Oliver's Birth Story
Saturday, April 16, 2016
My mom got into town the night before so we decided to have
a girl’s day. We went and had our nails and toes done and I jokingly said to
the lady giving me a pedicure, “can you hit a pressure point to start labor?”
She laughed and I said, “I’m due on Friday so feel free to do it!” After that
appointment we went to Magnolia Foods and had lunch.
Sunday, April 17, 2016
I woke up at 6 a.m. with contractions. I started timing them
while in bed and everyone was still sleeping. At 7:30 a.m. they were between
6-7 minutes a part. Joseph rolled over and said “what are you doing awake?” and
I said, “oh, just having contractions.” We got up and Joseph immediately
started getting stuff done around the house: mowing the yard, cleaning, grocery
shopping, gassing up and cleaning out our car, installing the car seat, and the
list goes on. Consistent 6-7 minute contractions continued until about 1:30 p.m.,
then they started to space out. I would have one every 30 minutes or so. I
decided to go take a nap. I woke up a few hours later and we went for a walk
through our neighborhood with Harlow in the wagon. It did nothing. Finally
around 8:30 p.m. they started up again, this time more intense. This continued
all the way until 11 p.m. and I decided to get a shower to get ready to head in
to the hospital. I called the midwife on call and it was Julia, she was one of
my favorite midwives (and delivered Harlow), and she said to come in since they were 4-5 minutes a part
and I was in pain. I check in to Virginia Baptist Hospital and they examine me, I’m
at 2cm. I was holding back tears, how could I be in so much pain and at a 2?!
Julia gave me two options – 1. Walk the halls of the hospital for two hours or
2. Go back home to try and sleep with a Benadryl. We decided to go home and try
to sleep. “Try” being the key word because I didn’t sleep at all but Joe was
able to get a few hours in.
Monday, April 18, 2016
Finally at around 2:30 a.m. the pain was so bad (I was
crying at this point) we headed back to the hospital. Julia saw me as I was
walking in and said “see, you look completely different this time. Let’s get
you settled in.” She examines me and I’m 4cm. She said “see, within a few hours
you’ve progressed that much!” This was a relief and I was ready for the
epidural. The anesthesiologist was called and they said to expect a 20-30
minute wait. The glorious moment arrived when he walked through the door and he
set everything up and gave me the epidural. I felt relief within 10 minutes.
By now it was close to 7 a.m. and it was finally time to get some sleep. The nurses would come in to check my blood
pressure (it dropped low several times) and also to rotate me left to right –
because they don’t like you to be on one side the whole time. By this time
Julia was ending her shift, which I was sad about but the new midwife just
happened to be my second favorite, Erin Baird. At 1 p.m. Erin checked me and I
was at a 6 and contractions still weren’t as close as they wanted them to be.
She suggested putting in just a little bit of Pitocin through my IV to start things and boy
did it ever. At 2 p.m. one of my nurses, Gaylene, came in to rotate me and she
said my water had broke. I had explained that my labor went FAST once my water
broke with Harlow, so she told me if I felt any pressure at all to hit the "call button" which would notify the
nurse immediately. I didn’t experience pressure with Harlow – I didn’t feel
anything at all so I was expecting the same experience. My mom was at home with
Harlow so I told Joe to call our friend Libby to relieve her because I wanted
her there for the birth. Libby got to our house and my mom headed to the
hospital. At 2:45 I looked at Joe and said I feel pressure. He said, “hit the
nurse button now.” Gaylene comes in and lifts up the blanket and says, “his
head is right here. It’s time” it was like déjà vu all over again! The same
thing happened with Harlow, except this time I could feel the pressure. She
immediately runs to the door and yells “I need the room set up in here!!” and
in flies eight people. They start to say, “where’s Erin?!” and they say “I
don’t know she’s no where to be seen” and Gaylene said “has someone paged her?”
and they all shake their head. She says, “well someone go page her now!” There
was an intern present who was training to be a midwife and she was telling me
not to push. That was the hardest thing to do because that’s all I wanted to
do. She said she had delivered a baby before but wanted Erin there. I wanted
Erin there too. Meanwhile they call in a doctor, my heart was racing because I
wanted Erin. In flies Erin and she’s trying to catch her breath. She had went
down to the cafeteria to get a drink and got the page. She said “well I got my
workout for the day, let’s do this.” She tells me to start pushing when I feel
pressure and I immediately start to feel it, it was 2:55 p.m. The room was
filled with nurses and two nurse interns from LU who had been monitoring me the
whole morning. Joe was holding one hand and the nurse intern was holding the
other. Erin then tells me to grab my thighs and that is when he started to come
down quickly. Each time I felt pressure I would give three big pushes. I looked
at “Erin and said I am so hungry. I can’t wait to eat.” She said, “Well you
only have a few pushes left.” With the last push (his head was out) Erin said,
“Ashley don’t even push, his body is coming out with the contraction on its
own.” At 3:09 p.m. Oliver was born, all 7 lbs. 4 oz. of him. I felt immediate
relief when he came out – I didn’t experience that with Harlow because I was so
numb. It was such an emotional moment. Even Ashley, the LU intern, was crying.
Joseph grabbed Oliver from Erin and put him on my chest. Our boy was here!
Gaylene made the comment “wow you weren’t kidding when you said you have fast
deliveries once your water breaks.” Literally two minutes after he was born in
walks my mom. She could hear him crying as she walked down the hallway to our
room. Oliver laid on my chest for an hour and nursed. After the skin on skin
they weighed him, measured him, and bathed him. Hannah, also an LU intern,
assisted with his bath and she cried. Both interns thanked me for letting them
have the opportunity to assist – it was Hannah’s 1st birth so that
was really special for her.
Around 4:30 p.m. we were moved to our room in mother/baby
and I enjoyed a cheese pizza, chips, and a chocolate shake. It tasted so good. My
mom stayed with me and Joe ran home to pickup big sister Harlow. She walked in
the room and said, “baby!” and started pointing out his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
We were discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, April 20,
2016.
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