Olivia Skye Long (04/09/2010)
Again sorry for the delay in information. I went in on April 7th to be induced at 6 am. Once we got there and I got my gown on and they hooked me up to monitors I started to have contractions naturally. Mike and I were a little excited thinking maybe I would give birth pretty quickly. The nurses and doctor tried to get me to stop contracting so they could use the method of induction they needed to that would thin my cervix and get me to dilate, which was some pill which I cant remember the name of right now. So the induction started and they took me up to my birthing room. After a few hours my doula showed up which is a great woman and great friend of ours Helen. I got checked around that time by the doctor to see how much I have dilated. Well guess what I was still at 0 and I was not thinned out any! I was still have semi strong contractions so they could not use the pill anymore to help me thin. They then put me on pitocin (I think that is how it is spelled). Contractions got a bit more intense but I had no idea just how intense they could be. Went threw the whole day hooked up to monitors and having contractions. I hated laying in bed so I tried to walk around as much as possible but that caused the monitors to have issues and since I was having hypertension they needed those monitors to make sure Olivia was reacting okay to me and the contractions. As the day went by and each time the doctor came to check me, Mike, Helen and I were always hoping for big dilation. Which did not happen I stayed 0 for all of Wednesday. Around 8pm they decided to take me off the pitocin and allow me to eat something and rest through the night. I still had contractions but they weren’t as intense. Next morning around 5:30 am they started the pitocin again. I finally dilated to 1 but it was a tight 1 cm. But it still had us excited. As the day went by and the dose of pitocin got larger I started to feel a lot more intense contractions. The doctor had checked me again with no change, she had mentioned that if I continue to have no change maybe I should go home and we start again on Monday. Shortly after deciding to go home that night, my water broke as I was walking across the room to get back into bed. It was a weird feeling. We all got excited thinking that my water breaking would get things rolling. By that night I was in major pain. I tried taking a bath and moving around but nothing helped it just hurt like nothing I had ever felt before in my life. I tried to listen to Helen and breath through the pain but sometimes I just lost all thought and ended up crying through the pain. And still no change in my cervix. By the end of the night I was at my limit I sadly asked for pain medication. Up until that moment I had done it all natural. But I just couldn’t take the pain anymore it was never ending. After the pain medication I don’t remember much I know I still had contractions but I was able to sleep through them. This was all around 2 am. Around 6:30 am on Friday April 9th, my doctor came in and checked me again, no change. I was fretting about what would come next. Another day full of painful contractions with no change? My doctor gave me some options. She told me we could do a C-section but she felt that would be a mistake and she did not want to do that at all, or I could continue with contractions and use pain medication or I could have a epidural which might allow me to relax and dilate. I was against all my options, but after talking to Mike and Helen we all figured epidural was the lesser of the evils. Even though I was against me personally having an epidural I was prepared for my birthing plan changing. After getting the epidural I did start to feel more relaxed and what do you know I started to thin out and dilate. Once I got to three cm I started to feel a lot of pressure in my back, and butt and pelvis it was painful pressure. I just wanted to push but I wasn’t allowed to. The pressure just got more and more painful. A few hours later I felt that I had to push and I couldn’t keep myself from doing it. Helen ran and got the nurse, the nurse checked me and I was finally 10 cm. I was allowed to push! So with my next contraction I pushed about 45 mins to an hour later Olivia came out the doctor barely got there in time. I think he had one glove on when she came out. 
Olivia is perfect! It was so beautiful having her on my chest and being able to kiss her and hug her and just feel her next to me instead of inside me kicking me. She has many things that make her special but one of the things that stand out a bit is she has extra thumbs. On both hands. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Mike teases and says she ate her twin. 
I tease and say she is all thumbs. I also think she is going to be very good at gardening, since she has extra thumbs that can be green.
Olivia Skye Long
6lbs 2 oz
19.50 inches
04/09/2010
So now for a little bit of current news. Olivia had jaundice pretty bad actually they admitted her into the hospital the day after we came home. She was under sun lamps and on a bluish blanket which made her look like a glow worm. We were there for a day in the hospital then her levels went down enough that we were allowed to go home. She seems 100% better now. She had also lost 9% of her weight which wasn’t good since she was so little already. I had to feed her formula since my breastmilk was being slow coming in. But now she has gained her weight back and has added 1.1 pounds to it. She is adorable and brings joy to our days. Her nickname is Sunshine, because of a few things, when she was under the sun lamps she was all stretched out with her arms over her head and her legs all stretched out like she was sunbathing with her little goggles on. The other reason is she is a bright star that brings warmth to our hearts and joy to our lives and we orbit around her and are drawn to her just like the sun.
