Eric and Krystal

Olivia is growing and developing and changing even at one week.  It is so amazing to me!  Olivia had her one week check-up with the doctor on Monday.  The doctor said that Olivia looked great!  Her weight was back up to 7 lbs. 2 oz.  When we left the hospital she was down to 6 lbs 10 oz.  The doctor figured that by Wednesday she would be back up to her birth weight.  We are still trying to figure out and adjust sleeping patterns…we are all learning! 

I am going to post some pictures in the gallery

Olivia Elizabeth was born at 1:02 am on January 5th.  She was 7 lbs 3 oz. and was 21 inches long!  She is beautiful!!!  I am not biased either!  She is such a blessing to us!  It is amazing how she is making small changes everyday even at only 4 days old.  I am so thankful for her and for Eric! 

Labor was very very long!  It was in the 50s on Saturday so we decided to go for a walk around the park near us.  It ended up being a two hour walk around the entire park…I had a bit of an energy surge or something.  Needless to say my contractions started about an hour after we got back home.  By 4:30 (Sunday morning) my contractions were every 7-8 minutes apart, but they were really starting to hurt.   I had not been able to sleep due to the contractions and this being my first time I called the on-call doctor to see what to do.  She told me to go ahead and come to the hospital so off we went.  They connected me to the monitor to see my contractions and the baby’s heartbeat.  They were not concerned with my contractions, but they didn’t really think the baby was moving enough.  After an hour of the monitoring, an hour of walking down every hallway in the hospital, and another hour of monitoring they decided to keep me.  By 12:00 pm they had me started on an induction and I still had not been able to sleep.  By 3 pm the contractions are so strong I was having a hard time breathing through them so I asked for some pain medicine.  They gave me an iv pain med and it knocked me out!  I think Eric has some funny stories about the things I said during that time!  By 6 pm the pain med is gone and contractions are back in full force.  Going into labor I had wanted to go all natural, but after almost 24 hours of labor and no real progression on my part I decided that an epidural was the ONLY way I was going to make it!  Shortly after the epidural the contractions basically stopped so they broke my water and found that the baby had already had the meconium stool in utero.  Breaking the water helped to start the contractions again, but the contractions were also causing the baby’s heartrate to drop.  By 10 pm I was still not progressing and they started prepping me for a C-section, again not something I wanted to do, but I realized that this baby needed to come out healthy and safely!  My doctor had been out of town for the weekend, but he was home by this time and came into the hospital.  They refilled the uterus with saline to give the baby more moving room and the doctor told me to sleep.  No problem on sleeping.  It had been over 36 hours of no sleep and over 28 hours of labor.  When he came to wake me up about 2 hours later the baby’s head was down and it was time to deliver!!!  The moment I heard her cry it was like the last day and a half just disappeared!  I was so thankful that my doctor was able to be there and that Olivia was born safely and very healthy.  I am also very very very thankful that I had Eric there because I know that I could NOT have made it through or done any of it without him. 

You can go to www.our365.com and see her newborn pictures.  She was born at Missouri Baptist in St. Louis, MO  I hope to have pictures posted here in the next couple of days. 

38 weeks was Christmas so let me begin by saying a belated Merry Christmas.  I hope everyone had a wonderful day with family and/or friends.  I had to work the day before and the day after, but Eric and I were able to drive to my mom’s and spend Christmas day with my family.  It was really nice!  On the 26th, Eric’s parents came so we got to have some Christmas time with them as well!

Happy New Year!  We rang in the new year with Eric’s parents!  We didn’t go out, but we could see the midnight fireworks from our upstairs window!  It was nice to have a relaxing night at home!  

This week has been pretty busy!  On Tuesday Eric and I had our infant carseat inspected to make sure it was properly installed.  The hospital won’t let you leave with the baby unless it is correct…which I can understand for safety!  After the inspection we went to the doctor.  Still nothing happening yet!  I have to admit I was a little disappointed!  I am feeling ready for this little one to be here!  I go back to see the doctor next Wednesday and he said that if I am still not progressing then we would schedule an induction for the following week.  That would put me at 41 weeks.  I was really hoping for the first baby of the new year too!!!  = )   One good thing about this week is that tomorrow is my last day of work!  I have been pretty tired so maybe I can rest up before the baby comes!!!