was so blue the nurses told me to check the inside of her mouth if I was worried she might not be breathing or having a hard time because there was no way we would be able to tell by her face or around her mouth.

I'm glad she is here.
I'm glad she is safe. I'm also super glad she no longer looks like she got punched in the face haha.
I'm glad I'm not pregnant anymore! That pregnancy was a doozy. I've NEVER complained in any of my pregnancies because they were just so easy. This one hurt in all the wrong places and the exhaustion-- not sure if it's because I already have three and I'm not 25 anymore, but goodness was I tired the last trimester.

Olivia Lucille -Olivia because we like it and Lucille after her Great Great Grandma
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her poor poor face..