She's here!
Finally, after a LOOOoooong 9 months, Olivia Leu Stoker arrived on Monday, February 17, 2014 at 1:43pm
We went in on Friday, February 14th and I was thinking we were going to have ourselves a little Valentine's baby, but the contractions had stopped and nothing was happening so we went home at 2:00 in the morning, still pregnant. We had scheduled an induction for the following Wednesday, which would've been the 19th, but the hospital called on Sunday and said they could get us in on Monday if we didn't want to wait.
Well, of course I didn't want to wait and it worked out nicely because the boys didn't have school that Monday so they went to stay at my parents' house. Jeff and I got to the hospital by 7am and checked in. I had originally thought I would try to have her without an epidural but I was so nervous about the labor that I was throwing up before we left the house that morning. Jeff gave me a blessing and I felt like everything would be alright and that I shouldn't try to make it harder than it had to be.
Looking back I think it's definitely a good thing we didn't prolong anything because when she was born the cord was wrapped around her shoulders and body. When I was having contractions the nurse kept having me switch the side I was laying on because Olivia's heartrate kept disappearing and they needed to figure out where the cord was. They didn't know she was wrapped up in it and Jeff had a hard time not doing something about that when she was coming out. But our midwife was amazing and calm and that was the easiest labor and delivery probably in the history of the world.
The contractions I'd had on Friday were much stronger than anything I felt on the day that she was born. The nurse kept asking if I was feeling anything. After discussing the plans for the day with our midwife, I told her I just wanted a quick and painless-as-possible delivery. She was all for it and afterword she couldn't stop saying how easy I made it look and how quick everything was. I had an epidural around 11:30 that morning after being on Pitocin for awhile. After the epidural my water was broken around 12:15 and our midwife was going to go have lunch, then come back and check on our progress. She had been watching my contractions on another monitor and came back at 12:45 and said she thought she should probably stick around. After checking me and finding I was at a 5, we called my Mom to have her bring the boys over to our house so that when the baby was born they could come straight over and be the first to meet their baby sister.
They didn't have time to go to our house because at 1:15 she checked me again and I was already at a 9 and getting ready to start pushing. They hurried to get the room ready and Olivia Leu was born at 1:43pm. Jeff and the nurse kept encouraging me to keep pushing but I felt like I could do that all day, it really was easy and I'm grateful for that. I told Jeff I could do that 10 more times, but it's the 9 months that I don't want to go through again.
She weighed 7lbs. 3oz. and was 21 inches long. We had originally been planning on naming her Penelope but for about a week before she was born I got indecisive and wasn't sure if I could picture her being a Penelope. So I wrote down a list of names that we had talked about and took it to the hospital. After she was born Jeff said he liked Olivia and since he hasn't had much say in the boys' names, we went with it and it's a perfect fit for our baby girl. Her middle name, Leu, comes from my maiden name, Van Leuven.
Mom brought the boys to meet their new baby sister.
They are all quite smitten with her, although when Owen walked into the room he wasn't quite sure what was going on and seemed confused and acted really shy toward me.
He has since warmed right up to both of us, especially after Olivia's bellybutton "stab" came off. He wasn't quite so repulsed once that was gone.
Olivia had lots of visitors on her Birth Day, I was planning on being better about taking pictures of the baby with those who came by...but I didn't do a very good job on that.
Uncle Ryan, Aunt Charly and Everly also stopped by, along with Kylie and Uncle Jeff. Grandpa Stoker came with Aunt Lauren, Uncle Wade, and Michelle. Aunt Kristen was there also, and I do have a picture of her with Olivia but for some reason I can't get it off my phone and onto the computer.
We were able to go home the next day, which was really nice because with each of the boys we had to stay 2 nights.
We were ready to be home and my Mom came and stayed with us until Thursday, which was a huge help and made the transition so much easier. Olivia has been a very content baby, only fussing when she has a bath or sometimes when she gets her diaper changed. We are so glad she is here and that things went so well. At her first check up with the pediatrician she had gone down to 6lbs. 3oz. and had jaundice so we had to take her back to the hospital Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to have them draw her blood. She had sad little feet and it wasn't fun but we're thankful she's past that and healthy.
Here she is, wide awake, on Sunday evening when she was almost a week old.
And here are Kamden and Owen, playing "Family" with their sister:
Owen loves spending his days with Olivia and he is a great helper. It's made my days easier having someone here to help get diapers or hand me wipes or keep an eye on her, letting me know everything she's doing and every sound she makes.
The boys are all very proud Big Brothers. Kamden came home from the hospital on Monday and wrote a note to take to school the next day:
Ethan and Kamden race home from school so they can have a turn holding her and they all talk to her in the cutest little voices.
I wonder how long that will last...
We went on our first trip to the Zoo with our 4 little monkeys last Friday when the boys didn't have school and they all wanted to make sure they had turns to push her in the stroller.
More pictures of our first weeks with our Livy Leu:
