Olivia's Birth Story

Well our little Olivia Leigh chose to make quite a grand entrance for herself...right amid a little ole' hurricane called "Irma". She was born the night of September 10th while the hurricane was hitting South Florida. If I had a dollar for every time someone suggested I name her Irma, I would have enough funds to send to her college by now! Without further ado, here is her birth story... Mike and I were given the option to shelter at the hospital since my due date was September 10th. I believe if you were 36 weeks or further along, they allowed you and a partner to take shelter at the hospital. Now this is not glamorous by any means, they do not assign you a room, we were put in the lobby and told to bring an air mattress, blankets, and our own food and water. It felt like I was back at sleep away camp, but with a bunch of pregnant ladies around. So we checked into the "shelter" at 3PM Saturday afternoon, set up our station and started watching Ozark on Netflix (side note: never got passed the fourth episode, just couldn't get into it). The storm was set to begin hitting us that night. As uncomfortable as I was full term and on an air mattress, I tried my best to get some sleep which was quickly diverted when I began getting sharp pains in my pelvic area. Being that this was my first pregnancy, I didn't know what contractions felt like and was unsure of what to expect. These "pains" began around 3:30am and I was unable to lie down. So there I was pacing around the labor and delivery lobby while everyone else is sleeping (husband included) trying to figure out if I was in labor or not. So what did I do? I didn't call a nurse....I called my mom. Whose response was "you're in a hospital why don't you say something to a nurse." I guess I just didn't want to be that girl who thinks she is going into labor and makes a big fuss only to be sent back to the lobby with the other preggo peeps. I finally decided to wake Mike up and tell him what I was feeling around 6AM and we started walking around the hospital. The movement seemed to ease the pain. Finally around 7, I was finally confident that something was up so I mentioned my discomfort to a nurse who promptly set me up to monitors. I was told that I was in labor and my contractions were 8-10 minutes apart. Now remember, we are in the middle of a hurricane and the whole hospital is on lock down, no one in or out. So the patients and employees that were there were stuck there until further notice. The doctor on call came whistling in (yes whistling) and said "typically we would send you home and tell you to come back when they are 5 minutes apart, but we're all stuck here so let's have a hurricane baby!" he then proceeded to break my water. Everything began to progress and I was dilating slowly. I received my epidural shortly after my water broke due to the intensity of the contractions and how quickly they came. It was time to start pushing around 9pm. After pushing for two hours, she was not able to get passed my pelvic bone. The doctor came back in and explained that he can use forceps or a vacuum and if neither of those options worked, we would have to do a C-section. I pushed with all my might and just couldn't get her to budge. We opted for the forceps, and the doctor was able to get her head out quite easily with them. He then gave me a Kourtney Kardashian moment. If you ever watched the show, you may recall that when her son Mason was born, her doctor had her pull him out at the end. Well this doctor had me do the same thing! It was really special. Especially since at the beginning of the whole thing I had told them to clean her off prior to giving her to me (obviously they did not listen, but I'm happy they didn't). Just to be able to have that moment with her and be the first face she sees is an unbelievable moment. Olivia was perfect and healthy. Now here is where everything went to sh*t. Shortly after her birth, a few nurses came to try and get me up to go to the bathroom. Well, as soon as I stood up, I vomited and began hemorrhaging. They put me back down and I continued to bleed for what felt like forever. All of a sudden there were so many people in my room, it was insane. The nurses began pushing on my stomach because apparently the hemorrhage was due to my uterus not contracting, so they had to manually contract. And let me tell you, it wasn't a soft push either, they were pounding on my stomach. Since the hemorrhaging was not slowing down, the doctor came back (still whistling) and explained that he had to go back in and make sure that there was no cuts or issues inside of my uterus. Well, with my epidural worn off by this time, I felt EVERYTHING. Now I am not a screamer by any means, but I was screaming and pleading with him to stop. Not to mention all while this is happening, Mike is standing in the corner of the room holding our newborn daughter watching everything unfold. Finally, they were able to get the bleeding under control but I had lost so much blood and my cell counts were so low, they were planning on giving me a blood transfusion. Luckily, I was able to get my counts up just enough to avoid having to get that procedure. Olivia was born at 11:57 PM on Sunday September 10th and we were released out of the hospital on Wednesday afternoon. I am so happy we chose to shelter at the hospital that night because who knows what would have happened. I could have gone into labor at my home in the middle of the hurricane and could have been stuck with my husband having to deliver our daughter! We are very thankful for all of the doctors and nurses who were so fabulous! Those nurses really are angels!