Baby Girl

Well it has almost been eight weeks since we had our baby girl...this is the first chance I've had to try and write a short post about her. She keeps us busy! You can obviously tell this is our first kid, and we have no idea what we're doing or how to manage our time yet. Everyday I feel like I barely have time to shower..

Olivia Mae was born on November 18th at 9:22 am. She was only 5 pounds 14 ounces and 18 inches long. She was perfect. She has a lot of brown hair and dark blue eyes. She came only after three pushes....unfortunately I was trying to hold her back from coming so fast because the doctor hadn't made it to the hospital yet! But she had another plan in mind, and slipped out quietly while we were barely paying attention. The nurse caught her with one hand! While another nurse was trying to put a glove on the delivery nurse's other hand. It was crazy. She started crying right off and then settled down pretty fast. She didn't cry for a few days after that. She was so quiet and tired from birth. We had been planning on another name for her, but last minute we switched it. Olivia just felt right. We call her Livi for short.

We stayed a couple days at the hospital which was not awesome for me. The recovery was so painful and the pain meds barely helped me feel any better. I got a terrible migraine while in the hospital and my stitches were killing me. I thought I wasn't going to make it through this...ugh. My mom was there for the whole delivery and of course Aaron. All I wanted was Aaron by my side every minute.

Labor: I started having my first contractions at about 2 am on Friday morning in my bed. I woke up and didn't really know what I was feeling. I felt crampy and sick to my stomach. The cramps were so bad!! I woke up Aaron immediately and he starting timing my contractions, assuming that's what they were. I never had any contractions during my pregnancy so I didn't know what to expect...We're these as painful as they would get?! Or were these only at a level 5 or so?? I kept thinking I was going to die from pain for that hour we timed then. The contractions started out at a level 10 and every two minutes, they never died down at all! We immediately grabbed our bags and left for the hospital. We yelled to my mom that we were going in and we'd call her. Side note..( during this whole time, Aaron had to do everything. I could barely move, the pain was so bad. As soon as we headed downstairs, my water broke. I soaked through everything including the front seat of the car. It was so weird!) Aaron sped down the road and got us to the hospital in record time (5 minutes). They wheeled me in, and this amazing nurse helped me through my contractions while they stripped me down and got me ready for the epidural. I couldn't wait for the pain to subside. It felt like it took forever to kick in, but really it was only 15 minutes or so. I love EPIDURALS!! Finally I could calm down and get my bearings. Aaron tried to call my mom and let her know we were checked in, but guess what? Of course she was already waiting in the hospital waiting room. Hilarious! It was like 3 in the morning. What a long night for all of us. PS. I was so embarrassed because I didn't even get to wax like I was planning to do on Saturday! But of course the staff don't care at all, only I did. The moment you get to the hospital all of your dignity goes right out the door.

One of the things I learned about giving birth is that everyone is different. No labor is the same. But I still wish I would have known what to expect with contractions and how to push. I had no idea what I was doing, and I certainly cried a lot out of fear. I was a big baby during the whole thing...

Now we have been home, and Olivia is almost 8 weeks old. My whole family came up and stayed a few days with us, and really helped me. I also got to go to Tucson for a week and spend some time down there. I go back to work next week, and I am sort of looking forward to it. I hope I'm not destined to be a bad parent by saying that, but I just miss it. Plus staying home all day every day is hard for me. I live in my pjs and barely eat or shower..Babies just require all of your time and energy. But she is worth it, and so adorable. I love her so much and she is changing every week. It's crazy! Here are a few pictures from birth to now. Enjoy! I hope I get to blog more soon.