Olivia Mae Bowdish Has Arrived!!!

Matt and I are THRILLED to announce the arrival of Olivia Mae Bowdish on December 30, 2010 at 7:17am. She arrived 5 weeks early much to the surprise of her parents and family! She weighed in at 6lbs, 2oz and was 19.5" long.

On Wednesday, December 29, my mucus plus came out about mid-morning. According to my book, that meant that labor might start as early as a few days or a few weeks. So I called my parents and warned them that I probably wouldn't make it to January 19th, which was when they originally planned on flying out. But much to my surprise that night, my water broke! I was using the bathroom when I noticed I couldn't stop or control liquid coming out. So I yelled down to Matt to come upstairs and said, "So what happens when your water breaks?" I think the question threw him off... especially once he told me and I told him that I'm pretty sure my water was in the process of breaking! So we called my doctor, and she agreed that it probably was breaking.

So after a quick call to my parents and Matt's Mom, we packed a quick bag and headed off to the hospital. Luckily my doctor happen to be the doctor on call that night which was a great relief to me. She decided that we needed to induce labor because once the water breaks, the baby is exposed to the outside world and the higher the risk for infection. After being induced, I started feeling contractions about half an hour later... but thankfully I really seems to move along! When we arrived at the hospital I was 1cm dialated, but not long after being induced, I was suddenly at 3-4cm! At that point, I was ready for the epidural. What a wonderful drug... expect that after about 2 hours it wore off for me and having the doctor come back in to give me more didn't really do anything at that point. So the last hour or so was really hard feeling those really strong contractions and then pushing Olivia out. Poor Matt really had a hard time watching me in so much pain. But finally (and surprisingly more quickly than I had anticipated), Olivia arrived about 10 hours after my water broke.

I had always said that I didn't want to see the baby until they cleaned her up and everyone thought I would change my mind. They set her on my stomach, but true to my word, I didn't really look at her. I wanted my first true look at her to be when she was cleaned off and wrapped up! She was just beautiful and it was so worth the wait!!! Matt and I were full of tears finally getting to see our daughter in person! I only got to hold her a few minutes before she needed to be taken to the newborn nursery.

On her way up to the nursery her breathing became more labored so they decided to move her to the NICU where she has been since. At first she was on oxygen, which is very common for premies in altitude. But she has been off the oxygen the last couple of days now. I remained on the Labor and Delivery floor for 24 hours because they needed to watch my blood pressure levels which got elevated during delivery. So I had to wait until I was moved up to Maternity to see Olivia. In the meantime, Matt spent lots of time with her and talking with the medical staff about her progress. Getting to finally hold her was so special...

Olivia's main issues now are her high biliruben numbers, which is a waste product for red blood cells, and is common in premies, especially in high altitude. She needs to be under 9, and as of this morning she was up at 16. To remedy this, she is put under bright bili-lites which she didn't like because she had to be unswaddled and couldn't be held. She loves being held, so thankfully the last day or so she's had a smaller bili-lits that can be put across her back and that way she can be swaddled and we can hold her.

The other issue is her feeding. She has to be able to feed exclusively from either the bottle or breast and so far that's been a problem. Mostly because babies with high biliruben numbers that are put under the lights are made to feel sluggish and therefore don't feel like feeding. So once her bili numbers come down, I think she figure out this feeding thing and hopefully will come home!!! We can't wait to have her home and are so thrilled that she's arrived!