Olivia Lynn

Olivia Lynn Martinez

born Sunday, October 9th, 2016 at 6:05pm

7lb 8oz and 19 inches

At my 39 week appointment my doctor said, "let's do this, let's get this baby here this weekend."  I was kind of shocked he'd offer to induce me early so I said I'd go home and talk to Bryan and call back.  We debated and debated for the next 24 hours. I had never been interested in being induced before, but with my history of having a baby quick this would take out any worry about getting the girls taken care of, Bryan getting home from work in potentially bad traffic, and making it to the hospital in time.  Also, we'd be able to plan for my mom to already be here with the girls.  I really wasn't that miserable, but still it was tempting to not be pregnant anymore.  In the end I decided to go for it and we planned the induction for Sunday morning.  

I was super nervous to be induced, I thought it was terrifying to walk in there knowing what was about to happen.  Plus, knowing it was coming left me so much more time to worry as opposed to going into labor and having the adrenaline just push me through.  I was kind of a wreck the last couple days and I didn't tell anyone I was being induced til late Saturday night because I kept thinking I might chicken out. 

On Sunday morning we left for the hospital at 8:30.  It took a while for them to bring us back to a room and then getting my IV set up was a disaster.  It took three tries, one of which she totally missed my vein and fluid was pumping into the tissue which made my arm nearly double in size and was super painful.  But, at noon they finally started pitocin and we settled in for what we were hoping  would be a quick wait.  We read, watched an episode of Designated Survivor, and I took a nap while waiting for the contractions.  It was kind of funny that all our friends were at church and noticed we weren't there- we got lots of texts including a video from the whole Junior Primary!  Finally around 3pm I started having regular contractions a few minutes apart but they weren't too bad and I wasn't progressing very fast.  I was a little discouraged because I'd been hoping so much that it would be a quick delivery, I really hated just waiting around at the hospital.

At 5pm my doctor came in to break my water and things picked up a lot after that.  I hadn't needed an epidural up to this point and I was still hoping that things would move quickly so I didn't ask for one.  My nurse said she'd wait to check me "til I was screaming" and left the room.  The problem is I don't scream, in fact, I'm pretty much silent when I'm in labor.  About 30 minutes later the contractions were getting a lot stronger and I called her back in.  She said I was still only dilated to a 4 (so disappointing!) but she could feel the baby was so close, and then she left the room again.  Contractions were very very painful at this point, I was squeezing Bryan's hand and crying and kept praying I'd be able to make it.  Ten minutes after the nurse left I suddenly felt the urge to push.  I pushed the call button but before the nurse made it back in I had another really bad contraction and couldn't stop from pushing.  When the nurse ran in and grabbed a pair of gloves Bryan said "uh, there's a baby there" because Livvy was halfway out.  So in the end it was the quick delivery I had been hoping for.  And, for those counting, this is my second baby that was born without a doctor in sight.  Three cheers for good nurses.

The next couple hours were very chaotic.  Olivia was a healthy little girl with a strong pair of lungs.  For the first two hours of her life she was either nursing (which she was a champ at from the beginning) or crying.  We thought about having my mom bring the girls to visit before bedtime but I was just too exhausted (and starving! I hadn't eaten all day!) so we facetimed with them, but even that was tough because Olivia screamed most of the time.  They had stopped delivering food for the night but my nurse went down to the cafeteria to get some dinner for me.  While there she ran into my doctor and he actually bought the meal for me!  I finally ate a gross cheeseburger that tasted delicious to me and Olivia settled down and we moved into our postpartum room around 8pm.  My favorite thing about having an unmedicated birth is how great I feel afterwards- a little sore but I can immediately get up and move around and feel so much more like a real person.

Despite her angry entrance, Livvy was a peaceful baby the rest of the time.  And, unlike our hospital in California, this hospital would take her between feedings during the night so we could get some rest and you better believe we took advantage of that.  On Monday my mom brought the girls to meet their new sister.  Jilly and Mattie were SO excited and it was really fun to have our family all together finally.  Jillian loved being at the hospital so much that she came back later in the afternoon with my sister and then stayed a bit longer by herself then Bryan took her home at dinnertime.

We came home on Tuesday; I was so ready to get back to my own bed and home to my girls.  It was fun to put Olivia in the same outfit both of the girls wore home from the hospital, and so nice to all be under one roof.