Introducing Olivia

Olivia Grace Dodson was born on Monday May 7, 2012 at 10:30pm. She weighed 6 lbs 14 oz and was 20.5 inches long. 

 

I went into labor at 5am on Monday morning, which was totally unexpected. Olivia's due date wasn't until May 23rd and I fully expected her to come closer to that date. In fact, I wasn't planning on leaving work for another week because I was sure she wouldn't come early. So when I started feeling contractions early on Monday morning I was sure they were Braxton Hicks contractions and that they would dissipate by the time I left for work. But I couldn't sleep so I decided to get up and take shower, hoping the contractions would go away. The warm water felt nice on my body and helped eased the tension that was starting to build up in my lower back. After I got out of the shower, I took a walk around our living room and drank a few glasses of water. I still had every intention of going to work that day since this couldn't really be the real deal - we still had 2 1/2 weeks. 

For an hour and a half I walked around waiting for the contractions to stop. They weren't that painful, just a little uncomfortable in my lower back and lower abdomen. I didn't wake up John since I was sure the contractions were fake and it would just be a false alarm, not to mention the fact that John didn't get home until after 4am and had only been sleeping for a few hours. But at 6:30am, while I was in the living room, I felt something new...wetness...in my pants. I went to the bathroom to check it out and discovered a slight dampness in my pants. I honestly didn't think it was my water breaking since there really wasn't that much liquid and I didn't feel a gush or anything like that. (We later found out that it was a partial break, but I didn't know that was possible until the nurse at the hospital explained it to us.)

Since I couldn't explain the damp pants and the contractions weren't going away, I decided it was time to wake up John. I think my exact words were "Honey, something just happened and I'm not quite sure what it was." And to that, John responded by jumping out of bed, grabbing the cell phone and starting to time the contractions. For the next few hours John timed while I breathed through the contractions and tried to find positions that took the pressure off of my lower back. The position that seemed to work the best for me was getting on my knees and leaning over the end of the couch while focusing on my breathing. The contractions were about 5 minutes apart and lasting around 45-60 seconds. Layla was so confused during all of this. She stayed right by my side, like she knew I was in pain and wanted to make sure I was alright.

At 8:30am I decided to call my doctor's office to ask what I should do. I know it sounds weird, but I still wasn't completely convinced that this was the real deal. Well, the doctor was convinced and told John that we should go directly to the hospital. John grabbed the bag and the car seat and I grabbed a towel to sit on in the car, just in case more liquid starting coming out.

We made it to the hospital at 9:15am, checked in and then waited, and waited and waited some more. We ended up waiting in the waiting room for more than 2 hours. I'm sure I was quite a sight, hunkered down in the corner, breathing loudly every few minutes, and holding John's hand with my super-human death grip. And then all of a sudden it happened - a large gush of water started flowing down my leg and my pants were completely soaked. Yep, my water completely broke in the waiting room at the hospital. We were called back just after that. :)

It took a while for the nurse to get me hooked up to the monitor, ask me way too many personal questions, and get me ready to transport up to the Labor & Delivery floor. I can't remember exactly what time we made it up to the labor room, but it was probably around noon. I asked if I could get in the bathtub and after they got me all hooked up with the wireless, waterproof monitors John helped me take a soak in the tub. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was a really nice reprieve and the warm water felt really nice.

After the tub, it was just plain labor for the next few hours. I spent the whole time squatting on a yoga ball and hanging on to John's hand with super-human strength. It was the best position for me because I could brace against the floor and the ball during each contraction and then I could pull my body up using John's hand which took pressure off my back and abdomen. Around 3pm the nurse measured me at 7 centimeters. I had been in labor for 10 hours without any medication and the pain was really starting to escalate. The doctor came in and checked me and it looked like my body was starting to stall out at 7 cm. We started talking about options and I decided to get a dose of pain medication through my IV. I was hoping that the medication would take the edge off the pain and allow my body to progress. Unfortunately, the meds had no affect on the pain and instead made me extremely drowsy (a side affect we learned about after the fact). So my next option was to get the epidural. I really wanted to try and labor without the epidural, but at this point, it was our best option to get through the pain coupled with the drowsiness. So the guy came in and gave me the epidural and I immediately fell asleep. I slept for 2 hours and John got a break from my death grip. Then we just hung out for a few more hours while my body progressed to 10 cm.

At 8pm I was ready to start pushing. They had to cut my epidural dosage in half so I could start to regain feeling in order to push more effectively. Once I could feel the contractions again, we started pushing. And pushing was a lot of work. It took focus and determination to push with all my might. John was so great during the pushing. He kept encouraging me, telling me I could do it and helping hold my legs. I'm so glad he was there by my side the whole time.

After 2 1/2 hours of pushing, we finally laid eyes on our precious baby girl for the first time. She came out, gave a sweet cry, and then settled onto my chest. It was so amazing to be finally be staring at her after 9 months of only feeling her. And she was so beautiful with the cutest face and the softest skin. John and I both cried. We are so thankful that God has blessed us with a beautiful daughter.

Homemade Nursery Art

I have so much to write about regarding the nursery...so stay tuned.

Today I wanted to show off some homemade art I created last night. I made these using Microsoft Word. I know, not very fancy, but it got the job done. Then I saved them as a PDF file and printed them on regular computer paper. I'll be putting these in frames that we already own and hanging them around the room. All of this art is made for 8.5 x 11 frames.

Do you want to know my secret? These prints aren't completely original. What I mean is that I didn't think up the design all on my own. I had some help. You can find all these prints being sold online. If you were to buy them online, you would probably get a nicer quality ink on higher quality paper, but it can quickly get pricey. So instead, I try to see if I can recreate a print that I like, using Microsoft Word. And I'd call last night a success!

The best part about making my own art is that I don't feel guilty when I want to switch it out for something different, because I didn't spend any money on them. This is also a great way for me to exercise the creative part of my brain. Try it sometime! :)

A Look Back - Becoming Three

I've been writing about our pregnancy journey which started back in June 2011. Click on the links to read about when we decided to start a family and our first month of trying.

When John and I decided to start a family, we also decided to give ourselves 6 months of good-old-fashion trying. No ovulation kits, no tracking cycles, nothing like that. For me, that just seemed like a lot of stress and not as much fun. So for us, we just decided to give it a go and see what happened. If, after 6 months, we still weren't pregnant, then we would revisit the testing/tracking things.

August trotted along like any other normal month. Except that we did a lot of dreaming about our some-day children. We talked a lot about our hopes and fears about having a child and continued to get excited with the thought that it could happen at any moment.

Then, in mid-September, I took a test and it was POSITIVE! I absolutely couldn't believe it. John couldn't believe it. I kept staring at the lines, asking if it was really there or if I was imagining that second line. We kissed and hugged and I'm pretty sure John had a permanent smile on his face for the next week. :) I took another test, just to be sure, and then I took pictures of the tests to forever immortalize the moment.

30 weeks

I made it to 30 weeks! Baby girl is growing....she's about 3 pounds now....and she's moving around a lot. I can't wait to meet her and see what she looks like.

Nursery Crib

The crib is here! And it looks great! Baby's great-grandparents bought her the crib and I know she's going to love it.  The white looks great against the gray walls, and the pink striped crib skirt just pops against it as well.

Here's a close up of the crib skirt. It has dark pink and light pink stripes, which I really love. I'm loving the darker pink color in the room. It looks really great!

And we're not the only ones anxiously awaiting Baby's arrival...

A Look Back - July 2011

In June 2011, John and I made a big decision. A really big decision. One that would change our lives forever. We decided to start trying to get pregnant. Whoa! A baby. So much responsibility. So much change. But so worth it.

We had been married for 2 years and it really had been fantastic. More than I could have ever hoped or dreamed for. I couldn't have asked for a better husband than John. God hand picked John for me. He's patient in the midst of my craziness. He's calm in the midst of my chaos. He's gentle and humble and an amazing servant. It blows my mind how much he loves me and how he not only tells me, but shows me his love every single day.

I knew from the very beginning that he was going to make a wonderful father. I mean, he has 7 younger siblings, for goodness sake! He most definitely has more baby experience than I do. And I'm so thankful for that. I'm so thankful for his loving heart and his desire to start a family.

We've been talking about having a family since we got married. We both want children and are excited at the thought of becoming parents. The past few years have given us time to be together, to learn how to be husband and wife together, to dream together and to ground our marriage firmly upon the Lord. We really needed the past few years. For us.

And now we were looking ahead, excited with anticipation, nervous about the reality of bringing a baby into the world. My, there were a ton of emotions. But mostly, I just wondered if the Lord would choose to bless us with a bundle of joy.

I won't get into all the details of what happened in July...I'm sure you can figure it out on your own. However, I will say that we didn't spend the whole month of July in the bedroom. I mean, I still had to go to work. :) j/k. During the month, we also hosted a good friend of mine, Brodie, from Rhode Island. It was so special to see her since she was about to move to Haiti and we weren't sure how long it would be until we got to see each other again. (It turned out just a few months, but we're not quite there yet in the story.)

As the end of July drew near, the nerves started setting in. I've heard so many stories where it has taken months, even years for some couples to get pregnant...and I knew it would be unlikely for us to conceive in the first month, but I was still nervous. And then the day came to take the test.

I got home from work and tried to act normal...no big deal...everything is fine...I'm just going to go to the bathroom, pee on a stick, and wait to see if my life is about to change. Those 3 minutes of waiting are like the longest 3 minutes I have ever experienced. John came in to read the results with me...

...not pregnant...

I used the digital test so that is exactly what we saw in the little window...not pregnant. It was sad. I wasn't sure what it would feel like, but I can definitely say I felt sad. July would not be the month. I know John felt sad too, but I think he quickly realized what this really meant...another month of trying.

Baby's Mobile

Last weekend at the shower, we had everyone decorate cards with encouraging words and verses. Then we had tons of embellishments for people to use to make them pretty. They turned out amazing! Everyone did such a great job!

I tied the cards together using thin, gray yarn. And then I hung them from a yellow embroidery hoop that my mom found at Hobby Lobby. Then I spruced up the hoop with some left over embellishments.


I absolutely LOVE how the mobile turned out! We actually have enough cards to make two mobiles so I'll be constructing another one soon. I think I'll hang them next to each other above the dresser where the changing pad will be. That way Baby will have something pretty to look at (or be distracted by) while she's getting changed.

Nursery Painting

The nursery is painted! Oh I am so excited! It looks absolutely fabulous. We went with "Friendly Gray" in eggshell from Sherwin Williams. It's a light, soft gray that I think will look really great as a back drop for Baby's furniture.

In our condo, we have 3 bedrooms...the master bedroom, the guest bedroom, and the other bedroom. The other bedroom has been many things to us over the past 3 years. It started as a junk room, a place to put all our stuff as we were moving in and trying to figure out what the heck we were doing.

Next, John convinced me to transform the room into a Man Cave. You can read more about that here. Yep, we painted the walls a dark blue and set up a place where he could hang out and do manly stuff.

Then, for about 6 months, John's sister moved into the other bedroom and John's cousin moved into the guest bedroom. I don't have any pics, but the walls stayed blue and we just moved all of John's stuff to other parts of the house while his sister was staying with us.

John's sister and cousin moved out in June 2011. Since June was the month that we decided to start trying to expand our family, we decided to leave the room empty in hopes that one day in the not-so-distant future it would become a nursery.

Since you already know that I'm pregnant, it shouldn't come as a surprise to find out that that's exactly what happened. So this past week, we got the ball rolling by hiring Jorge to come in and paint the nursery.

Jorge was a total rockstar and knocked it all out in one evening! He used one coat of primer and then two coats of paint on the walls. On the trim he used "White Dove" by Benjamin Moore (just some leftover white paint we had).

Now that the room is painted we can starting putting the furniture together and creating a nice space for Baby. It's so exciting! :)

A Look Back - June 2011

Have you ever realized that months and months have gone by and you can't really remember what you've been doing that whole time? That's how I feel right now. These past few months have gone by like that crazy whirly-spinning roller coasters that you can only ride at the fair....in fact I think my head is still spinning from all that's been happening.

Since I've been horrible about journaling about my pregnancy, I decided to take time to write down all I can remember about each of the past few months. That way it's down, in writing, for me to look back and remember. Wish me luck.

June 2011

At the beginning of June, our dear friends asked if we could dog sit their two dogs, Nigel & Griffin,while they went to the beach with their family. We said yes because we like our friends and when we dog sit for them, we get to stay in their nice house and Layla gets live-in playmates. It's really a win-win situation for all of us. Our friends were going to be at the beach for a week (if I remember correctly) and John and I were just planning on hanging out with the dogs and enjoying their back yard. We did enjoy their back yard, but the week didn't turn out quite as we expected.

A few days before we headed to dog sit we got some really sad news that John's friend, Tim, had passed away. The news was so unexpected as John had just seen him the day before and was scheduled to see him later that same day. We sat in shock for a while and then we cried. That morning was really hard as we thought about Tim and his family and had no words to express our sadness.

A few days later we were sitting on our friend's couch drafting a "speech" for John to give at Tim's funeral. John talked about Tim, about all the special moments they had together, about being friends, about how much he'll miss him...and I wrote it all down. It was such a honor for John to be asked to speak at Tim's funeral. He felt so blessed to have known Tim and he was grateful for the opportunity to share his memories with everyone. And John almost made it through the whole speech without crying...almost. The last few sentences got him and he broke down. It was so heartfelt and real and I'm so proud of my husband for getting up there and sharing his heart.

The day after the funeral I got really sick and had to stay home from work for a few days. Let's just say I became really acquainted with our friend's guest bathroom. We came to the conclusion that it was food poisoning, a first for me. It was absolutely horrible. And when I say horrible, I mean absolutely, positively, the worst kind of sick I have ever felt. I was up all night, which meant that John was up all night, which meant that the dogs were up all night...except for Griffin who slept soundly for the most part. Layla and Nigel kept giving me the evil eye every time I woke them up when I headed to the bathroom. And then when I returned from the bathroom, my spot on the bed was inevitably gone, replaced by sprawled-out pups. And then more of the evil eye, and even some snarling, when I scooted them out of the way and reclaimed my rightful place in the bed. It was a long night for all of us.

Even though food poisoning is only supposed to be a "24 hour" ordeal, I was completely strung out for 3 days. On the third day I was convinced that I could make it to work since I didn't want to use any more personal days...but alas I ended up leaving early as I still felt awful. Since my sickness lasted longer than "normal" food poisoning, some people (who shall remain nameless) politely suggested that I may not have food poisoning at all, but rather I should consider alternate explanations for my sickness. The most common question became "Are you sure you're not pregnant?" Well, I was about 99% sure I wasn't pregnant, but there's always that 1% of doubt that creeps in and causes questioning. Had I remembered to take my pill? Yes, I thought so. I couldn't remember missing a day during the past month. What if the pill just decided not work this month? I knew that was a slight possibility because it did happen to one of my friends. Uh oh. 99% was becoming 98%, 97%, 96%. Crap. That's all I could think about.

Yeah, I wasn't going to keep going on like that for very much longer, so I dragged John to Walgreens and picked up a pregnancy test, just to be sure. When we got back to our friend's house, I went back into the bathroom, but this time it was for a completely different purpose. I left the test on the counter and went out to the living room to try not to think about what I had just done. Then I made John go into the bathroom and check it because I was too nervous. Seriously, I was so freaked out. He came back and said "Negative." Yeah, just like I had thought. I wasn't pregnant. I had food poisoning. But what if it hadn't said negative? What if, for a few minutes while we were waiting, I had found myself wishing it was positive? Well it took me a little bit to admit my true feelings on the matter, but when we finally started talking about it, both John and I realized we had the same feelings. We both wanted to start a family. This wasn't the first time we had talked about it, but this time just seemed different. We were ready. Ready to start trying, at least.

Baby Shower Highlights

Mimi and Grammy...Baby is going to be completely spoiled!

Everyone decorated cards with encouraging words and verses on them...these cards are going to become Baby's mobile. They look so pretty and I know Baby is going to love gazing up at them.

Baby got lots and lots of presents...THANK YOU EVERYONE! I was completely overwhelmed by all the precious outfits and thoughtful gifts that we got.

My favorite part....ice cream cake with oreo cookies, complements of John's mom.

And now, lots more pictures so we can remember the day.