Happy Birthday Olivia Wynne Blakeley!

I'm writing this quite a bit later than planned, but I guess that's par for the course when you have a newborn! I guess the best place to start is my due date, Friday, October 11...I had an appointment scheduled first thing that morning in case Dr. Brannon decided to induce us that day. They hooked me up to the fetal monitors for a while to make sure her heartbeat still sounded good and then did an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed that my fluid levels were still decent, but my placenta was definitely showing some age. As a result, we scheduled an induction for Sunday night (10/13) at 9pm. 

Well, it turns out Dr. Brannon hates wasting time just as much as I do, because I got this phone call on Sunday morning: 

Dr. Brannon: "Hey it's your doctor. I want to induce you earlier today if it's okay with you. I have surgery first thing tomorrow morning and I'm just hanging out and cleaning the house today. Can you come earlier?"
Me: "Sure! What time?!"
Dr. Brannon: "Can you be here at noon?"
Me: "Yep! See you then!"


Ha! Who wouldn't want to possibly avoid being in labor at all hours of the night?! Duh! So we got ready, packed up the car and headed off to meet my mom at our usual meeting spot to give her Louie. Here's my last "bump" picture and our last picture as a "family of three": 

Totally didn't realize how HUGE I was at the end! Yikes.

By the time we got to Cary, we were starving and I knew that I wouldn't be eating again for forever a while. So, we flew through the Wendy's drive thru right before we got to the hospital. Funny story - my mom was at Wendy's when her water broke with me, except it was 5 weeks early! Anyway - we got to the hospital right at noon, checked in, and headed to our labor and delivery room. The next hour or so consisted of hooking up IVs, asking me a million health questions, hooking up the fetal monitor, etc. 

They started the pitocin around 1:30 (I think) and Dr. Brannon came in around 2:30 to check me and break my water. I was dilated 2cm and 70% effaced at that time.  I had only barely felt my contractions prior to this time, so I hadn't asked for an epidural yet. Within about 15 minutes, I started to feel them and decided it was time to ask for the drugs. They finished my epidural around 4:30 or so and increased the pitocin. I had about 10 minutes of bliss before my contractions reached a whole new level. It quickly started to feel like I needed to be pushing out a baby (funny how you all of a sudden know that feeling)! They checked me again at 5pm and I was still at 2cm. The contractions continued to get worse and worse - to the point that I was crying and about to break Scott's hand through each of them. No amount of meds were helping and I literally felt like I was trying to hold her in. Finally, they checked me around 6pm and I was already at 9cm..holy cow! They called Dr. Brannon and told him to start heading that way. He showed up around 6:45 and I started pushing around 6:50pm. 


Let me just say that labor and delivery was NOTHING like I expected. I had all intentions of having enough drugs to barely feel anything. I certainly didn't expect my epidural to not work and to dilate so quickly! I won't repeat what I kept yelling in the delivery room...but let's just say it was not a pleasant process. I remember apologizing for "being so vocal" while pushing and also thinking a C-section sounded really nice right about then (I know, I'm far better off without a C-section). Anyway, I finally got the hang of pushing and got it in my head that it was up to me to get this over with. About 20 minutes into it, the nurse finally saw her head and yelled for Dr. Brannon. Dr. Brannon strolls in ever so casually, looks at me and says "oh crap! Hold on one second!" Really? I have a baby half way out of me and you want me to hang out while you get ready?! 


After about what seemed like 3 days 30 minutes of pushing, Olivia Wynne Blakeley arrived at 7:22pm! She weighed 7lbs 5oz and was 20.75 inches long. They handed her to me and it was the most surreal moment. If I'm being honest, I can't say that I heard angels singing or saw hearts flying around her head (sorry, Olivia). I think the majority of people probably don't experience that since it's such an exhausting and overwhelming experience. At that moment, I just couldn't believe it was real and that I was actually holding MY baby. MY child. It wasn't sinking in that I had just become a mother. 

Everything else happened very quickly - Scott cut the cord and they took her to clean her off and get all of her measurements. After they finished stitching me up - another extremely unpleasant process (I thought there were more meds for that too?!) - they let the grandparents in. I don't even have to tell you how excited they were. I believe there were some tears, but honestly, my head was still spinning after that whole process. 

After a few minutes of visiting with the grandparents and Aunt Amanda, everyone left so that I could try to nurse her for the first time. Considering I (like any other new mother) had no idea what I was doing, I think it went pretty well. What shocked me the most during this whole time was how clueless I suddenly felt about caring for a baby. I even asked the nurse if I was supposed to burp Olivia when she finished feeding. Really Erin? Isn't that like Baby 101?

We were moved to our postpartum room within an hour or so and got settled in for the night. So many of our friends told us to send her to the nursery while we were in the hospital so that we could get some sleep, but I had no desire to be away from her just a few hours after delivery. And honestly, between meds, getting vitals checked, and feeding her every 2 hours..I think we would have gotten the same amount of sleep with or without her in our room. She slept really well between feedings that night and got her first bath around 3:00AM or so. After her bath we had our skin-to-skin time..and this is when I heard the angels and saw the hearts. It was by far the best moment of my life.

I think that wraps up Olivia's birthday. I'll dedicate another post to all the wonderful visitors and gifts we received during our hospital stay.

-Erin