Geneil Olivia

As it turns out our sweet little 

Geneil Olivia 

was born on

January 21, 2013

6:09 AM

8 pounds 20 1/2 inches

She's absolutely perfect!  We are so blessed to have a healthy adorable little girl in our family and what a joy she has already brought to our lives.

In the months and weeks leading up to the birth I felt compelled to "go natural" this time around.  Every time I thought about the birth I had a feeling that I needed to do it without an epidural.  I was really kinda freaked out about the idea until I talked to more women and friends who have done it natural.  As the time drew nearer my fears were starting to subside.  Then one night I asked Charlie for a priesthood blessing.  I don't remember much of the blessing other than he blessed me that the baby would come in due time and that I need to trust my body that it would function properly.  That gave me great comfort to know that my decision to go natural was the right decision.  As it turns out, which you will find out below, I didn't end up having a choice in the matter but I was ok with that.  Since I had already made the decision to go without the epidural I wasn't freaking out that I couldn't have one and I felt some what prepared for what lay ahead.  However, I'm not sure how prepared one can really be!

Here's how it all went down:

Sunday night around 3:00 AM I started getting some contractions.  I'd had contractions off and on all month long so I wasn't getting my hopes up about anything.  I just laid in bed and waited to see if they'd continue.  Sure enough they came about every 8-10 minutes for about an hour.  I woke Charlie up at around 4:00 AM and told him I think this is the real deal but I'm not sure.  So we waited another 30 minutes or so to see if the contractions continued.  They weren't really strong and I felt great between contractions so we just kinda took it easy.  Charlie took a shower, then I took a shower.  We got everything packed up and ready to go.  Charlie went downstairs and told his parents and by about 5:15 AM we were out the door heading to the hospital.  At this point the contractions still weren't too painful but they were coming more frequently.

As we pulled up to the hospital Charlie asked if I was OK to walk in or did he need to drop me off.  I told him I could walk, not a problem.  As we got out of the car the contractions got closer and closer and I must have had 3 or 4 contractions as we walked from the car to the elevator and I remember having one on the elevator.  We got off the elevator and saw a group of nurses having their staff meeting (we got there right at shift change).  We walked over to the nurses station to give them our information and that's when the contractions became more and more painful.  I was pacing up and down the hall and the gal asks Charlie how far along I am.  He told her at my last appointment on Friday I was at 4 cm.  Then she looked at me pacing the floor and looked at him and pointed to our room and said hurry!  

A flood of nurses descended upon our room.  One of them said, "here put this on", throwing a gown at me and said, "take everything off, don't go to the bathroom or anything just hurry".  As soon as I was changed another nurse was sitting on my bed and said, "I need to check you hurry and lay down".  I didn't really want to lay down I was having a contraction but she insisted.  Come to find out, I was fully dilated and ready to have this baby!  No way, no how was there going to be any time for an epidural or any kind of pain meds.  This baby was ready to come!!

From the moment I laid down on the bed, I closed my eyes and tried to focus on anything but the pain.  I could hear conversations going on around me but it was more just background noise.  I was cohearant enough to hear that my doctor lives about 35 minutes away from the hospital so they called the on-call doctor.  Luckily he was only about 5 minutes away.  There was a lot of commotion going on in the room.  A nurse was trying to get an IV in me and a number of other nurses were prepping for the birth.  At one point they asked me if a student could watch, I didn't care!  I just wanted this pain to end.  I was experiencing a lot of discomfort with the contractions.  I was scared that I wasn't going to know what to do and I was scared that the doctor wouldn't get there in time even though the nurse assured me she could deliver the baby if she needed to.  The pain kept intensifying at each contraction and before I knew it, I felt the urge to push.  After a couple of pushes my water broke and then the doctor came in ready to catch the baby!  I pushed through 2 more contractions (the most intense burning "ring of fire" pain I've ever experienced) and then at 6:09 she was here!

Later, the nurses told us that they had all seen us get off the elevator and when they clocked in for their shift they were told there was a woman ready to give birth and they all couldn't believe it was me!  They also informed us that if my bag of waters wasn't as strong as it was, Charlie would have delivered this baby in the car!  We were glad that everything turned out the way it did and now we have our sweet healthy little baby.  Our Heavenly Father is good!