Olivia's Journey

Well Brendon asked me to write this so here it goes... WARNING you may need some tissues....

Life is a journey and not a race....here is the journey of Olivia.


We still can't believe we are home with Olivia. It seems like so long ago that we weren't even sure having a baby was possible. It has been a long journey which started over 2 years ago. We tried unsuccessfully for a year to get pregnant and nothing worked. We eventually saw Dr. Kim in the summer of 2009 who recommended having some tests done. Everything we had done came back normal. If everything was so normal- why can't we get pregnant??

Surprise! In September 2009 we found out we were expecting. We were so excited and couldn't wait to share with everyone. Everything was going fine in the pregnancy and then at 13 weeks I started not feeling so well. We took one trip to the ER and they said I had a threatened miscarriage and to take it easy. 5 days later my water broke unexpectedly. At that time I had no idea what was happening- how does someone's water break at 13.5 weeks? We were devastated. We know now and have learned so much from that experience. We learned that life is special and that miracles can and do happen. We knew that God had a plan for us and gave it to him to decide what will happen. We were told that we had to wait 8 weeks before we tried again...which we did and struggled again.

Finally I saw Dr. Kim again in June and he suggested one more test and then to start a round of Clomid in July. The test came back normal of course... at this point we were frustrated with being normal. Brendon and I struggled with being normal- isn't that what normal people do- have babies?? We decided to embark on the Clomid journey and really didn't expect anything to happen the first round.

We went on vacation to our usual summer place of Hunting Island, South Carolina- hence where Caroline comes from! I joked with Brendon when we were walking from the beach the one day that if we got pregnant that we would have to work Caroline into her name somehow. I never had any pregnancy symptoms and was getting frustrated that the Clomid didn't work. Well... I went to Zumba class as usual and had a hard time keeping up in the class and felt so weak and tired and thristy. I decided to stop for some milk on the way home and picked up an EPT test. So I took the test- and of course- 1 dark line and a faint line- what does that mean?? I decided to secretly retest in the morning- and the same thing...still I never mentioned anything to Brendon and hid the tests in the bathroom. When I came home from work I decided to take a digital test- thinking I was going to be disappointed I didn't even want to look at the test....surprise! Pregnant it said. I couldn't wait and called Brendon and we were sooo happy!

This pregnancy was different the doctors were diligent and I was being seen every 1-2 weeks at first. Everything was going well. Our doctor, Dr. Watkins decided to put in a cerclage at 12 weeks- just before all went wrong last time. Well the cerclage worked this time. We got to see Olivia grow and change over the months and we prayed that all was going well with her.

Fast forward.... if you have been following our blog...then you know what has been going on.

Last Wednesday I came home from work I was not feeling so well. I had a pain that I just couldn't shake and walking was becoming a real chore. I got worried and called the doctor at 11:00 p.m. She suggested to take some Tylenol and if it wasn't better in the morning to stay home from work and call the doctor. Well of course I didn't feel any better. Called the doctor and she suggested bedrest and then to call the following day. I called on Friday even though the pain was reduced but it was still there. Dr. Watkins decided to remove the cerclage which she was going to do anyways on Monday March 21st. After she took the cerclage out, she decided to see if I was dilated...boom... 3 cm. She said, "Yay! We're going to have a baby this weekend." In return I said, "No...I am not ready yet!!"


After the appointment we went for lunch and then came home and frantically started packing and making sure we had everything. I decided that I was not ready for Olivia to come and didn't want to move an inch. So we were ready to go Friday and nothing happened. Saturday rolls around still nothing... I decided at the last minute to go to my friend Malissa's shower while Brendon went for a bike ride. Still nothing and we decided to go for a walk...that didn't work either.


Sunday rolls around... still nothing. We decided to go for a walk again just on our street. Still nothing. Before bed I decided the spicy food trick and had chips and salsa for a snack. We went to bed around midnight expecting that nothing would happen. I woke up at 1:11 a.m. (Freaky weird) and went to use the restroom and nothing abnormal. I woke up again at 3:30 a.m. and I was bleeding. I woke Brendon up and I called the doctor. She said to come in and they would monitor me just to see what was going on.


We got to Gwinnett Medical at about 4:15 a.m. and got checked in and went to one of the triage rooms and was monitored. After an hour or so they decided to admit me since I was having contractions. Dr. Watkins was doing surgery that morning so she checked on me before the surgery and then came back around 10:00 and decided to start the epidural. She came back around lunch time and decided to break my water and start Pitocin. By 4:00 p.m. I was having more and more pain and pressure. So I was hitting the epidural for pain medicine every 15 minutes. The nurse came and checked me and said that I was 9.5 cm dilated. At 5:15 Dr. Watkins came back and I started pushing. Even though it was almost 3 hours of pushing, it went by pretty fast. After each contraction we would talk with the doctors and nurses about ordinary things. It made the experience very relaxing and even the doctor said so.

At 8:02 p.m. little Olivia decided to enter the world- sunny side up! Babies are supposed to come face down so this may have been why it took her so long to make her appearance. Dr. Watkins said if she would have known she was sunny side up she would have done a c-section. It was truly an amazing experience and not like anything you have seen on television or movies. It was an emotional experience that I will never forget.

We feel so blessed to have Olivia here finally. It is such a great joy to have a miracle happen. We also are so thankful for all of our family and friends who have been along side us for the past few years offering support, comfort, advice, and optimism for us. We truly are thankful to have such wonderful people in our lives.

Olivia is such a joy and blessing and we couldn't ask for more in life at this moment. There are moments that I can't believe that I am a mom- something that I have wanted for so long. I feel our family is complete with Brendon, Jake and now Olivia. Brendon has been such a great father and I love watching him with Olivia. The tenderness and gentleness he has for her is incredible. I know that God works in mysterious ways and have been patient with his plan for us and my patience has paid off.