I'm so in love...

with this little face!
Ollie (and his hair) were a complete hit at church today as he made his debut. It was so fun to show him off as he was adored by all. This little rascal is only three weeks old but is already smiling and cooing. He is just too adorable so we had a little photoshoot after church to capture his cuteness.

P.S. I finally wrote out Ollie's birth story below. It's long but who doesn't love a good birth story?

Introducing Our Little Miracle...

He's here!

Oliver Daniel King

January 20 th 2011

9:09 am

9 lbs 21 3/4 inches

Ollie's birth story to come in th morning...

Oliver's birth story began Jan 19. I had an appointment first thing in the morning and learned from my dr. that I was already 5 cm and 80% effaced. I had been having braxton hicks for awhile so I was thrilled to learn that my body had done half of the work already. I definitely felt like it was going to be soon and was beginning to feel anxious, impatient, nervous, excited, you name it. That night at about 10 pm my water broke while I was walking to my bedroom. Unlike my other babies, there was no mistaking that my membranes had ruptured. I called for Jared who was downstairs and he came up right away. He said that as soon as I called him he knew what had happened. So we called my mom and she came over right away (from a neighbouring city - 45 minutes away). We were so happy to have her come. Jared and I packed up and left for the hospital at about midnight confident baby was coming soon and knowing that our lives will be forever changed.

When we got to the hospital a nurse took us to a labour/delivery room and explained to us that she was actually an ER nurse and that she was covering for a Mat nurse who called in sick. One of the risks you take delivering at a small hospital. We were not thrilled with this but what could we do. She proceeded to do a non-stress test to check baby and measure my contractions which were not hard at this point and were only about 7 -10 minutes apart. After the test she went and called the Dr. and get this the Dr. told us to go home because my contractions were too far apart!! And in fact told me she would let me go another two days before inducing me, even though my water had broken. Here's the kicker though, I was NOT checked at the hospital to see how dilated I was. Isn't that nuts? The nurse said she was worried about infection because my water had broke. Jared and I were not happy about this as it was about 1:30 in the morning.

Totally disgruntled we headed home and nearly scared my mom half to death by knocking on the door at 2 am (we didnt' have our house key as we didn't think we'd be coming home). Fortunately she was watching a Charlie's Angel's on Netflix because she was too excited to sleep:) Looking for a second opinion, I actually called the nurses help line when I got home for a second opinion and she could not believe that they didn't do an internal exam and actually told me to go back and demand one. In the end, Jared went to bed and mom and I started to do lunges and squats in our family room. I'm sure it was quite the sight. Mom was even rubbing my pressure points on my feet and ankles trying to induce contractions. After crawling around on the family room floor for a little while I was finally wiped and decided to try to sleep.

In the end, I did end up getting a couple of hours of good sleep before waking up to hard contractions.

We headed back to the hospital about 3-4 hours after we had left and were greeting my our nurse who said "I thought I'd see you again tonight." This time we were there to stay. In the end I was happy we went home because there was a shift change shortly after arriving the second time and we ended up having the BEST mat nurses. When the nurse checked me when we arrived I was at about a 7, almost there!

At about 7-7:30 am, I started having harder contractions that I had to breathe through. I really tried to use visualization during this labour to get through contractions and it really did wonders. At first I was able to visualize on my own things like beaches we'd been to in Hawaii, waterfalls we've visited, breastfeeding a newborn, snorkeling, enjoyable and relaxing things like that. But after awhile I had to have Jared talk me through the contractions to help me visualize. The best was when he was like " You're on a hike..." I stopped him right there in not such a nice way and in between contractions explained to him that I needed relaxing images to focus on and although a hike is enjoyable it can be quite strenuous. I was amazed at how imagery really helped me get through some really hard contractions.

At 10 cm but not quite fully effaced it got a little more difficult. Pushing was not effective because the rim of he cervix would swell with each push keeping baby from coming. After changing positions several times, I was finally ready to push. When I started pushing it didn't take much for him to come out. When his head came out I actually had to change positions because his shoulders were so big. A little awkward. Jared said that was crazy to watch. At that point I just remember yelling at the Dr. to "just pull him out!" I just remember her saying "no Andi, it's all you." And at 9:09 am (although Jared claims it was 9:07) our beautiful baby was born. It was such a smooth, natural delivery and Jared was such a wonderful partner that I didn't need any pain medication to which I am very grateful. It was such a euphoric feeling when they first put Oliver on my chest, I knew that I was in love with that sweet little boy.