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| Oliver |
It all began August 7th when we arrived at the hospital at 9:30 PM. We went to the 4th floor desk and they asked me for ID, insurance card, and blah, blah, blah. I remember thinking, "This is it, I'm going to have a baby!" I was beyond nervous and stressed out, especially when we walked into the delivery room. Hospitals make me anxious.
I had to pee in a cup (BTW I'm a pro at this now) and put the gown on. They strapped bands which read the baby's heart rate and tracked my contractions. Then the nurse tried to give me an IV in my right hand. It felt like she had a miniature shovel and was yanking and digging out my vein. I yelled and I cried. Then she tried the other hand. Same searing horrible pain, same yelling and crying, but this time she made got it in. I was sobbing. I remember thinking, "This is horrible and this is only the beginning of it all!" My IV hand hurt for the next 24 hours.
Shortly after I got the IV Dr. Macy came in. I don't think she was very happy with the nurse. She is a no nonsense doctor when it comes to proper medical care and I love that. So, this is where I got induced. I was still at a 1 when I went to the hospital. My feet go in the stirrups and I am shaking because my hand is killing me and I'm super scared and it's never pleasant when your legs go in the stirrups. Luckily Josh was right there holding my good hand and reassuring me. So Dr. Macy put the dreaded speculum in. Then she put the Foley catheter tube in and then pumped it with Saline to put pressure on my cervix. The Foley helped me efface and dilate. Then I took a pill every few hours to help the process along. The worst part was the gauze she used to stop bleeding. It felt horrible.
It was 12:30 AM and I was so tired, in pain, and ready to be unpregnant. They had asked if I wanted an Ambient so I could fall asleep and a shot that would make my cramps go away. Stupidly I said no to both of those. I now know when they offer you meds take them. 20 mins later I called the nurse back in to give me both. I slept really weird. Ambient makes you dream crazy stuff. I felt like I was looking at the world through a kaleidoscope. It was trippy. The cramping kept me up but it soon trailed off. Plus I had to pee and I was connected to an IV bag, I had the balloon tube thing coming out of my girl area and had the contraction/baby heartbeat bands connected to me. Getting up to go to the bathroom was a task that needed 1-2 people to help. Even though the nurse really messed up my IV she did make sure I was comfortable in the bed (which is no easy task when 9 months and a week pregnant. Plus I had all kinds of things poking out of me). She did bring me what I wanted to drink, so she kinda redeemed herself. But only just slightly.
The next morning I woke up at 7 AM. I was so tired and drowsy. Around 10, AM Dr. Macy came back and took out the Foley tube balloon thingy. I was dilated to a 5 by that point. She also broke my water. It felt like 5 gallons of water came gushing out. Josh said it smelled gross. He said a lot of things smelled gross, which is why he was chewing gum the whole time. After she broke my water the contractions started to come.Big time.
Ok, contractions. They are the worst pain ever! I mean ever. I thought I was going to die. I felt them for about 45 mins by the time I got the epidural. I had to get out of bed after my water was broken so they could clean all that soupy stuff up. Standing and having contractions is horrible. I was leaning into Josh and telling him in a loud voice "You're not helping!" I'm not sure exactly how he was supposed to help, but I thought he should know. I tried doing my breathing techniques and focusing on that, which helped a little, but I was still in pain.
The anesthesiologist came in. I laid on my side prepared for the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. First he gave me the numbing shot. Which hardly hurt. He then told me to curl in a ball. I was so huge and in so much pain I really couldn't move. I did my best, which I guess wasn't that great. I held my breath and then he gave me the epidural shot. I didn't feel a thing! It was wonderful. Afterwards the anesthesiologist told me he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to get the epidural in because my back wasn't arched enough. I'm so glad it worked out! I then felt so nice and pain free. It was great.
Oliver was still posterior and he needed to be anterior. I had to lay in different positions on my side to get him to turn. It was weird not being able to feel my legs. I could still kinda move them. I remember being extremely thirsty at this point. They gave me a Popsicle and ice chips. I wanted a huge glass of water. I tried to let the ice melt towards the end, but it wasn't doing it for me. So I just tired to sleep. A few hours later it was time to push.
Ok, here is where it gets good. In my opinion this was the easiest part, because I didn't have any harsh pain to deal with and it was the end of being trapped with my pregnant uncomfortable body. I had to hold my legs up with the help of Josh and the nurse. Side Note: So remember my horrible IV? Yeah it still was throbbing and holding my leg hurt my hand. I was still super annoyed about the IV.
During all this I had to wear an oxygen mask because Oliver's heart rate was low. It was super annoying to wear it because it kept slipping off my head after every push and I had to keep fixing it. So it was a lot of fixing.
Now I am dilated to a 10 and ready to push. We had to wait for a little while for Dr. Macy before I could really push, but once she got there I was so ready! I think I pushed for about an hour and a half. I wasn't allowed to press the button for more epidural juice because they wanted me to feel the pressure of the contractions to help me push. As it got closer to the end of pushing I could really feel when to push. The contractions didn't hurt, I could just feel tons of pressure. The nurse put a mirror in front of me so I could see the top of Oliver's head. The mirror lasted about 15 mins and then I decided I did not want to see what was going to happen next. And that was a good call.
The whole time I was pushing I got a lot of positive reinforcement. "Good Job!" "You're doing great!" "Almost there!" I had no idea how I was doing. I couldn't exactly feel where I was pushing, but I was doing a good job. For some reason it was the best thing to hear that I was doing a good job. It also turns out Josh is an awesome labor coach. He was so supportive and sweet. And super sexy in his euro bikini bottoms. Ok, he didn't wear the bikini bottoms, but he was still cute.
Pretty soon Oliver's head was out and Dr. Macy said, "He is going to be a big one!" Then I gave one more big push and Oliver was finally here on 8.8.11 @ 4:20 PM! Josh and I both cried and kissed. We were so happy. Our dream baby was here! I felt such a huge feeling of love and accomplishment. I didn't get to hold him right away because he was lethargic. His head was in my cervix for awhile because he was so huge.
My eyes were glued to the nurses helping Oliver get some life into him. I couldn't wait to hold him! I was getting stitched up during my waiting. I had 3rd degree tears. Good thing I had the epidural!
So finally they brought him over to me. I was in love. I knew I had the cutest baby in the world and he was all ours. I was in amazement that it was finally happening. After about 2.5 years of waiting, our baby was here. I just felt like so much went into this miracle. Of course I cried again. I did a lot of happy crying over the next several days. Plus he was so so so so so so cute.
They then weighed him. 8lbs 13 oz. Dr. Macy said I was an over achiever. I couldn't have agreed more. Who would have thought little me would have such a huge baby?
Then my family and Josh's family got to meet baby Oliver Wyrick Ormond. They fell in love fast! I was still really thirsty and they slowly brought me baby cups of juice. I got moved to my postpartum room around 8 PM and I was starving! I hadn't had food in 23 hours! If you haven't noticed, food and drinks are kind of a big deal to me.
I think it was finally around midnight by the time the nurses were done checking me and Oliver and helping me feed Oliver. I was so tired and so ready for sleep.
That was the day my life REALLY changed. Welcome Ollie to our life and your life.
