So after work on Friday, we went out for Chinese hoping the salt would coax baby out. As our middle of the night on call person was gone, my parents were set to arrive later that evening.
Early Saturday morning, around 3:30 a.m. I woke up with some pretty intense contractions. These contractions were different than what I had felt earlier in the week. These were lower in my pelvis. I stayed in bed until about 4:30 when they started to become really uncomfortable lying down. When I got up, I started timing them and they were pretty consistent. Then after about an hour they died down. In effort to keep them going, Shaun and I took Sadie for a walk. It did not help much. I was down to a few sporadic contractions.
So we had breakfast with Tavin and my parents. Then my mom and I went to a garage sale. I had a few contractions while out and about and they were starting to get more intense. When we got home, I did some laundry and played outside with Tavin. During some of the contractions, Tavin was quite concerned as to why I was doubled over, but Shaun reassured him that "mom was thinking."
At around 11 a.m. I had some bloody show. The contractions were still inconsistent, anywhere from 5-10 to 15-20 minutes apart. I went and talked to Shaun and told him it was time to go in. We decided to wait until after lunch. Unfortunately, the lunch my mom was making wasn't going to be ready until almost 1 p.m. My mom rushed some of the lunch to get done and I was eating around Noon. The contractions continued to get stronger.
By the time we left the house, it was closer to 12:45. I had a few contractions in the car (=hell) and the walk to the hospital (due to construction) felt like an eternity. After getting checked in and changed into the hospital gown, the nurse checked me. She said I was 5 cm and pretty stretchy. She commented that my doctor would likely break my water to speed up the birthing.
When my doctor arrived and checked me, I was 7 cm. She broke my water and the contractions intensified and were coming right on top of each other. While I was breathing through the contractions, they were trying to get the saline lock/IV put in. Yeah that was not fun either!
About a half hour after the doctor broke my water, I was ready to push!! Baby descended quickly and after about 15 minutes of pushing (compared to 2 hours with Tavin), baby was born!!!
And it's a GIRL!!!!
It only took 4 hours to decide on her name. We screened all the names (Vivian, Isabella, Addison, and Olivia) through Tavin and after we told him all of them, he shouted "Livie". So Olivia it was!
Our first picture as a family of 4!
Olivia Jean was born on May 3 at 2:42 p.m. Weighing 7 lb 6.9 oz and 20 inches long!
