Welcome Olivia Christiana

I got put on a waiting list to be induced, and settled in with much disappointment, expecting a long wait. Then at 7pm I got called in. They were going to attempt to induce me with a gel, which might or might not work. We considered me just running in by myself, but decided that just in case, we’d drop Nicole off at my SILs for the night so we didn’t have to drop her off in the middle of the night instead, and then brought the hospital bag just in case. The doctor measured me for dilation and said he had bad news and good news. Bad news, he wasn’t going to use the gel. Another downer. But the good news… I was far enough dilated that he was going to go ahead and just induce me with a drip! Provided, of course, there was a room available. “If there is no room for you in at the inn, you’ll have to come back tomorrow or something.” Well, obviously there was room for us! Hoorah! I have tricksey veins, so it took a total of four nurses a combined six attempts to get an IV in me. At this point I started having little contractions on my own, and my nurse and I were joking I’d be a failure as a drug addict. Somewhere around 11 or midnight they started me up with the induction drip, and I guess around an hour later they broke my water. Considering I was 10 days overdue, the doctor was thoroughly impressed/blown away with the sheer volume of that one. He pointed out we were pretty lucky that hadn’t happened at home. I was doing alright without pain meds til around 2:30, when I couldn’t keep myself calm enough to not want to thrash around and fight against my body. They were coming about two minutes apart at that point. We decided to go with an epidural, I felt since I wasn’t having the totally natural birth I had hoped for and I’d heard inductions can hurt more – and I don’t remember feeling the same level of pain during contractions during my back labor with Nicole – I didn’t feel bad about taking the epidural. I could still feel the contractions, so I didn’t get any real sleep, but I did take cat naps in between. For probably around an hour and a half to two hours my contractions went down to every five minutes.Eventually I decided walking around might get things going again, so I decided to go to the washroom. I decided right. Things progressed really quickly after that. Suddenly I decided I would accept the offer to up my epidural, so the nurse decided to check me before they did that, since that would have me bedridden. Surprise, I was suddenly fully dilated and ready to push! I decided at this point that I had changed my mind and would like to go home, but nobody took me seriously. I also stopped breathing silently through my contractions and switched to nearly sobbing. Pushing is not my favourite, and I did not want. I was told not to push, there was no chance my midwife would make it in to assist but the goal was to get the doctor there. I pointed out that my body was pushing even if I didn’t want it to.  I managed to kindof breathe/sob/hyperventilate/breathe again through that contraction, and the doctor showed up. Next time I got to push. If I could have thought of swears I probably would have gone with that, mostly I just tried to argue but nobody was really game. She came really quickly, a few pushes and she was out, which is great. I hate the pushing. She came really quickly so she wound up getting a pretty bruised little face. The doctor quipped that you could play jump rope with the impressively long umbilical cord, about which Chris decided last minute he would go with his initial decision to pass on doing the cutting.Olivia Christiana was born 6:03am, November 16, 2010. She was 9lbs 5oz and measured in at 22 inches. Comparatively, Nicole was 8lb 10oz and 21.5”… she had skinny little stick legs where Olivia has the chubbiest little thunderthighs I’ve ever seen on a newborn.  She also has one dimple to Nicole’s two, the exact same pout and facial expressions, a full head of dark hair, and a storkbite to match her big sister’s. Nicole is absolutely in love, very excited that their Bringing Home Baby outfits matched. She sat beside her on the drive home and stared lovingly at her, stroking her hand occasionally and whispering lovey things to her, or commenting that she had a nose or ears. Chris is happy to be at home with his girls, although Nicole is back at my sister in law’s for a few days. Since he goes back to work tomorrow, he was quick to take on the role he has been looking forwards to for months now… Baby Napping Partner. (she is already starting to look less bruised here.)

I am of course a little sore and alternately sleepy and full of energy. I’m very pleased to have regained full use of my bladder, and very excited to enter this next phase in our family’s life. :)