After my fetal fibronectin came back positive I was really pissed. The test can be so ambiguous, I could have gone into labor the next day, could have been at 40 weeks. But, the stress came in that I felt that I needed Carter and Ken out here just in case even though I may not have gone into labor for quite a while. Well, now I couldn't be more of a fan of that test. That positive result is the only reason that Carter was here for the birth of her baby girl. If I had just gone by symptoms and cervical length, it would have appeared that everything was just fine. Sure I was having lots of contractions, but that is nothing new for me. Then instead of the birth being crazy and fast but still amazing because Carter was here and everything went well, it would have been stressful, scary, and wrong in every way since neither of Olivia's parents would have been here. So thank you Dr. Utter (my MFM) and fetal fibronectin!
During a more peaceful time, a fantastic easter egg hunt put together by one of the media arts' faculty members
Sulli is very happy that Auntie Carter is here!
Sulli had so much fun hunting eggs. "Oh!! There's a yellow one!!!"
Last pregnant pic of me
Sarah, Andy, Alex, and Evan got Sulli this awesome rocket launcher! Thank you!!
And now for the birth story.
Saturday morning Carter and I drove down to Hamilton to go to a huge baby consignment sale. I felt pretty good and we got some great bargains. After we got back to town I just felt a little tired. We took Sulli to the park and I noticed a weird tingling below my belly button that lasted 30 seconds and was happening every 5 minutes. We went to the DQ after the park and the sensation continued. I told Carter about it and we decided to head home. I took a bath and felt better, but after the bath I laid down and the sensation, now getting a bit stronger, continued every 5 minutes. I decided around 5 ish that we had better go to the hospital just in case. My contractions were always frequent, but never timeable.
When we got to the hospital I was 2 cm dilated and 30% effaced, not terrible. The doc on call decided to try to stop the labor with meds. I got a shot of trebutaline which made me shakey but slowed the contractions a bit. It wore off after an hour or so so they started mag sulfate which sucked! Made me feel like I was 500 degrees and floopy like a rag doll. All this served to do was make my contractions stronger and closer together. Within an hour I was at 4cm. The doc said that he would just go ahead and break my water soon since labor wasn't going to stop and the baby should do really well at this gestation.
My contractions were pretty terrible by now and I was only getting 30-60 seconds in between them before getting rocked by another one. He checked me again and I was 6+ so he broke my water. After that all hell broke loose. My contractions picked up in intensity and I really thought I wasn't going to be able to do it. Then I remembered that I was probably just in transition and I tried to chill out.
The NICU people came in and the doc was in and out. I started to feel like I had to push and tried to let everyone know that but they all seemed to be moving awfully slowly. I remembered that with Sulli it didn't take very long once I felt like I had to push, 30 minutes maybe, so I really wanted everyone to speed it up a little and get ready.
Before I knew it, my body started to push. Luckily the doc was ready because within 1 long (3 minutes maybe) violent push she was out. It was insane! They put her on my belly and Carter cut the cord (while talking to Ken on the phone and taking a video at the same time, amazing!) They took Olivia over to the warming table and started working on her. Carter and Ben could see her so they knew that she looked really good, but she wasn't crying. I was freaking out a little because I couldn't see or hear her. She was fine, but probably a little floppy from the mag sulfate and shocked from the violent, quick birth. They took her to the NICU and Carter went with while I recovered.
The news was good, she was doing great. I immediatly felt better than I had in months since this pregnancy was quite hard on me. Ben and I were overwhelmed with happiness for Carter and Ken and relief that everything went as well as could be expected when having a 33 weeker. Such a different expereince than with Sulli, 4 more weeks in the womb makes a big difference.
Olivia Malouf Dezio, 4 lbs 4.7 oz, born 4-14-12, perfect in every way
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What a happy week - Olivia is beautiful! I'm glad Sulli likes his rocket launcher - sorry we spaced out and sent it so late :)
ReplyDeleteAndy.
Oh thank you for the videos, the diaper lesson and Sulli's jet launcher! Did you tell him he should look away? Good advice and he listened! Olivia looks just beautiful and so do her parents. I'm hugging everyone.
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