I can’t believe our little baby Oliver has been in our lives for 9 days already! This week has felt extremely long at points, yet I am shocked that it has been almost 10 days that we have been parents. Obviously so much has changed; however there is still so much that still feels normal. Our little nugget fits right into our lives like he was meant to be here all along. And honestly he was.
On september 6th, I went in for my 39th week check up and I had mentioned to the doctor that I had been feeling baby move a little less than usual. With concern, she made an immediate appointment for me to go to the high risk pregnancy center. Later that day, I went in for fetal monitoring and an ultrasound to check on how baby was doing. During that appointment, they discovered that my amniotic fluid was extremely low. They told me to come back in on Friday to check my fluid levels again. The nurse kindly advised that I have my bags packed and ready at that appointment because she had a feeling they would induce me that day.
It turned out that the nurse was right! Friday morning we went in for our high risk appointment, and they noticed I had barely any fluid left and that it wasn’t safe for baby to be in there much longer. They told me to drive directly to the hospital to be induced. I was extremely nervous once we got into the hospital room. It seemed weird knowing my fate without feeling the symptoms yet.
Around 10:00am that morning they inserted something to help my cervix soften to prepare for delivery. And it was then that the 18 hour labor began. My body took to the medication very well and I started contracting almost immediately. Coming in only two minutes apart, they continued for hours on end. Despite the constant contractions, my body did not want to dilate. They ended up giving me my epidural around the 10 hour mark since my body was contracting, but I was still only dilated 3-4 cm. I was not the biggest fan of the epidural. Obviously, I am thankful that it helped the pain of the contractions, but I was super nauseous and hated not having any control over my legs. They decided to put me on a low dosage of pictocin and that helped to sped up the process. But it wasn’t until they realized there was a small bag of water that was still there preventing me from dilating that we made real progress. They broke the bag and we were on our way. Around 3:30am, I felt the urge to push. I knew baby was ready to come out and I told the nurses it was time. We did some practice pushing while waiting for the doctor to deliver another baby. But baby was ready and so was I! The nurses told me that I was pushing so well that I needed to stop because the doctor was not ready to deliver.
Waiting for the doctor to come in was extremely frustrating. It is very difficult to tell your body not to do something that it is ready to do. When he finally arrived we had that baby out in just a couple of pushes, bringing baby into the world at 4:26am. The parts that followed were very hard. It is so painful to have the doctors and nurses pushing on you to get the placenta out and “fixing you up” after delivery. I was in so much pain that it was really difficult to take in my baby boy. It really wasn’t until we got to the recovery room that I felt well enough to really take everything in. I didn’t have that emotional moment until a little later. Once we were settled in our new room, I finally got to take in the beauty of my new baby boy. My little Oliver was 6 lbs 13oz and 19 1/2 inches long.
The physical recovery of delivery is more difficult than I expected, but the joy of having a little baby in my life has been more profound than I could have ever imagined. It truly is amazing that we are given this unconditional love for our children without even trying. We love you little boy. Welcome to the world.
P.S these photos were taken only a few hours after he was born. Little man was brand new!
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