Meet Olivia

Welcome Baby Olivia!

Olivia Ann Markham was born on June 16, 2010 at 11:45 pm. She weighed 8 lbs 2 oz, and was 19 3/4 inches long. This is her story. A few months ago I was looking at the month of June and thinking about having a baby. I was induced at 41 weeks with Nate, and we weighed in at 8 lbs 5 1/2 oz. I was induced with Graham at 40 weeks, and he weighed 8 lbs 13 oz. I was thinking that I was not liking the trend of babies getting bigger even though it was an earlier gestational age, at this rate, even if I had this baby a week early she was set to be over 9 lbs, and I was not looking forward to that. So I thought, let's get her out as soon as we can. The practice that I go to has a policy that they will not schedule a delivery any more than one week early. My 39 week mark happened to be on the 16th. So I was thinking about that, and several things went through my mind. The biggest thing was that June 16th was my dad's birthday. So then I had to think if I would like to have her on his birthday or not. I came to the conclusion that it would be really neat if that could happen. That way, this little girl, who never gets to know her grandpa in this life, will get to share this special day with him. I mean, we already buried him on Graham's birthday, and Nate is named after him, so it would be nice if Olivia could have this.
So I asked the doctor at about my 35 week appointment if I could be induced on that day, and she set it up for me.
Shoot forward to June 16th. I was told to call the hospital at 6am to see if they had room for me. To no one's surprise, they didn't, and I was told to call back at 8, which I did. Then they told me that the charge nurse was busy, and she'd call me back. (yeah right) so I called back at 10, and they told me to have a light lunch and come in at 11:30. So we made our way over to the hospital.
So we got checked in, and down to labor and delivery, and slowly things got started. I was GBS positive, so that was going to slow things down for me. They started me on the first round of antibiotics, and a pitocin drip, but they were not going to break my water until the second round of antibiotics, which has to be 4 hours after the first. After about an hour on pitocin I started to have contractions, and after about 2 hours they started to get stronger and more regular. Eventually I decided that since the dr was available, and since I was planning on it anyway, I would go ahead and get an epidural. My dr said that I could have one whenever I wanted. I'm always nervous about the epidural, but this one was probably the best one that I've had yet. I loved that I got it lying down on my side as opposed to sitting up and leaning over. Anyway, it worked great.
So eventually I got my second round of antibiotics and they broke my water. We really just hung around for a long time. Jesse and I read books for a while, and Jesse took a few naps. Finally at about 9:30 they came in to check me, and I was at 4 cm. So that was great news. At that point I figured that I was not going to have the baby before midnight. It was taking forever! But I was about as comfortable as I could be sitting in labor and delivery, so what else was there to do but wait it out.
After that I must have taken a little nap, because the next thing I remember was waking up at about 11. I had started to feel the pressure of the contractions, and I thought that was kind of weird, because previously I hadn't felt a single thing. I was wondering if the epidural was wearing off or something. About 15 min later it changed from feeling the pressure of the contractions to feeling the pain of the contractions. It reminded me of what I felt the last hour of being in labor with Graham. So I called in the nurse, and just said that I was in more pain than I wanted to be in. As it happened, the doctor was not doing anything at the time, so she came in with the nurse. She checked me when she came in, and said that I was ready to have the baby. It was about 11:30 at that point. She then went on to say that I was going to have the baby before midnight. So I was pretty excited about that. So they got things ready, and called in the baby nurses, and pretty soon we were ready to push. I pushed for maybe 5 minutes or so, and there she was!
It was at that point that I was thinking that there was some Divine intervention, as well as a lesson on faith and patience. So I had to wait until the last minute, but there she came, at 11:45 pm, and now Olivia gets to share a birthday with her Grandpa White. I can't wait to tell her about what a great man he was, and why it's so special for her to be able to share a birthday with him.


Here she is the next morning, after being cleaned up, and everyone got at least a few hours of sleep. Jesse was trying to take pictures of her when he first arrived with the boys while she was in her bassinet, but Nate and Graham were not interested in being patient to get a good look at her.

The boys were super interested in looking at her. Nate wanted to be right there close to her head for the first little bit. He had no interest in holding her, and it took him a while to warm up to the idea of touching her, but he sure liked looking at her.

Graham was quite nervous about me being in the hospital. He kind of freaked out whenever I was sitting in the hospital bed. It's a good thing that I was dressed in regular clothes instead of a hospital gown. It's also nice that recovery was so easy with this one that I didn't feel the need to stay in bed. At one point though, they were there while the nurse came in to get my vitals, and he completely freaked out while I was sitting there getting my blood pressure taken.

But he loved the baby, and he did want to hold her. Since we've been home there have been times that he has been very interested in holding her again. He wanted to carry her and walk outside with her. I had to explain that he was only allowed to hold her while he was sitting and someone was there with him.

But seriously, look how cute he is with her!

So now we've been home a few days. Things are going pretty well. She's still pretty sleepy in general. We've had our challenges in nursing, but well, it wouldn't be me if it had come easy! And after succeeding with Nate, I can pretty much nurse any baby. But things are starting to get better, so that is looking positive. I became friends with the lactation nurse at the hospital when I had Nate, and just recently we became friends on facebook, and it has been so nice to have her just an email away! I suggest that all gestating women become friends with a lactation nurse!

A few things about Olivia- she has tiny little dimples. They are not very pronounced, but they're there. Her favorite position right now is to be belly in against your chest up against your shoulder. She had random bouts of short intense cries. Even while she's sleeping, they don't usually wake her up. It sounds like she's just been hurt badly, but no one has done anything to her. She can sleep through the hiccups, and they really don't seem to bother her so far. She really is a very good baby so far, and hasn't really cried for no good reason.

So there she is, our sweet little Olivia. We are glad that she came to join our family, and look forward to getting to know her better!