Olivia's Birth Story

The birth story of Olivia Grace Nunley
Born Wednesday, April 18, 2012

6lbs 13oz – 20 inches

Warning: Graphic

Tuesday night was a lot like many other nights that brought uncomfortable contractions that were fairly consistent and close together. By the time I went to bed they were 5 minutes apart, but not painful enough to keep me awake. I had been through this before. I would go to sleep and they would be gone in the morning. 

Except Wednesday morning held for me more contractions still 5 minutes apart. I thought to myself this is new, but we will just see what happens. I was supposed to have my 39 week appointment at 10:15 that morning so I figured we will just have my doctor check me then. At about 9:30 the doctor's office called and said that my OB was delivering a baby and they would need to reschedule my appointment. I told them I thought I was probably in labor so I would hold off on rescheduling since I would probably see my OB later that day in Labor & Delivery anyways. The front office person sounded surprised so she told me to talk to the nurse on call to make sure that was okay. The nurse gave me the okay to stay home and labor at home until my water broke or they became too painful to talk through. 

Tuesday afternoon Avery and I had baked a cake, but the frosting we had in the cabinet had expired, so on Wednesday morning Avery and I ventured to the store to get some. Naturally I had to have some of that cake if I was going to be having a baby soon. By the time we returned from the store around 11:00 the contractions were getting more painful and were now 4 minutes apart. We frosted the cake and a nice big piece for lunch. I asked Justin to come home instead of going back to the office after his appointment. 

When he got home my contractions were 3 minutes apart and painful but not painful enough to give me pause. By 1:30 they were still 3 minutes apart but painful, so I told Justin it was time to go to the hospital. Unfortunately we could not get a hold of Grandma & Grandpa Nunley who were supposed to be "on call" to watch Avery when I went into labor. After calling all around and checking their house we found out they had gone out of town for a funeral and wouldn't be back for a couple hours. Now we needed to find a replacement babysitter. In the meantime Justin dropped me off at Labor & Delivery and took Avery to his parent's house because Uncle Trevor would off work soon and would be able to stay with Avery.

When I got to the hospital I got all checked in and hooked up to the monitors. By the time the nurse got all my info and everything all set up it was about 4pm and Justin was back and ready to help. I was checked and was 5cm dilated and 90% effaced. All the monitoring I had been doing over the last 3 hours showed no signs of distress so the nurse said I could labor off the monitors for an hour if I wanted. The first thing I wanted to do was take a bath since my room had a jetted tub. Justin sat with me and kept me company and distracted while I let the warm water ease the pain.

At 6pm I got hooked back up to the monitors and it showed the contractions were 2 minutes apart. My OB checked me again and I was 7cm dilated and she broke my water. Almost immediately the contractions got much more intense so I asked for Fentanyl (an IV pain medication). This medication is supposed to take the edge off for about an hour, but when 30 minutes rolled around and I had no relief I knew it was just going to start to wear off and I was going to need something else. I opted for the epidural.

The nurse left to find the anesthesiologist and when she returned quickly I was pretty happy -- until she told me there was an emergency c-section going to happen on another laboring mom and the anesthesiologist wasn't going to be able to give me the epidural for at least an hour. While I interrogated her about how there was only one person in the whole hospital who could give me an epidural the anesthesiologist walks in and said if we do it right then he can squeeze me in while they prepped the other mom. As soon as he heard that Justin left the room because we didn't want another incident like last time where he ended up on the floor with a pillow and juice.

After the epidural was in and had started taking affect it was about 7:15. As the anesthesiologist walked out my OB walked in to check me again. She was surprised that I was already completely dilated and ready to push. That means I progressed from 7cm at 6:15 to complete in just an hour! She offered to help me do a few pushes and see where we got before going into the emergency c-section since she had a few minutes while the anesthesiologist got the other mom all set up.

After the first contraction which I pushed 3 times it was clear she was coming and coming fast. They moved the mirror so I could see what was happening because that helped last time. Two more contractions and 6 more pushes and Olivia Grace was born. It took less than 5 minutes of pushing and she was here.

The first moments after her birth were amazing. Because she didn't swallow meconium like Avery we were able to do skin to skin immediately. My OB was able to deliver her and then set her right on my abdomen. The nurses did all their evaluations and cleaning while Justin and I fawned over her. We checked all her fingers and toes and even that she was indeed a she. As soon as the nurses were done they said we could hold her as long as we wanted and they would do the measurements when we were ready. Since they weren't whisking her away right away we were able to breastfeed and she latched right on. It was an amazing difference from what the first few minutes were like with Avery.

It's been an amazing first few days and as weird as it is to realize we now have two daughters I couldn't imagine it any other way. We are so in love and love seeing how Avery interacts with her new sister.