Olivia Cate's Birth Story

My sweet and feisty Olivia Cate will be two next Thursday and I thought that after two whole years, it’s high time that I sit down and write her birth story.  Fortunately I made notes just after her birth, because I’m sure a lot of the little details would have slipped my mind if I hadn’t.

I left off from her pregnancy story by saying that we had scheduled a c-section for her delivery on February 25, 2014.

Jacob had spent the night with my parents the night before because Brian and I had to arrive at the hospital at 6 AM.  We drove to the hospital in the dark – it was quick and easy because there aren’t many people on the road before 6 AM on a random Tuesday, or any day of the week for that matter.

When we arrived, we checked in and they asked us to sit in the waiting room until the nurse came to get us.  The waiting room was completely empty, so Brian and I sat down and hung out, just the two of us.  I remember thinking how weird it was that we were just sitting around all calm and relaxed as if we weren’t about to have a baby.   

We barely waited five minutes in the waiting room before they called us back.  We went to a small prep room where I changed into my hospital gown (it was pink!), went to the bathroom, and then they started my IV.  My veins are always pesky little buggers and they tend to roll, so several of them busted before they finally got one in that stayed.  I’m pretty much used to that happening, but it still stinks having an arm full of bruises when you leave the hospital.    

Once the IV was in, they gave me a tiny shot glass of fluid that neutralizes stomach acid.  I’m assuming that they do this for all c-sections, but who knows.  It was sour and gross, but fortunately there wasn’t much to it and it went right down. 

My c-section was scheduled to be the first one of the day, beginning between 7 and 7:30 AM, but just when it was almost time for me to go back, my midwife came in to tell me that there was an emergency with another patient and that they were heading back right then to perform an emergency c-section for her.

And so the waiting game began…

Until that point I had been calm and cool as a cucumber because everything was progressing properly and there were plenty of things that needed to be done that kept me busy to pass the time.  Well, I suddenly found myself with approximately an hour and a half of spare time to fill, but I was already hooked up to an IV, so there wasn’t much that I could do.  Naturally, my mind started to wander and I started getting a bit anxious. 

I managed to keep my nerves in check and Brian and I chatted to pass the time.  My mom and dad arrived with Jacob and they brought him in to see me, so that helped, but when they found out that it was going to be a while, they left to take him to Dunkin Donuts so he wouldn’t get bored in the waiting room.  I gave him his last squeeze as an only child, and he practically skipped outta there… he loves donuts!

Around 9-ish or so, my midwife finally came back in and let me know that we were on!  Showtime!

They wheeled me down the hall in my hospital bed into the brightest, most sterile, FREEEEZING-EST room I’ve ever seen, and they told me that Brian wouldn’t be allowed in the room until I was prepped and ready to go.  Oh jeez. 

The next few minutes were a bit of a blur… I had to sit on the side of the bed and hunch over so they could do the spinal, and then they laid me down on a board and shimmied me off and onto the OR table.  If you’ve never been transported from table to table like that, then you have no idea what a weird situation that is!  I was complete dead weight and it felt like they were going to drop me straight on the floor.  But of course they didn’t.

Once the meds started working their magic, I started shaking uncontrollably – practically convulsing – which I was told is common, so they put a warm blanket over me.  That helped settle me down, but then I had several strong waves of nausea, which made me feel terrible.  The doctors assured me that it was all totally normal, and that it was just my body reacting to the medicine. 

My entire right side numbed up right away like it was supposed to, but my left side was incredibly stubborn.  The doctor and my midwife poked all up and down my right leg and torso and I didn’t feel a thing, but when they started poking my left leg and torso I could feel every little bit of it.  They waited a few minutes and started poking again, but I could still feel everything.  My midwife and doctor gave each other the side eye and I immediately started to worry.  They stayed calm, announced that we would all just wait a few minutes for the left side to catch up, and they started chatting casually while they waited.  After about two minutes, the doctor took the forceps and pinched my leg (not hard to cause pain) while they were still talking to see if I would notice. 

I did. 

And I told him, “I can feel you pinching me right now.” 

He looked flabbergasted. 

Finally finally a few minutes later, my entire left side numbed up, they let Brian in the room, and we were ready to go!  And believe me, they poked and pinched the stew out of my entire lower body to make sure that I was 100% numb.  I was so thankful that the spinal had worked because I did not want to be put to sleep to give birth to my daughter. 

Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever had a c-section, or what you’ve ever heard about them if you haven’t had one, but jeez, what people had told me could not be further from the truth.  I know plenty of people who have had c-sections and all of them told me that you don’t really feel that much… you know, maybe just a little bit of tugging here and there and that’s about it. 

Wrong. 

I’m here to tell you, that is not remotely what it was like for me.  The cutting open wasn’t bad at all – I only felt a bit of pressure during that part, but when they pulled Olivia out – I was in complete and utter shock.  It literally felt like they were pulling all of my insides out.  I felt like I had demons coming out of me or something.  It totally freaked me out and a couple of times I thought I was going to faint.  I can remember people (nurses?  Brian?) asking me if I was OK, but they sounded far away.  I remember groaning and tensing up and praying for it to be over.  I’m sure it didn’t take that long for them to pull her out, but it felt like an eternity. 

I hate to be melodramatic and I hate to scare anyone who may have to do this in the future, but it was the weirdest, most unpleasant (to say the least) sensation I’ve ever experienced in my life.  However, even though it was so traumatic at the time, I recovered almost immediately emotionally, and I would do it all over again if I had to.

Once all 8 lbs. 4 oz. and 21.5 inches of Olivia was out (at 9:33 AM to be exact), Brian cut the umbilical cord and then they took her to the other side of the OR to make sure that she was healthy and perfect.  I could hear her loud cries and I immediately forgot about all of the craziness that I had just been through.  All I wanted in that moment was to see my precious baby.

Brian and one of the nurses carried her over to me as the doctor and midwife continued stitching, and they held her to my face so I could see her.  I cried tears of joy.  It was one of the very best moments of my entire life.  

After they were done stitching, I was wheeled into a recovery room where they placed Olivia in my arms for the first time.  I immediately nursed her and she took to it right away.  She nursed for about 45 minutes while I marveled at her tiny hands and her button nose and the smattering of wispy dark brown hair that formed a tiny little mohawk on the top of her precious little head.  It was love at first sight and I felt an immediate connection with her.  Like I had known her my entire life. 

When she was done nursing, they gave her a bath next to a little tub of water beside my bed, and then they wheeled us into our room.  I wasn’t quite ready to share her yet, but everyone had been waiting longer than expected due to the emergency c-section that had gone before me, so we told the nurses to send them in.

My parents brought Jacob in, along with my two brothers, my sister-in-law, one of my uncles, my grandmother, and Brian’s parents.  I was ecstatic to introduce our sweet Olivia to everyone, and everyone’s faces reflected the same love that I was experiencing.

Brian carried Jacob over to meet Olivia first, and he peeked at her while she laid in her bed.  My dad picked her up first, to hold her up for Jacob to see, and then Brian helped Jacob hold her.  In that moment I thought that my heart was going to burst.  

After the introductions were over, we let Jacob open his gift from Olivia – a Mater pillow (from the movie Cars), and then Jacob wanted to give Olivia her gift that he had picked out for her just a few short weeks before - a stuffed pink sheep. 

Waterworks.  

It was a joyful day!  Once it was over I felt amazing – alert, not much pain, and not at all exhausted like I was after 18 hours of labor with Jacob.  The spinal started wearing off shortly after we got to our room, and I was incredibly relieved to feel my toes and legs again.

Later that evening I started to get a headache, which turned out to be a spinal headache… if you haven’t ever had one of those, consider yourself lucky.  It was hands down the worst pain I’ve ever had in my life.  They made me chug a Coke for the caffeine, they put me on some major painkillers that made me sleep really hard, and they made me lay flat on my back.  Lying flat on your back is the only way to fix a spinal headache (aside from doing a blood patch, which we wanted to avoid at all costs) because it helps the spinal fluid spread out evenly over your spinal cord which helps to patch the hole. 

I was told that spinal headaches only happen in 1% of c-sections, so as with my first birth with Jacob when I had my nerve damage, I was the freak-of-nature who fell in the 1% again.  Jeez. 

The spinal headache lasted for seven days, but it felt fine as long as I was lying flat on my back, so I spent most of the first seven days of Olivia’s life lying flat like a baby… just like her!  Haha. 

Once the headache was gone, the recovery from my c-section was easy peasy.  The pain of the headache was worse than the pain in my abdomen for the first seven days, and then after that first week, the pain in my abdomen wasn’t even that bad anymore.  I healed very quickly, and within about two weeks I was walking around comfortably and even wanting to start doing some light work outs (which I was obviously forbidden).  

Even though I experienced all of those crazy feelings during the c-section and then experienced the spinal headache, I still consider the overall experience to have been quite easy.  And I got a gorgeous new baby girl out of it, so you don’t even need to bother to ask me if it was all worth it.  It was all worth it a million times over!

Olivia Cate, you have completed our little family and made us whole.  We will be forever grateful for every second we have with you.

*Linking up with Home of Malones for Thoughts for Thursday.

Jacob Brian's Birth Story

On the eve of Jacob’s birthday, I thought I would continue where I left off from his pregnancy story and share his birth story here on the blog as well.  Very fitting since we all expected his birthday to be 7/22 anyway.   

On the morning of July 22, 2011 (I was seven days overdue, but who was counting?!), Brian and I headed to the hospital for induction.  We had to check in super early – 6 AM – which was fine since I had slept like a rock the night before.  You would think that I would have been too excited or too nervous to sleep knowing that we were going in for an induction the next day, but as always, I could have slept through an earthquake.  I can’t speak for Brian, but I arrived at the hospital very well rested. 

By 6:30 AM I was in a hospital gown, my IV was in, and they had started the Pitocin.  Brian’s mom came to visit that morning, sitting and chatting with us, and distracting me from the minor contractions I was already having.  Around noon, Brian’s dad brought Chick-fil-A up for the two of them for lunch.  I, of course, wasn’t allowed to eat, but fortunately for them, I wasn’t hungry, so I didn’t have to kick them out while they ate.  ;o)

During their lunch, my parents also stopped in to say hello, and my contractions started getting harder.  I would like to think that I have a pretty decent tolerance for pain, but I probably don’t, and by 1 PM I was begging for an epidural.  Well, little did I know, you have to wait forever to get the epidural once you ask for it, so I had to man-up and ride out the contractions for a couple more hours without any relief.  I can remember clinging to the right arm rail on the bed, praying for the pain to ease up. 

I don’t remember exactly how much time went by until the anesthesiologist finally waltzed in, (probably a couple of hours?) but I was about ready to punch him in the face by the time he got there.  

I was terrified of getting the epidural, but the pain was so bad, that easing the pain totally trumped all of my other worries.  The anesthesiologist had me sit on the side of the bed and lean over to put the epidural in.  I don’t honestly remember how it felt, but I don’t think that it hurt too terribly.  And once it was in, I felt amazing!  It was pure euphoria.  After eight hours of contractions, I finally had some relief! 

My midwife stopped in periodically throughout the rest of the afternoon to see how much I was dilated, but it was extremely slow-going.  Later in the afternoon, she came in and broke my water to speed things up, and after the fluid had drained, she felt around on my belly and told us that she thought he felt like he weighed around eight pounds.  Eight pounds?  I could do that! 

Around 6 PM, my epidural started wearing off on my left side, so they gave me a re-dose.  They also gave me a handheld control that I could use to send more medicine to the epidural.  Well, the contractions were coming fast and furious by then, and I could feel everything down my left side.  I was furiously pushing the button over and over to increase the medicine flow to my epidural, when they burst my bubble and told me that the medicine would only come out every fifteen minutes so I couldn’t overdose myself.  Bummer.   

Finally, finally at 8 PM, my midwife came in and told me that it was time to push.  With the very first push Jacob went into serious distress and they had to stop the Pitocin to slow the contractions.  Someone went to prep an operating room just in case they needed to do an emergency c-section, and they assured me that they could get me to the OR and have Jacob out within just a couple of minutes if they needed to.   

Thankfully, Jacob stabilized quickly and after about an hour of resting, they started the Pitocin again.  At 9:30 PM, my midwife told me that it was time to start pushing again, but she said that if the baby went into distress again, they were going to perform an emergency c-section.   

I was so nervous to push again, but thankfully, Jacob’s heartbeat stayed nice and strong.  I pushed, and I pushed, and I pushed.  For three whole hours I pushed with my legs in the lithotomy position.  I had excruciating pain in my left hip (at the very top of the front of my leg, right where it connects to the pelvis) the entire time and I can remember begging to straighten out my leg.  The nurses, however, told me that if I put my leg down, Jacob could go back up the birth canal and I would undo some of the progress that I had already made. 

It was time to man-up and push through the pain.   

At this point, I had been in labor for 15 hours with no food or drink, and ice chips just weren’t cutting it anymore.  Not in the least.  All I could think about was having something to drink.  And what did I want?  Sprite.  Sprite?!  First of all, I rarely drink any carbonated beverages, and second of all, Sprite?!  I never drink Sprite.  Personally, I’m a Root Beer girl.  Brian told me that at some point during the pushing phase I even told him, “I want a Sprite almost as much as I want my baby.”  That was one hard-core craving. 

A little after midnight, after I had been pushing for 2.5 hours, my midwife finally told me that she was only going to allow three more pushes, and if I couldn’t get him out they were going to have to do an emergency c-section.  Well, I would be damned if anyone was going to do a c-section after I had already done all of that work, so I pushed like madwoman (probably similar to birth scenes in the movies), and on the very last push that I was allowed, he finally came out.  Talk about cutting it close… 

At 12:34 AM on July 23, 2011, after 18 hours of labor (three of which were spent pushing), my precious little Jacob Brian was here.  And he was perfect. 

Brian cut the umbilical cord and my midwife immediately laid him on my chest.  It was truly love at first sight.  He was a little banged up from being in the birth canal for so long, but he was healthy and he was huge – 9 lbs. 6 oz.  I still cannot believe to this day that I pushed a 9 lb. 6 oz. baby out of me.  So much for only being 8 pounds!    

After bonding with him for a few minutes, the nurses took Jacob to the other side of the room to get cleaned up, and my midwife worked to get me ready for visitors.  While she worked, I chugged two entire Sprites.  It was the best thirst-quenching I’ve ever experienced in my life, and I don’t think that anything will ever be quite as satisfying as those two Sprites were. 

Once the nurses were done with Jacob’s measurements and testing, we were finally reunited with all of our family who had been hanging around all day in the waiting room.  All of our parents, our siblings, our nieces and nephews, my grandparents, my aunt and uncle...  I couldn’t believe that everyone had stayed this whole time!  It was already after 1 AM! 

It was such a joy to see everyone and it was especially great to see my parents hold their first grandbaby for the first time.  Everyone stayed long enough to hold Jacob and to give us hugs and kisses, and then we were left alone as a family of three for the first time ever. 

Right after everyone left, I nursed Jacob for the first time.  He latched on immediately and ate like a champ for over an hour!  It was definitely a success.  The rest of the night was a blur – typical hospital activities, nurses in and out of the room, feedings, trying to get a little sleep.  Jacob was extremely upset that we had forced him out of his cozy little home in my belly, and he was very fussy all night.  I had vowed not to give him a pacifier too early on because I didn’t want it to interfere with his latch, but after hours of fussing and pure exhaustion, we gave in and let the nurse bring a paci for him.  He took to it immediately and we finally had some peace.

Childbirth was, by far, the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life, and my body took quite a beating from it, but the reward was the best thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life.  I would do it all over again to have that precious boy.  And tomorrow we are going to spend the entire day celebrating these best four years of our lives with the little man who made it all possible. 

Happy Birthday Eve, Jacob.