Labor of Love

Born at 5pm weighing 8Ibs

I started having contractions about 6 PM on Thursday. That's when my mother showed up with Mary, it was excellent timing. When we got to the hospital I wasn't quite 4 centimeters dilated yet but the contractions were coming two minutes apart so they had me walk around the hospital having contractions every two minutes until I was 4 cm dilated (It was a very slow walk). When I was 4 cm dilated and they admitted me to the hospital. As I was walking to the room I would deliver in I had a very strong contraction and asked for the epidural (nicely). The woman came very soon after I asked to do the epidural and it started working quickly. That was extremely nice.

Very awake

Soon my midwife came in and asked me to rest until 8 o'clock in the morning (at this point it was about 2 AM). I was able to sleep most of the night (epidurals are amazing) and when I woke about 8am my midwife broke my water and came back about noon to check on me. I hadn't made much progress so they gave me pitocin and the contractions started to pick up by 3 o'clock. I started feeling the pressure to push but my midwife wanted me to wait and let that pressure push the baby down that way I wouldn't have to push very long and it worked because I started pushing about 4 PM on Friday and after my first push you could see his head! Unfortunately my midwife was helping someone else deliver their baby at the same time I was trying to deliver mine so after a couple pushes and it was clear that the baby was coming very soon they had me wait for my midwife (apparently nurses are terrified of delivering alone, cause I did ask them to do it). It was the most uncomfortable 20 minutes of my life and as I waited the girl who was delivering with my Midwife was screaming bloody murder the whole time (she did it naturally, hence her taking precedent over me).

I kept feeling the urge to push while I waited and it felt like the baby was half out and I just had to hold him halfway in and out of the world! It was so painful that I had to resist the urge to yell “Rachel!!”,my midwifes name. Finally Rachel came in and I was so happy to see her! I finally go to push again! It was really cool to have my mom, Melissa, and Mary there. I hope Mary it wasn't too scarred because she was holding my hand most of the time that I pushed. The pain and pressure was still quite uncomfortable so I had Nath distract me by telling me stories about our trip around Europe, it worked pretty well. At one point they tell me to look down and I saw my midwife pulling out my baby Oliver and she placed him right on top of my chest having done nothing to him. I'll never forget how I felt. He was so amazing and so beautiful and so wonderful!

I didn’t have long with him before they took him to the NICU because they were worried he'd swallowed too much poop. Nathan got to go with him so soon I got a text from him that Ollie was doing well. The first thing I did after hearing this news was eat some fruit loops! I was so hungry! I had gone about 24 hours without food at this point. After the yummy cereal the nurse took me to the bathroom to shower. I remember thinking the bathroom looked like a murder scene as I left it. Yikes, that was a lot of blood!

After the shower I was taken to the mother-baby unit. I got to order a big cheeseburger, fries, and chicken strips. It was really good food! It wasn’t much later that we all fell asleep. Oliver did great that first night! He slept about 4 hours, ate, and then slept another 6 hours! The second night was not as great, but still good, its been downhill since!

           

          I really don’t mind the lack of sleep too much because I get to see the most wonderful baby boy every 2 hours in the night. He has made Nathan and me so unspeakably happy! I am VERY much enjoying motherhood. I am learning to be more selfless, kind, and caring. He makes me want to be a better person, because someone so perfect deserves a wonderful mother. Everything I do now, I do for him.

Oliver Kai Mulligan