Olive was born on March 14th, 2019 at 2:11 AM, weighing in at 8 lbs, 13 oz and 22 inches long. But let’s rewind a week or so because a LOT happened before this little girl decided it was time to make her entrance into the world. Read her full birth story below (and you can read more about my pregnancy journey here).
The Ultimate Waiting Game
March 9th was my actual due date and my doctor had given me the option (a few weeks earlier) to be induced on the 6th or the 13th. After sleeping on it, I decided to wait until the 13th because I really wanted to experience labor and the later date gave me a better chance at that. I went to work as normal until Friday, March 8th without ANY signs of labor (part of me was grateful for that because I kept having this vision my water would break in the middle of a meeting).
Every day, I’d wake up thinking today would be the day this little person would decide they were ready to join us, but NOPE. Nothing. I’d also tried all the old wives tales of eating spicy food, drinking raspberry leaf tea, sex, pumping, and who knows what else, in order to induce labor. I was desperate to not be pregnant anymore! At this point, we were past my due date and Andrew and I would only leave the house if we had to do something really important, like eat! I was getting more and more swollen, and much less patient. I think my exact words were “it’s time for this baby to evacuate.” Luckily, there was an end in sight no matter how cozy this babe was in there.
I took the photo on the left at 40 weeks, and the photo on the right is the night we checked into the hospital on Tuesday, March 12th. Putting it nicely, I was definitely ready to pop.
Labor and Delivery
Since I hadn’t experienced any signs of real labor and I still wasn’t dilated (my cervix was softened), my doctor had me check in to the hospital on Tuesday night in order to get ready to deliver on Wednesday when she was on call. You guys, I was SO excited to check into that hospital it was sickening. Andrew and I hit up Wendy’s for my last meal, said goodbye to our dog, Marshall, and hit the road. I couldn’t wait to not be pregnant in ten-twelve hours! Oh boy, was I sadly mistaken about how long my labor would take. Which reminds me, try to stay open-minded when it comes to your delivery. I didn’t have a ‘birth plan’ and I’m glad I didn’t because I would have been very disappointed when the next few days played out how they did.
At 6:30 pm on Tuesday night, I got undressed and cozied up in my new outfit for the next four days, the dreaded hospital gown. Now, some girls will tell you that they wore a cute nightie or robe for this experience, and believe me, I had every intention to look presentable, but I didn’t have time for that. About five minutes after getting settled into our room, the nurses told me I wasn’t allowed to get back up. My blood pressure had skyrocketed to 190/110. If you know anything about blood pressures, that’s really bad. Like seizure level bad, and I was walking around days earlier feeling like crap because I thought that was normal, but it turns out, this is called pre-eclampsia (if you’re seeing spots, having bad headaches, right side pain, or are extremely swollen, these are all signs). I was immediately given the worst drug you could be put on during labor, which is called Magnesium. It makes you really hot and uncomfortable, as if I wasn’t already feeling that way, it was amplified by 1,000 times.
Now that I was sufficiently uncomfortable on bed rest, and begging my sweet husband to get me ice chips every five minutes, the nurses told me it was time for the balloon. I’m sorry, what? No one told me about this!! Because I wasn’t dilated yet, I had to have a balloon catheter inserted in order to manually dilate me. It does exactly what you’d think, which is expand inside of you and then once it’s big enough, it falls out, but it can take up to six hours. They asked me if I wanted drugs first (not an epidural quite yet), and of course I screamed yes. They gave me what felt like five shots of tequila straight to my head and then proceeded. I tried so hard to be strong but this was the most painful thing I’ve experienced, even with the drugs. Around 4 am on Wednesday morning, the balloon finally fell out – it took the full six hours to dilate me to 4 cm. Lovely.
I spent the entire day on Wednesday just waiting to dilate to 10 cm while Andrew made about 100 trips to the ice machine for me (I’ve never loved him and ice so much). Both our parents arrived early in the morning, assuming this baby was coming sometime by the afternoon. My doctor’s shift started at 7 am, so she would come and check on me, but progress was slow and she was long gone by the time I delivered (thank god one of our friends told us to bring our Apple TV because we watched movies all day long! At least if I was on bed rest, we could watch Happy Gilmore).
Finally, around 11 pm that night, I was 10 cm and ready to push! Now, remember how I said I was put on Magnesium? A side effect of the drug is that it slows everything down, which also means it slows down contractions. Most women will contract every 3-5 minutes when they’re ready to push, so it goes relatively quickly. Not me!! I was only contracting every 8-10 minutes, so I pushed for a solid 3.5 hours before Olive was born. And it felt great. Honestly, I enjoyed that part (but I was also delusional)! When Olive was finally born, they put her on my chest, but immediately had to take her away because she wasn’t crying. That was a minute that felt like a lifetime for Andrew and myself, we were terrified she wasn’t breathing. But, it turns out she was feeling all the effects of my drugs and had a lot of built up fluid inside. The nurses fixed her right up and gave her back to me, screaming and all.
Postpartum
That morning, we didn’t get to the postpartum room until 5 am, and Andrew and I have never felt so sleep deprived in our entire lives. We hadn’t actually slept since Monday and it was Thursday! The nurse began to show me how to breastfeed and Andrew still hadn’t left my side, but I could see him starting to doze while standing up. Not good. We were exhausted and this lady was trying to put Olive on my boob now?! Come on. Doesn’t she know what we’ve been through? Those next few days were miserable in postpartum. I was still on bed rest so I had to rely on Andrew for everything (he became an expert diaper changer really quick), but we survived, and my love for him grew even more, which I didn’t think was possible.
I’ve said this before, but it’s really important to take care of yourselves during those first few weeks, ladies. Accept all the help that you can, let friends come over and do the dishes or clean while you nap with the baby. You won’t be back to your normal self for a little bit, so relax and don’t worry about the chores for now. If you’re breastfeeding, it will consume your newfound mom life, and it’s hard work. Olive was feeding every two hours and I’m not ashamed to say that there were days/times I gave her formula just because I was so frustrated that she was hungry again. I’m only a few weeks into it, but it’s already getting easier, so don’t give up and try to stay calm. You just birthed a human for goodness sake! xoxo
What I Actually Used in My Hospital Bag
Here are what I think are the most important items you’ll need for yourself, dad, and baby.
You (Mom):
- Overnight bag
- Your own pillow and blanket
- 3 -4 pairs of cozy socks (push socks are a great gift)
- Hands-free pumping bra – MUST purchase
- 2 – 3 nursing bras
- 1-2 nursing tank tops
- Nipple butter
- Loose pants, like these joggers
- A cardigan
- Chapstick
- Phone charger
- Dry Shampoo, Face wipes, toothbrush/toothpaste
- Camera (if you have one) – we didn’t do hospital photos because we had scheduled our own in-home session, so it was nice to take a few photos ourselves in the hospital
- If you’re doing photos in the hospital, bring something to wear
- Snacks – once you’re allowed to eat again, you’ll be ravenous
What You Don’t Need:
- Underwear – you’ll end up wearing the mesh panties from the hospital (steal as many pairs as you can for home, I lived in these for a solid four days afterwards)
- *NOTE TO SELF: make sure you have lots of pads at home if you are delivering vaginally. I didn’t think about this in advance, so we had to go to CVS the minute we got home.
- Flip flops, towel, shower necessities, unless you plan to shower (I didn’t shower and I was there for four days)
- Robe – interchangeable with a cardigan
Dad:
- Pillow and warm blanket
- Apple TV hookup
- 2 changes of clothes
- Pajamas
- Phone charger
- Computer
- Toothbrush/toothpaste
Baby:
- Outfit/props if you’re doing photos in the hospital
- Going home outfit (including a hat)
- 2 blankets
- Velcro Swaddle
- Boppy pillow
- Car seat
- Shusher
- Burp rags
Check out Laura’s hospital bag + post delivery experience here.
