Olivia's First 2 Weeks

Tonight at 8.05pm Olivia will be two weeks old. Wow how time has flown past already. Two weeks since the drama all began.

I'm trying to type as much as I remember of what happened - but some things are a bit of a blur already. It was early Tuesday morning at 2.30 that my waters broke. We rang the midwives at the hospital and they told as to come straight in. So off to emergency, then up to the labour ward. I was made comfortable and monitors put on to check to see how baby was going and also how the contractions were going. By about 7 that morning contractions had pretty much stopped so they sent me to the maternity ward to settle in and have a couple of hours sleep. Tuesday afternoon I was taken up to the labour ward again and this time induced to try to start labour. I had the whole contraction thing but officially labour never started. So by the end of the day I was once again sent to maternity ward to get a good nights sleep and relax. I was also given antibiotics coz by this time it had been a day since my waters broke and of course there is always concern for infection.

Wednesday morning once again trundled off to the labour ward and once again was induced - by lunch time I was having major contractions (ouch) so I opted for an epidural - ahhhhh the best thing invented - on the monitor you could see each contraction but I didn't feel a thing. But by about 6pm I was only 3 centimetres dilated and the decision was made to do an emergency cesarean. I was exhausted, Olivia was doing fine, but it had been two days since my waters had broken so off to theatre I went. Now that was scary. I had never ever planned on having a cesarean - so had never really read up about it. But the midwives and drs and anethisist were just excellent - talked me the whole way through it and reassured me constantly. So at 8.05pm on 11 March 2009 our little daughter was born. She was then handed to Dr Baggley who with the midwife examined her, weighed her and checked her out. Our anethisist and midwife had my camera the whole time so took heaps of photos - which was awesome. Finally Ryan got to cut the cord etc and then she was given to Ryan for a quick cuddle before being placed on my chest for cuddles - wow what an amazing experience that was. I was finally holding my beautiful daughter.

Once I had been sewn back together (well stapled) and everything had been done I was taken to the recovery room to make sure everything was going ok with me and baby. Once again I was allowed to cuddle our beautiful daughter. About 9pm we were taken back to the maternity ward so we could settle in - Ryan stayed for a couple of hours before going home for a well earned rest as well.

Isn't it amazing how you can have the whole birth planned out. First of all she came 3 weeks early. I was at work one day and in hospital the next day. I had planned on finishing work the coming Friday so still had 4 more days of work. I was then going to have 2 weeks off to relax and clean my house and get things sorted before the baby was born (her due date is this coming Saturday 28th) but that never happened. I'm going to go to work again one of these days and take in pizza for lunch for the guys I worked with. I never got to say goodbye properly and it feels a little bit strange - its a chapter in my life I need to finish. I had also planned on being able to walk around, have a shower etc during labour - but once you have been induced you are on a monitor and can't really do the whole shower thing and walk around - you are bed bound - so there went that whole idea. Then I had planned on having a natural birth - hmmmmm that never happened either - c-section it was. I had also planned on breastfeeding - but that didn't work either. Oh well it hasn't put me off having more kids - I'm just thankful that I have a beautiful healthy baby girl - it makes everything so worthwhile.

Over the next couple of days Olivia was thriving and I was doing great so the decision was made for me to go home on Saturday 14th. On Sunday a midwife came around to check to see how things were going - I had a bit of concern about the breast feeding as on Saturday night I was up every hour trying to feed Olivia and she just wasn't satisfied - so off to the hospital Ryan went at midnight to pick up some formula. My milk obviously hadn't quiet come in yet and she was hungry hungry.

Monday morning the midwife once came again round and apart from being exhausted I seemed to be doing fine. I started expressing milk as well as formula feeding her which seemed to work. But by Monday afternoon I was starting to feel a lot of pain in the wound where I had been stapled up. By Monday night at about 8pm I was in soooooo much agony that Ryan took me straight to emergency. Had to wait 15 minutes and was then seen. My wound had become seriously infected and was ousing puss (yes not very nice at all) - I was put on immediate pain relief and given antibiotics through a drip. By 9pm it was decided that I had to stay in hospital coz it was worse then they thought - so once again off to the maternity ward I went. By that time I was a bit of a mess - I think baby blues had settled in, I was in pain and there was no way I was going to leave my little girl. So I'm bawling my eyes out and at the same time being very adamant about the fact that if I was to stay in hospital so was Olivia - no way did I want to be separated from her. So they decided that I couldn't look after her coz I was soooo sick so Ryan had to stay in hospital with me to look after Olivia. I had my own room once again so a trundle bed was set up for Ryan - the midwifes and nurses were excellent - they got a late night snack for Ryan (coz he was starving - missed out on dinner), they made him a tea and made sure Olivia was settled before we tried to get a good nights rest.


So there I was - spent another week in hospital. Apart from being in a lot of pain and not being able to look after Olivia I just can't complain. The midwifes and nurses looked after all three of us constantly - helping Ryan with Olivia. In some way it was just great coz Ryan had a whole week of learning how to care for her. Now he is totally confident - something he wouldn't have been if we had been at home. I was a little bit jealous coz all I wanted to do was hold her and look after her myself but it just wasn't possible. Of course all my meals were provided but also Ryan's - he got the lot as well - Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner and morning and afternoon tea and late night drink - I cannot complain one little bit about Rockingham General Hospital - they were fantastic. So finally on Sunday 22nd I was allowed to go home with a course of antibiotics and strict instructions on how to look after my wound so that it wouldn't become worse infected.

Yesterday I went to the doctors to make sure everything was going great and it was healing properly and Dr Baggley was very happy with how it was looking. So I'm finally off the antibiotics and taking things very easy over the next couple of weeks till I'm totally better again.



So today is Wednesday. The community nurse came by this morning to check on Olivia and me. She is a centimetre longer (52cm) and now weights 3.5kgs (her birth weight was 3.365kgs). All her reflexes are great and she is a very healthy baby girl.

All praise goes to God who has given me and Ryan such a precious gift and who has looked after me during the time of was sick. The Lord willing we plan to present her for baptism this coming Sunday 29th March 2009. Really looking forward to it. My mum and dad came around this past Sunday to try on the baptism gown that my mum made for Olivia and it was a little bit big - so some adjustments need making. Hopefully she doesn't grown too much now and won't fit in it.

We had to make the decision to go to bottle feeding because I was sooooo sick there was no way I could breastfeed and especially with the extra high doses of antibiotics and pain killers that were being pumped into my system there was no way I could breastfeed. I was tooo sick to express as well - so bottle feeding it was. She is doing just great and growing every day and is very healthy. At the moment she is in her swing just going for a sleep. She feeds every 4 hours (last night she did a 5 hour stint which was very thoughtful of her). I'm feeling really good as well and seem to be getting enough sleep - I'm going for afternoon sleeps when she is sleeping which helps as well.

Well I'm being totally spoilt as well - lots of meals are being dropped off. Sonya and Tash came and cleaned my house before I came out of hospital - which was just fantastic - Thanks Sonya and Tash. Olivia is getting lots and lots of pressies and cuddles from everyone (when she's not sleeping).


Ryan is back at work - but calls me every day to see how I'm going - I think he's a little bit jealous and would love to be at home with us. I couldn't ask for a better husband and father - he has been fantastic and I couldn't have done any of this without him.

Well I'll post some more photos of Olivia. Till next time xx