Oliver's birth story

On June 19, I went into my last check-up at the doctor's office.  But to my dismay, in the last 8 days, no real progress had been made.  I was still 50-70% effaced and 3-4 centimeters dilated.  I really thought he would have been born by now since Penelope was 4 days early and those numbers seem pretty favorable to me.  Since my due day was the next day, she suggested I schedule for an induction, just in case.  I certainly didn't want to go past 41 weeks.  (The office I go to has male and female doctors but I made all my appointments with female doctors and was just going to pray that a male doctor was not on call the day I went into labor.)  The doctor I saw said, "Well, since you have been seeing Dr. Chung, I'll have to call her and see when she was available for an induction."  I liked that part, because I knew I would have a female doctor then.  I was still upset though because I felt like Oliver was never coming and I didn't want to be induced.  I wanted to sit around and time my contractions and speed off to the hospital.  I didn't want to go into the hospital while not in labor, to have a baby.  I have heard inductions take a long time too.  So anyways, the induction was scheduled for Monday June 23 and 5 am.  That was only 4 days away.  Needless to say, I was not in a great mood after that.

After my appointment, Josh went over to his dad's house and then went to his mom's.  I didn't have anything to do, so I went to CVS with my mom and the laundry mat to wash comforters.  When I was at CVS two employees wanted to make small talk about the size of my belly.  One of them even said to my mom (in front of me), "Poor thing.  She looks miserable!"  Uh, thanks so much.  In the mean time, I have been having random cramps but attributed that to my exam from earlier. 

We get home and my mom cooks dinner.  The only people home are my mom and dad and me and Penelope.  At this point, I'm starting to wonder if I'm having contractions and the cramping isn't just from the exam.  So after dinner, I think near 6 pm, I start timing them.  They aren't very close together.  Every 7-10 minutes and between 20-40 seconds long.  It is suggested to wait to go to the hospital until they are 5 minutes apart and 1 minute long.  They weren't very strong either.  At 7 pm, I texted Josh and told him I was timing my contractions, but that they weren't very close together yet. 

The next few hours are uneventful.  I know Josh came home shortly after and made sure to stop and get an energy drink on the way home.  Penelope went to bed and Josh and I watched Orange is the New Black while I continued to time contractions.  They were never 1 minute long, but would be 4 minutes apart.  I decided to take a shower because I figured we were going to the hospital that night.  I asked my mom to straighten my hair for me so it would look good for pictures :)  Josh suggested that I try to get some sleep while he showered because we were probably going to have a long night ahead of us.  By this time, my contractions started to become painful.  After Josh got out of his shower, he insisted we try to go to sleep.  It was about 1 am now.  Sleeping didn't work.  Every few minutes, I was groaning in pain.  So about 10 minutes later, we decided it was time to go to the hospital.  The hospital is in another town and takes probably 30 minutes to get there.  Since it was early in the morning and Josh was speeding, we made it in 14 minutes.  He asked if I needed him to run some red lights, but I told him no. 

Once we got to the delivery room, it was 2 am and I was 6 centimeters dilated.  I asked for an epidural right away.  I didn't have one with Penelope and was happy with that.  This time around, I decided I wanted one to have a more enjoyable labor for both me and Josh.  The nurse also mentioned to me that Dr. Chung was on call that night!  I honestly couldn't believe it!  I was expecting one of the old male doctors that I have never met before.  So anyways, I got my epidural and she broke my water.  After that, Josh and I were in a much better mood.  I was goofy and Josh was relaxed.  He was also freezing. We were able to nap for short periods of time.  I would guess around 4 or 5 am, the nurse said that I was 10 centimeters and 100% effaced, but his head was still high.  She told me to let her know when I felt pressure to push.  I asked how I was supposed to feel pressure, when my epidural prevents me from feeling anything.  Around 630 or so, she turned my epidural down so I could feel the contractions.  His head was still high.  They told me that Dr. Chung was now off call and asked if I wanted her to stay or if the new doctor could deliver Oliver.  Of course it was a male doctor that I had never met, so I said I would like her to stay.  Close to 7, I was getting irritated that nothing had changed in hours and the nurse said I could try pushing and see if his head lowered.  With one push, he dropped significantly and they called the doctor in.  (Then I was kind of annoyed because I could have done that 2 hours ago.) 

With Penelope, I pushed for an hour and a half and it was awful, also without medication.  So this time, I was determined to get him out as quick as possible.  I started pushing at 7:35 and he was born at 7:56 am.  When they laid him on my chest, he grabbed my finger <3

I was astonished when they said he weighed 9 lbs, 2 ounces and was 21 & 3/4 inches long!  Penelope was 7 lbs, 2 ounces and 19 inches long.  And I gained 2 more pounds in my pregnancy with her.  Josh said, you should have seen your face when they told you his weight.  Hahaha. 

Josh's mom was in the waiting room.  She stopped by before work, but she had to leave before she could see him.  About two hours after he was born, my mom, dad and sister stopped by with Penelope. 

The night before we were supposed to be discharged, the nurses said Oliver's bilirubin levels were high and he might be jaundice.  We were hoping to leave the hospital by noon and at 2 pm, we were still waiting on test results.  His levels went up and he had to go under the lights.  They said he would be under the lights 24/7 and only come out to eat.  They discharged me and I was considered a "boarding mother."  I could come and go as a pleased, but would not be receiving care anymore.  Now it was more like a hotel.  I really missed Penelope so Josh and I left Oliver under the lights and went home to see her.  We stayed for a few hours and went back to the hospital.  His levels were still high, so we spent the night.  By the next afternoon, he went down from 15 to 12 and he had to be around 10 to be discharged.  We went back home around noon to have lunch and see Penelope.  I called the hospital at 5 to check on him.  Apparently, his levels were low and they took him out from under the lights at 1:30.  I wish they would have told me, because that meant I could finally hold and snuggle him.  He had to be out from under the lights for 5 hours, then retested to make sure he didn't rebound.  Around 7 or 8, we found out that he was ok and could be discharged!  We packed up that room as quick as we could and high tailed it out of there! 

His car ride home from the hospital

 

So there you have it, Oliver's birth story.  And of course, the first night home is always the hardest.  It's like he knows the nurses aren't around to help anymore.  I probably got around 4 hours of sleep that night.  He is 8 days old now and we are slowly falling into a groove.  Although, my mom's 2 week vacation ends in a few days.  Then we might be in trouble again ;)