Olive made it!!!! (Three weeks ago...)

* Olive Effie Hughes *

born: February 24th, 2012

weight: 8 lbs 11 oz

length: 20 1/2 inches

She's finally here! And I know you're all dying to hear the birth story. (Maybe not. But I'm posting it anyway.) So here it is:

On a first baby my doctor's office will not induce until at least a week after the due date but on subsequent babies they will induce up to a week early. We knew this at the beginning of my pregnancy but we hadn't really made a decision one way or the other about it. As the end of February got closer we decided that we would set the induction for her due date, February 27th, and just see if she would decide to come earlier than that. When we set the date the nurse let me look over the calendar to see which doctors would be on call. We saw that on Friday the 24th both of my favorite doctors were scheduled. I like all of the doctors in that office but I knew if I could pick I wanted Melendez or Lamoreaux. But I still wanted to see if she would just come on her own.

We decided not to tell anyone about being induced for a number of reasons. First and foremost EVERYONE seems to have an opinion about pregnancy and childbirth and most people are very outspoken about those opinions. And since I really love my doctors and had a wonderful pregnancy and delivery with Jack, hearing those opinions wouldn't really change my mind but instead just annoy me. And anyone who knows me when I'm pregnant knows that I am very easily annoyed. We also decided that we didn't want anyone to just show up at the hospital or to have constant texts and phone calls asking for updates when we were trying to focus on the birth of our baby girl. We wanted this to be all about Jared, me, the baby and Jack. The only person we did tell was my mom because she had volunteered to take Jack for us during the delivery and bring him right back to meet his baby sister afterward. And of course we told the people we work with for obvious reasons.

As I was going in for appointments during the last weeks of my pregnancy and not progressing at all I started to wonder if we shouldn't change the date to Friday after all. I really wanted her to come on that day and be able to share a birthday with her daddy and great great grandma who she is named after. On Monday the week before her due date we went to Jack's two year check up and our pediatrician Dr. Arnold told me he was also on call at Timp Hospital on the 24th. Jared met me later that day at MY doctors appointment and we talked to Dr. Melendez about changing the date. When we left the office we knew if I hadn't gone into labor on my own we would head to the hospital on Friday and have our baby on Jared's birthday. I wanted to feel guilty about eclipsing Jare's birthday except that Jared was so behind the idea 100% that it was impossible. And call us selfish for scheduling the birth of our child based on convenience but I would not change anything about the labor and delivery.

I went in again on Thursday and I was still dilated to barely a two and I was not having any contractions to speak of which was both wonderful and annoying at the same time. So we got ourselves packed and made sure the apartment was clean. We talked to labor and delivery at the hospital and they told us to call at 5:30 the next morning to make sure they weren't too busy for us to come in at 6:00. Of course I woke up at 4:30 and could not for the life of me go back to sleep so I got up and showered instead. As I was showering I kept thinking about how bizarre it was that I wasn't actually in labor but I would be holding my baby later that day. I made sure I had everything I wanted in our hospital bag and then called the hospital. The nurse told us we had the green light to head in so Jared got up and showered. Jack heard us moving around so he got up too. It was quite an early morning for him and he was really struggling. So by the time we got out the door we were running about 15 minutes late.

We met our nurses, who were fabulous by the way, and took care of some paper work and then I got into one of those extremely flattering hospital gowns. I'm thinking I should order some just to wear around the house. (Sense the sarcasm here.) Our labor and delivery nurse, Paige, was the sweetest person and I could not have been more thrilled with her. We had amazing nurses with Jack as well and I think that makes such a huge difference. When she did my IV Jack was so concerned that I was hurt and he kept saying, "Ouch mommy. Ouch." By the time everything was said and done it was after 8:00 when Paige started the Pitocin. She checked me and I was still at a two. She said I would probably dilate about half a centimeter an hour so her estimate was that Olive would come around 3 in the afternoon. (And she was only nine minutes off!) Jack watched cartoons and he and Jared ate some breakfast from the cooler full of food we brought along.

I love the nurses we had and Dr. Melendez but my favorite person of the day was Dr. Jones, hand down. He came in and did my epidural. And then Dr. Melendez broke my water.

My mom and step-dad picked Jack up before the epidural and he was out having a blast with his favorite cousin Hayden. Apparently they were holding hands for a good portion of the day. So cute! At this point there was really nothing to do but wait. Jared had borrowed his co-workers Ipad and I had my Nook so we both watched a little TV, browsed the internet, listened to music and took a few naps here and there. It was an extremely relaxing labor.

Around 1:30 or so I started to feel contractions through the epidural. I was getting pretty uncomfortable but I was reluctant to page Paige because I felt like such a wimp. A lot of women do this without any pain relief at all. But Jared pointed out that if I was going to have an epidural I shouldn't have to feel anything. Point well taken. I ended up pushing the button twice to give myself an extra dose but it just wasn't doing the trick so I finally called the nurse in and she went and got Dr. Jones. He gave me an extra shot of something and had me lay the bed back so things wouldn't settle in my...posterior region. That solved the problem immediately and I was feeling quite relaxed again. Paige checked me around 2:00 and I was dilated to a five. I have to admit I felt a bit disappointed because I just wanted to hold her and I was tired of waiting. And five centimeters just didn't sound exciting to me. (I was almost a seven when we walked into the hospital with Jack.)

Pretty soon I started to feel extremely intense contractions but only in one tiny little spot on my left side. It was definitely an odd sensation and not very pleasant. I called Paige again and told her what was happening and she said that it's not totally uncommon to get a "hot spot" as she called it. She was about to go out and get Dr. Jones again but she decided she would check me to see if I had progressed at all. Her eyes got huge and she said, "Oh wow! You're a ten and that is your baby's head right there!" She asked me if I still wanted her to get Dr. Jones or if I just wanted to push a baby out. I opted for just pushing her out. She put my legs together and told me not to push if I felt pressure. And yes she actually physically put my legs together for me.

Dr. Melendez came in, got everything set up and I pushed through two contractions. I'm not sure if the change in position fixed the "hot spot" or if I was just so caught up in what was going on so I didn't feel anything. But it was a perfect delivery. Dr. Melendez did a tiny episiotomy and he was a little surprised I didn't tear as well since Olive had her hand next to her face as she came out. Don't ask me how that works in the birth canal but somehow she managed it.

My first thought when I saw her was that the name Olive was just so perfect for her. She looked exactly like an Olive to me. She looked so much like Jack only with lighter and more hair. She has SO much hair in the back she's definitely got a mullet going. She's sort of strawberry blond or maybe strawberry light brown... That was quite a surprise. And her hands and feet are so long and skinny.

I'm incredibly happy with how well everything went. Jack stayed with my mom and Craig for the weekend so Jared and I got to spend time alone with Olive in the hospital. Our nurses were fantastic. And my recovery has been amazing. Olive had awesome APGAR scores and her bilirubin levels were extremely low. She had some trouble with latching at first but we've remedied the problem and she has been eating like a champ. I could go on a lot longer in this post but Jack just got up from his nap so I'll wrap it up. (I've posted a lot more pictures on Facebook.)

I have the most beautiful, amazing kids and my husband is perfect!!!!! Couldn't resist throwing that in. More to come on little Olive later.

Poor girl has gigantic feet