Olive's Birth Story

As many of you read on my previous blog post I was having a lot of false labor. People kept telling me, "You'll know when labor is really here." They were right. Christmas Eve we went to Glen's sisters house to spend time with family. They only live 50 minutes from Logan and we didn't want to be at our apartment alone on Christmas. After spending a wonderful day in Salt Lake, Red Iguana and City Creek of course, I started having a few contractions that were quite a bit more painful throughout the day. We went back to Danielle's house (Glen's sister) and spent the night together drinking dirty Dr. Peppers and eating a whole lot of food that is really bad for us. I stayed up late to help Danielle finish wrapping Christmas and about 1:00 am we finished up and went to bed with the magic of all the presents under the tree. When I went to lay down for the night I started having really strong contractions, REAL LABOR, It was definitely here and the false labor I thought was real labor seemed a little amateur compared to this. I thought I would let Glen sleep because he was fighting off a bad cold, and I tried to sleep...that didn't work. My phone was out of battery so I had no idea what time it was. I went downstairs and woke up Renae (Glen's mom, she's the bomb) She got me a phone charger and I went upstairs and started timing my contractions. They were definitely coming but they weren't consistent. We woke up Christmas morning and opened presents, and lounged. I was uncomfortable and I was pretty exhausted as I had been up all night. We didn't want to head back to Logan until they got consistently 5 minutes apart.

Around 4:30 pm they got consistently 7 minutes apart so we decided we better head back to Logan and we made the decision that we would go to the hospital and get checked to see how progressed I was so that both the moms could make plans to come to Logan that night or just wait until the morning. By the time we got to Logan my contractions were 5 minutes apart and getting stronger. We packed our hospital bags, just in case we needed to stay, and then drove to the hospital. We had planned to go through the birthing experience without medication so we wanted to labor at our home as long as possible rather than in the hospital. We went to the hospital and the nurse checked me, dilated to a 2 almost a 3 and 95% effaced...while we were at the hospital my contractions changed, I started to get a little freaked out because I was only at a 2 and they were really painful, I could barely walk through them. I like to think that I was still in control and that I was breathing through the contractions. This was 8:30pm We decided that we better go home, I was starving and wanted to get in a warm bath because the hospital room was freezing. We drove home. By the time we got home (4 minutes later) my contractions were 3 minutes apart and lasting 1 1/2 minutes. I got in the bath and tried to brave this terrible labor thing, really it's terrible. I lasted in the bath for about an hour and a half but it felt like eternity. At this point I can't count how many times I told Glen that I was dying, or at least close to death. This was about 9:33 pm. Contractions were 1 1/2 minutes apart lasting 1 1/2 minutes at this point I'm convinced that this is how woman die in child birth. I wasn't in control.

Now this is were all our plans changed. I made a HUGE mistake, I hadn't eaten or drank anything since I had started into labor. I got so caught up in the excitement and I felt nauseous so I didn't eat or drink anything. Meanwhile I'm  moaning and rolling around in the bath tub and I told Glen that the grandma's better come tonight cause this baby was coming whether we wanted her to or not and then I probably added a few moans and told him once again I was dying. I decided to get out of the bath, when I got out I passed out right on the bathroom floor. Looking back now we know that I was really dehydrated. Glen decided we better go back to the hospital because my color was really bad and he was getting a little worried. At 10:30 We got to the hospital. I passed out at the nurses station again, they gave me 2 bags of fluids and some pain medication to see if I still wanted to go without an epidural. I was dilated to a 3 and 100% effaced. I told Glen that I couldn't do it and that I wanted the epidural, I was seriously so weak and delusional. The best thing I saw that night, besides my child of course, was the anesthesiologist walk in the door to give me the epidural.  They gave me the epidural. My doctor told me he would probably be seeing me in the morning about 4 or 5 am to push. I slept for about half an hour and the nurse came back in to check me and she goes "Oh my, you're at a 10 and ready to push!" And at this time Christmas was officially over because I remember looking at the clock and it was 1:07 and I thought, "Wow she missed Christmas by an hour!" She told me she would be back in an hour to push. She left the room and I still had a lot of feeling even with my epidural, I told Glen I needed to push "RIGHT NOW!" The nurse came back in and my mom had just barely got there. I started pushing. Once it got to the point where they wanted to call the doctor to come in and deliver the little babe I started throwing up, yes, totally disgusting but throwing up is one of the most efficient ways to push a baby out. Throwing up got more done in 30 seconds then I had done in the last 45 minutes. The nurse was holding the baby's head and telling me that I needed to wait 5 minutes for the doctor. Well it hurt really bad but the doctor got there and in just a few short pushes later that little Olive Rose was out and I had sweet relief. She was born 2:14 am 12/26/2013.

Having a baby is magical. Magical is the only word I have to describe the whole process. Magic that something that large can come out of an area so small, magic that the babies are healthy and strong, magic that our body's can endure such brutality, and the feeling you get when you hold that little baby is, well, magical.

When everything was said and done I don't regret anything. Sure our plans and birth experience didn't turn out the way we thought they would. I didn't go "natural" and looking back I don't know physically if I was strong enough. I was very dehydrated, hadn't slept in 24 hours and I was so exhausted and weak that all I have to say is thank the Lord for modern medicine. Am I disappointed in myself? Hell no. I gave the toughest fight I had in me! For 24 hours I endured labor, and that was long enough for me. Will I try to go natural in the future, I don't know because Olive might be our only child after this, just kidding. I think in the future I now have a realistic expectation of what the pain is really like and so that going without medication would be more realistic...for those of you who can do that whole natural thing, you go girls, I'd rather have shards of glass in my eyes. And don't even get me started on breastfeeding. I'm doing it for my child but no one prepares you...and somehow it's all worth it in the end.

Here's some pictures of our experience!

 Olive Rose born at 2:14am 12/26/2013

 Dad cutting the umbilical chord

 Mom holding Olive for the first time

 7 lbs. 12 oz. 20'' long, almost flung herself off the scale with all the flailing!

I'm posting this so you can see the aftermath of childbirth. It is no joke.