This was the day I found out we were expecting. You know, there are some days that you will never forget, and even stand out in your mind very vividly. This was one of those days for me. I remember looking at the stick thinking to myself "there must be some error in this," and immediately consulted with a friend that was not much further along than me. She assured me that it is very hard to fail a pregnancy test. For the remainder of the day my mind was spinning. How was I going to tell Ryan? My parents? Is this really happening? The end of the work day came, and I finally had to "spill the beans." The whole ride home I sat quietly agonizing about it with sweaty palms. Anyway, we got home and I waited till Ryan had a mouth full of food...of course he almost choked on his apple when I finally came out with it! After I told him, I went to tell my parents and Becca (she was at their house at the time). Momma was almost hysterical and called every member of the family she could possibly think of. Even though the first stick sayed I was pregnant, I waited five days and took another one just to make sure...for myself. For Ryan I don't think it fully sank in until he saw this:
So okay, we were going to be parents. I LOVED being pregnant, but the first 20 weeks seemed like forever! I mean I didn't feel the baby kicking me until maybe 18 or 19 weeks, and I didn't look pregnant until maybe 21 weeks. I was convinced I was having a boy, but in the back of my mind I knew it was a girl. I must have eaten 2 quarts of ice cream every week for the entire pregnancy. Amazingly enough I only gained 48lbs.
Another day that sticks out in my mind.....January 4, 2010.
The day we found out it was a GIRL! To mark the joyous occasion, here are more ultrasound pics of our little lady. We named her Olivia Jean.
Even before we found out her gender, I knew that I wanted a Winnie the Pooh theme for the nursery. This idea popped into my head when I was around 14 years old...yeah I know...my quest to become a mother started out early. Actually, around that time, my aunt Kay was pregnant with my cousin Nicholas, and had started a cross-stitch piece for his nursery. That is what got me into my love for cross-stitch. Here is the piece that it took me 10 years to finish. (Teenagers have a very short attention span...wouldn't you say)
That started it all, but then over the next 2 years, I went on to complete 2 more cross-stitch pieces. The frames were the baby's Christmas presents from Granny and Grampy (my parents) in 2009.
Next came the mural....I believe we started December 11, 2009 (not entirely sure on the date) and finished January 21, 2010. I'd say that's pretty good for 4 people that couldn't get their schedules straight, and a hormonal pregnant lady. Here are pics of the AWESOME nursery our little girl has:
Here is a close up of the cute bedding my mom found. She did good, because I had not seen it prior to her buying it, and I fell in love with it the moment I saw it! I had looked everywhere for a pattern that would fit the room.
Moving on...
No pregnancy journey would be complete with out pictures documenting the belly. Someone should have slapped me, because at 9 weeks I thought I was beginning to show! I was convinced I was having twins...
Man did I have a looooooooong way to go!
That's more like it! 23 wks :)
24 wks, 5 days
Did I mention I CRAVED ice cream like it was going out of style?!
28 wks
32 wks
Did you know that a baby in utero can make your stomach do things it probably shouldn't?! Liv would stick her butt in the air and pivot on her head!
36wks, 5 days (All belly)
37 wks, 5 days
Well, we've made it to May 2010. My due date was May 27th. Throughout this pregnancy, I amazed myself in several aspects...the largest being...I worked up until 39 wks and 1 day. At that point, my body was exhausted. At 31 wks, we had a scare thinking that my water had broken. Luckily, it had not, and we were still trucking along until D-day, whenever that may be. Throughout the pregnancy, my doctors were saying that they believed her to be small, and that if she continued to have stunted growth, they may have to take her early...at one point they said as early as 34 wks! I was not happy with that scenario, so I went in once a week starting in March for fetal monitoring.
As luck would have it, on May 21, the day my sister was scheduled to fly to Italy to complete her Master's, I started contractions. This may sound funny and gross at the same time, but what started it was that as I was letting the dogs out, I saw a dead rat on our back porch, which scared the living daylights out of me (I hate rodents!) Within an hour of that episode, I started feeling tightness in my belly, and started keeping track of it. We ended up driving to the hospital around 10pm that night, and the docs said that if I had not progressed from where I currently was within the hour, which was 3cm, 80% effaced, then I would be sent home. So, that is what happened...I was sent home to "walk it off," and told that I'd probably be back within 24 hours. Well 24 hours passes, and I'm still contracting, and then....THEY STOP! I had walked so much that I had lost 4 lbs in two days, and nothing to show for it.
A week passes.....and we go in for our regular appointment the day before my due date to schedule an induction if I were to go after May 27. Olivia was so close, yet so far from being here!
So the day is finally here! However, I have to wait until 5pm to go to the hospital.
I remember us driving down Victory Drive, and traffic was terrible. I was thinking, " I'm gonna miss my induction!....Oh wait, they can't start without me!" When we got there, even though I had already pre-registered online (I'm always over-prepared), I still had to fill out paperwork. I think I had already been in their system on two separate occasions prior to this. I finally get in to my room and hooked up to the fetal monitor. This is around 6pm. The nurses administered a drug called Cervadil to ripen my cervix, and within the hour my contractions started. I have a very high tolerance for pain, but did you know that if you have stomach gas and a baby blocking the only way to release it with her head, then you will have the WORST pain you can possibly imagine. I think that hurt more than the contractions. Around 9pm the anesthesiologist was called for my epidural....why it took him 2 hours to get there is beyond me! He finally showed up around 11:30 I suppose, because 20 minutes after they administered the epidural Olivia was here at 11:58pm! It took the edge off, but I felt the entire thing. It was a total blur! What was 5.5 hours of labor seemed like 5 minutes. She had made her grand entrance! I can remember seeing little baby feet sticking up in the air in front of me, and then them whisking her away to be cleaned off and weighed. When I finally got to hold her, the nurses had brushed her hair into the middle and it looked like a little baby mohawk. Here is her first picture after she was born:
I was amazed that even though my sister was on the other side of the world, 20 minutes after Liv was born, she got a text of her picture. Uncle Chris did the honors.
Getting back to her birth...
Since she came so fast, there was not enough time to cath me, and this is what makes her birth more interesting. Around 4 am, I had to get up to use the restroom, or I was gonna wet the bed; however, one of my legs was still completely numb, and the other had half its life back. Ryan and the on-call nurse helped me to the bathroom, but low and behold when I went to get up to go back to my bed.....as luck would have it....I PASSED out, and hit the bathroom door. Just to clerify, that is why I have a long, purple line streaming down the side of my nose in some of these pics.
Some Pics with the Family:
So that was the beginning of the grand adventure into parenthood....
Till Next Time...
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