Oliver Meets His Family

This may be more than some of you want to know so feel free to skip down to the pictures. I just wanted to be sure our little family has a record of all of this.

Of course after my doctor set my induction date, and we were feeling like we had time to prepare ourselves, I started having contractions Saturday night. They were really irregular until Sunday night, then they came every 15 minutes. We debated about what to do because we didn't want to wake up friends in the middle of the night to watch Creed if we didn't have to so we decided to ask Scott and Whitney to come over and watch Creed around 8 pm so we could head to the hospital, and I could be checked. We were fairly certain that I would be sent home, but then we would have a better idea of where I was, and if we would have to come back in the middle of the night. Creed was perfectly content to let us go.

After walking around and being checked, my contractions were every 6 - 7 minutes apart and they sent me home with directions to come back after they are about every five minutes apart for at least an hour. That was a little frustrating.

We went home, settled Creed in bed around midnight and Larry fell asleep with him. My contractions continued all night, getting stronger and they did get to every five minutes apart so after an hour, I tried to wake Larry and he was completely out. I decided to wait a little longer and let things progress a little further, and my contractions went back to every 7 minutes. Ahhh! I finally crawled into bed around five and tried to get a little sleep, but got back up by 7:00 because it hurt too much to sleep.

By the time Larry got up, I was back to contractions every fifteen minutes so I told Larry to go ahead and go in to work for the morning. All day Monday and late into the night I had contractions every fifteen minutes. I finally fell asleep around 2:30 in the morning, only to wake up by 5:00 because the contractions were too much to handle. From 5 am to 10 am, I was back to contractions every ten minutes. They weren't getting any closer together, but they were incredibly painful. I tried everything I could think of to get through them, but each one still brought tears. By 11:00 I called my Dr's office and explained it had been three days of regular contractions, they weren't getting any closer together, but they were incredibly painful, and I didn't know what to do. They said, "Three days? Go to the hospital immediately!"

We sent Creed to a neighbor's and we got to the hospital around 11:30. They were doubtful that I was ready to stay but checked me before they were ready to send me home. Then I got a strange look. The nurse said, "Uh, you are not having contractions every ten minutes; you are having contractions every two minutes, but you have monster contractions every ten minutes, and that's what you are counting." They gave me an ultrasound to find out what was going on and the baby was head down, but facing the wrong way, causing back labor. After that, everyone who came to check on me mentioned how that made the pain feel so much worse and that made me feel like a little less of a wimp.

We went into a room and started antibiotics for strep and let those run long enough to get into the baby's system. After three attempts at an epidural, I got one that worked and then they started the pitocin. I was at a six at that point, but within half an hour I was ready to push. Then the baby's heart rate was decelerating and things got a little scary with lots of people rushing into the room. They called for forceps and my doctor thought he was going to have to yank the baby out so he told me to push as hard as I possibly could and with the help of an episiotomy, he was out after three pushes. I pushed for over two hours with Creed so that rate amazed me and Larry.

The baby came out very purple, but after some rubbing, he finally started to breathe only to stop again as soon as they handed him to me. After more rubbing and warming and oxygen, he was ok and we were relieved.

He weighed in at 6 lbs. 12 oz. and we named him Oliver (Although the middle name is still pending).
He also has a head full of hair that sticks up all over the place.
Maybe he still has some drugs in his system, but he is so very calm compared to Creed. Even the pediatrician commented on what a calm little guy he seems to be so far. He snorts like a pig quite often, and Larry and I both think it's adorable. It's so nice to finally have a chance to get to know him better.
Larry was incredibly supportive, and going through experiences like this just makes me love him even more.


In honor of the Olympics, one of the nurses gave Ollie this little hat that she made, and he looks so cute in it!
More updates to come soon, I promise!