Introducing Olivia Kalani Ogao

Having a planned induction can be so nice.  Jared had requested days off, my mom had purchased a plane ticket, Thanksgiving was set, the children arranged for, etc.  All of those carefully thought out plans went out the window when Olivia decided to come 2 weeks earlier than that planned for date.

Monday night a group of girl friends and I took a gift basket over to surprise another friend who had lost her father-in-law days earlier.  We got there after children were tucked into bed.  I didn't crawl into my bed that night until 2am.  The following day I had a doctor appointment.  I crawled into the lazy boy to have some fetal monitoring done and had a quick 20 minute nap before the doctor came in to say that she was sending me over for more testing at the hospital.  Olivia's monitoring showed some unexplained drops in her heart rate.  I drove over to the hospital where I had more monitoring and an ultrasound.  Jared walked in my room about the same time the doctor did.  Dr. Metz had called him to tell him what was going on.  Dr. Meinig, Jared and I talked about the options.  There was no way to know why her heart rate kept dropping, but it had consistently done so since I had gone over to the hospital.  At full term, the safest thing to do was to have the baby that day.  Jared left to rearrange his schedule for the day.  His next couple of weeks were insanely busy.  I knew that, but there was nothing we could do now.

I was not prepared.  I had no bad packed, no plan for my kiddos, I had left my house a complete disaster, etc.  I was nervous that Olivia would be very small.  Marley was 2 weeks early and weighed 5 lbs 13 oz.  Olivia was being born 3 weeks before her due date.

By now I was starving and it was about 2pm.  I made a few phone calls to friends to arrange for my kids -- sidetone:  I have never been so grateful for good friends.  I made 2 calls and didn't worry one bit about my kids.  I knew they were well taken care of and happy.  Such a blessing. I called my mom.  She found a flight.  A few weeks prior to this, I had freaked out a bit about Olivia possibly coming early.  We looked at Jared's schedule and I knew I would need help because he would not be around much at all.  When I talked to my mom, she said that if she came early she would drop everything and fly out to help and that's exactly what she ended up doing.

Before I knew it, I was being wheeled back to the operating room.  I had been terrified of this surgery.  Luke's  birth was a terrifying experience and I was scared of a repeat.  I shed a few tears before everyone came in to wheel me into the operating room and then the mood completely changed.  The anesthesiologist on call was the one I would have requested. He was confident and quick and was amazing. He didn't really give me a chance to be nervous.  He told me that Dr. Meinig and told him what had happened last time and that wouldn't happen again - he would make sure of it. He had me hug Jared as he started my spinal, he laid me back and told me in a few minutes I would start to feel nauseous and to tell him so he could give me something for it.  He brought be warm towels and was our photographer, telling Jared when to follow the baby and when to stay with me.  My OB and her husband (also an OB and both friends of ours) were both scrubbed in for the surgery.  There was a lot of laughing and joking and peaking over the curtain.  My uterus from my previous C-section was quite thin - transparent thin.  The decision to operate early was positive for that reason as well as for Olivia. Her cord had been wrapped around her shoulders like a shawl and had been compressing the cord which is why her heart rate had been dropping.  She came out at 6 lbs 11 oz (my biggest!) 18.75 inches long at 4:35 on November 10.

The good thing about staying out late with girlfriends before you have a baby is that they all knew that I was craving a pumpkin pie blizzard and I was so disappointed that Dairy Queen was closed at midnight.  I think I got 6 pumpkin pie blizzards the next day!  It was the perfect reward for having a baby.

It's now been almost a month since she was born and today was my first day on my own.  I have been completely spoiled and taken care of this time around and am very grateful.  My family was amazing, and Jared was amazing.  Every time I started to feel overwhelmed about how I was going to be a mom to 4 kids, my mom would give me a pep talk.  We have been so blessed.