Olivia's Birth Story

Friday, April 13, 2012:

The day started off like any other day. I decided I was going to work from home so I got ready and began working. For the past two days I had noticed a small pain in my upper abdomen. I didn't think anything of it since it only hurt when you'd press on the spot, kind of like a bruise. I figured that's all it was. I hadn't mentioned anything to anyone and had planned on not mentioning it. Jared and I decided to meet up for lunch so we went to Garbanzo and sat outside since it was such a nice afternoon. During lunch I rubbed my belly and realized the pain was still there. Not realizing what I was getting ready to say I mentioned it to Jared.....NOT what I had planned on doing. Of course Jared insisted that I call my doctor to see what was going on. At first I told him no because we were just being over paranoid but he continued to push the issue and I finally said I would call. We finished lunch and I made a call to the doctor. I talked with one of the nurses and she asked if she could call me back after the mid-wife got off the phone. 

We went about our afternoon and occasionally Jared would ask me to call the doctors office again because he was convinced they had forgotten about me. I told him I would call them again at 2:30 pm if they hadn't called me back. I kid you not 2:28 pm rolled around and Jared was on my case to all them again. I said they had 2 minutes left and low and behold at 2:29 pm the nurse called me back. She told me that she had discussed my symptoms with the mid-wife and they suggested I go ahead and go into labor and delivery just to get checked out. 

I hung up with the nurse told Jared what she had said and the whirlwind started. Jared kept telling me over and over we were going to have a baby! We quickly "cleaned" up the house and threw our bags in the car just to be safe. On the inside I was laughing because I knew we'd be home in a few short hours. 

We got to the hospital and they immediately put me in a triage room and was told to wait for the nurse to come in. Once she arrived I explained to her what had been going on and that my doctors office had suggested that I come in to get checked out. The nurse quickly got me hooked up to the fetal stress monitor to see how the baby was doing. Baby's heart beat was strong and she seemed very happy where she was at. They took my blood pressure, which was high, and had me give a urine sample. To my relief the sample came back free of protein - a sign of pre eclampsia. After hearing my sample was fine I was sure they'd send us home since baby was ok as well. The nurse told us they needed to take some blood work and depending on how that came back we'd know if we were staying or leaving.  Thus the waiting game began. 

Since I had no where to go I continued to finish up some work emails in the triage room, I figured I had time so why not. Jared began texting who knows who that we were at the hospital and that he thought we'd be having a baby. I politely kept reminding him that we'd be going home especially since they had yet to give me a wrist band, there was no protein in my urine, and baby's heartbeat was strong. The nurse kept checking on us and apologizing for the long wait. A few hours later she came back and had a wrist band with her. She proceeded to put it on me and told us that one of my labs came back a little off. She said she needed to discuss the results with the on-call doctor and that she'd be back shortly. Jared asked what that meant for us staying or leaving and she said it could go either way depending on the doctor. A few minutes later she came back and told us I wasn't going anywhere and that we'd be having a baby. Jared was beyond giddy and I was beyond shocked!

Waiting in triage to see if we were having a baby

The nurse gave us a few minutes to process what we had just been told and she instructed me to order dinner from the hospital cafe. I quickly called my mom and told her what was happening and that I wanted her to come to the hospital. As soon as phone calls and texts were sent, dinner was ordered and we were on our way to our labor and delivery room. I was hooked up to an IV and next we were meeting with the on-call doctor. She told us that two of my labs had come back poorly and that was why they decided it was time to induce. They said I was showing signs of pre pre eclampsia and since I was 38 weeks they weren't going to wait it out. She did tell us this was going to be a LONG process. She said she didn't see of having the baby that night, Phew....who wants a Friday the 13th baby, she didn't see us having the baby on the 14th even. Possibly the 15th or 16th if we were lucky! I was not a happy camper to hear that I might be in labor for 3 or 4 days! She explained that at 8:00 PM they would start the first round of Cervidil and depending on how my body reacted they would possibly start pitocin at 8:00 AM on Saturday, April 14th.  

My mom arrived at the hospital and before we knew it we were starting the first round of Cervidil. Since we knew nothing was going to be happening that night Jared went home to sleep and my mom stayed with me. I was encouraged to get some sleep but honestly who can sleep at a time like that? I should add that when I arrived at the hospital I was 60% effaced and totally closed. 

Saturday, April 14, 2012:

I made it through the night and by the morning they were telling me that once the shift change happened they would check me again and see what the new doctor wanted to do. I was checked by the new nurse and was still 60% effaced and had dilated to a whopping 1/2cm. Our new doctor decided to start pitocin to see if that would help me progress. She was nice enough to let me order breakfast before we started pitocin since I wouldn't be able to eat once we started. Around 10:00 AM pitocin was started. 

It took a little while but eventually I started to have a few little contractions. The nurse kept telling me that she wouldn't check me until I couldn't talk through a contraction or was crying. We told my mom to go home to check on the dogs and get a little rest since the doctor said we still had plenty of time. Once my mom got back Jared went home to rest for a bit. 

During the time Jared was gone I had a series of 3 strong contractions. The nurse happened to come check on me and realized that I wasn't my normal chipper self. She said that she wanted to see how far I'd progressed. I remember telling my mom I had to be at least 3 or 4 cm with how the contractions were picking up. To my utter disbelief I had only progressed to 1 cm and 70% effaced. I lost it! I thought the baby was never going to come and that I'd be in labor for another 2 or 3 days! 

The nurse had left and went to talk to the doctor. Next thing I knew the doctor came in and said she wanted to place an internal pressure monitor and strip my membranes. Jared walked in the room right as the doctor broke my water. He was very surprised at what he walked in on! The doctor and nurse left and almost instantly I began have major contractions. My goal was to go natural for as long as I could. I honestly couldn't tell you how long I made it before I was requesting an epidural. We asked the nurse and she informed up that the anesthesiologist was currently in a c-section and would be at least another 30 minutes. Eventually he came in and what was supposed to take 3 minutes ended up taking 45 minutes! Not a fun 45 minutes! He tried 4 different times to place it and with each new try he gave more local anesthetic as well as IV narcotics. By the time he was done I couldn't move anything from the belly button down! 

While they did my catheter I had my mom and Jared take a brief walk. While they were gone the doctor came in and notified me that the only way I was going to have this baby was an emergency c-section. They  had checked me again since my contractions had been off the chart and I was still 70% effaced and had progressed to barely 2cm. The doctor could feel the baby's head and felt molding but said she wasn't able to move down. She didn't know if the baby was too big or if it was my pelvis but she wasn't budging. I told the doctor I needed to talk to my husband before I could say yes to the c-section. Jared and my mom came back and the nurse filled them in on what was happening. We decided not to jeopardize the baby or me and that we'd go ahead with the c-section. Jared asked the doctor if he had time to go home and shower and was promptly told "NO, we want her in the operating room in 5-10 minutes...how quickly can you get in scrubs?" I hugged and kissed my mom and off we went.

Literally 10 minutes later I was wheeled into the operating room and everything began. 

Time the c-section started

Seven minutes later at 5:29 PM Olivia Kay Leffler was born! She weighed in at 7lbs 1/2oz and was 19 1/4 inches long. 

Getting cleaned up

First family photo

Weight

Bath time

After Olivia was born and I was stitched up they took me to recovery for 2 hours. Originally I was told that I wouldn't get to hold Olivia until after I was out of recovery however I received a nice surprise and Jared came down with Olivia shortly after I arrived. It was a short meeting but at least I got to hold her!

Hanging with mommy in recovery

Olivia did end up in NICU during the middle of the night. She had a couple of low blood sugar levels and since my milk hadn't come in they wanted to make sure she ate so her levels would go up.

Sunday, April 15, 2012:

By the next morning her blood sugar levels had stabled but jaundice set in and they decided to keep in her in the NICU to keep her on the lights and to continue to monitor her sugar levels just to be safe. We continued to visit Olivia as much as we could over the next few days. It was so hard to not have her in our room and to miss out on some bonding but we wanted our little girl to get what she needed from the NICU.

Under the lights

Monday, April 16, 2012:

By Monday the visiting NICU nurse said we could take Olivia back to our room and getting ready to go home on Tuesday. We were so excited to get to be with her. When we were getting ready to have her discharged from NICU I noticed she was breathing a little funny. I asked what that was all about and the doctor and nurse decided she couldn't be discharged and would need to stay another day and night in NICU. They wanted to monitor her and see if they could pin point exactly what was happening.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012:

The visiting pediatrician (who actually saw me as a child) decided she had Tracheomalacia and said she should grow out of it. It's basically a floppy airway and she would do best sleeping on her tummy or being elevated when she slept.  He was hopeful that by the evening we would be able to have her move to our room and go home on Wednesday. That night when the new NICU nurse got in and did her rounds she called our room and let us know that she was bringing Olivia to us! She said she would be checking on Olivia throughout the night to see how her levels and breathing were. If all went well they said we would probably be able to take her home the next day.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012:

Thankfully Olivia did extremely well staying with us overnight. Her numbers and breathing were all stable and the nurse said as long as the doctor said she could be released then we'd be going home! We received a call from the doctor and she said she felt like Olivia could go home!! We had one more hurdle to jump and that was the carseat test. We were asked to bring her carseat to NICU and put her in it for an hour and a half. If her breathing remained stable she would be discharged. That was the longest hour and a half of watching her monitor to make sure she didn't dip. She passed with flying colors and the doctor gave the ok for her to be discharged. We sat with the nurse and went over discharge procedures and we were escorted back to our room so I could be discharged. By lunch time Jared was packing the car and we were headed home!!

Going home