Johanna Faith Overman arrived to the world last Thursday and life has been amazing ever since! We were not expecting her for another two weeks, but she had an idea of her own. It started a few weeks ago with my blood pressure being elevated. Although it had gone down and appeared to be normal, the following week it was elevated again. At that point I should have stopped working, but it's always easier said than done especially when you feel like everything is fine! My Dr. scheduled me an appointment with an OBGYN to have a second opinion and a stress test for baby if needed. Jeff and I left work on Wednesday thinking we would both be out of the appointment in an hour. Well my bp decided to be high again, so this physician sent us to labor and delivery to have the baby monitored. Again, his opinion was that it would be fine for at least another week but that we would need to continue to monitor it. Jeff and I then headed over to labor and delivery joking about how we were going to have a baby that night. I was showing no signs of labor, only 1cm dilated and 50%effaced, so labor was not looking imminent. I was wheeled up to L&D (feeling quite absurd) and there they hooked me up to a bp cuff. It continued to stay high and our nurse hinted that we probably wouldn't be leaving.
When we got the news we'd be staying, I immediately called my Mom to let her know. We were so lucky and she was able to get a flight out for the next morning. As we started to get settled into our room, the anesthesiologist came in to talk about our different options if needed. Because of a previous back injury and titanium in my lumbar, an epidural would most likely be unsuccessful. He recommended that we have a cesarean and that a spinal would also be unlikely to work. He did not recommend going vaginally, due to my elevated blood pressure. With him telling me this my bp had shot up even higher. Jeff and I were now pretty nervous, nothing seemed to be going according to our birth plan. My Dr. called and told us he'd be over after he closed up his clinic. He came over and sat with us for over an hour and calmed us down completely. He told us that it was completely possible and preferable for us to deliver vaginally and that he had no concerns. After he left my bp had dropped back down to normal range where it stayed for the remainder of the night. The anesthesiologist even came back to apologize for scaring us! That night I waited for a medication to take effect to ripen my cervix. Around 7:00am I was started on pitocin to induce my labor. My Dr arrived at 8 and broke my water- what a strange feeling! It didn't take long for the contractions to begin. I didn't know what to expect and I was looking forward to trying different laboring techniques we'd learned in our class. However, being on pitocin limited me to my bedside, and my bp limited me even more. I found myself in bed for the remainder of my labor. The contractions were very severe and very close together, there were moments I didn't think I would make it through. Jeff was an awesome coach though and he really helped me push through them. He never left my side and continuously helped me to relax, just as we'd learned in class. For the majority of my labor, I was completely silent and focused, Jeff said it seemed like I was in an altered state of mind!
My transition stage was extreme- it was one contraction after another, each one seeming to get stronger and stronger. Pretty soon I could feel the intense pressure, this part was very difficult for me. They checked my dilation and I was at 9- time to call my Doctor! Waiting for him to arrive seemed to take forever, during each contraction I focused on breathing but couldn't help but make farm animal noises during each, it seemed to be the only way to keep myself together. When my Doctor arrived he asked if I wanted to push- you didn't have to ask me twice. I was hoping I would be one to think pushing brought on great relief, but I found it to be quite difficult! I pushed and pushed and tried several positions. I felt the babies head and knew she was close. With a few more pushes she was out and we had our baby Johanna at 4:16pm. She weighed 7lbs 2oz and was 19.5 inches long.
They immediately put her on my chest, she was so beautiful. She wasn't crying and had her eyes wide open looking up at me. Our Dr. let the cord finish pulsating before he cut it (neither Jeff or I had wanted to, ick.) Johanna got to stay with me while the Dr. finished up his work down south. She was able to latch on immediately. The nurses couldn't believe I had gone with out an epidural and told me I needed to come back and teach others. Looking back there are so many things you second guess, should we have induced...was it just being in the hospital to begin with that made my bp elevate...could we have waited any longer... But the safety of our little one was all that mattered and the fact that it had been high made it an easy decision for us. Although nothing seemed to go the way we had wanted, everything worked out in the end. We have our beautiful little angel who we love more than life!
We had so many people there supporting us, it was so special to have everyone there to meet her. Although Russ wasn't able to stay for her grand entrance, he was there hanging out in the waiting room. We even had Kara and Tyler there via Skype! Grandpa Brian overcame his fear of holding little girls- he's a natural now. Jeff is absolutely in love, he loves to hold and cuddle with her every second that he can. She is going to have him wrapped around her finger!
Johanna Faith Overman arrived to the world last Thursday and life has been amazing ever since! We were not expecting her for another two weeks, but she had an idea of her own. It started a few weeks ago with my blood pressure being elevated. Although it had gone down and appeared to be normal, the following week it was elevated again. At that point I should have stopped working, but it's always easier said than done especially when you feel like everything is fine! My Dr. scheduled me an appointment with an OBGYN to have a second opinion and a stress test for baby if needed. Jeff and I left work on Wednesday thinking we would both be out of the appointment in an hour. Well my bp decided to be high again, so this physician sent us to labor and delivery to have the baby monitored. Again, his opinion was that it would be fine for at least another week but that we would need to continue to monitor it. Jeff and I then headed over to labor and delivery joking about how we were going to have a baby that night. I was showing no signs of labor, only 1cm dilated and 50%effaced, so labor was not looking imminent. I was wheeled up to L&D (feeling quite absurd) and there they hooked me up to a bp cuff. It continued to stay high and our nurse hinted that we probably wouldn't be leaving.
When we got the news we'd be staying, I immediately called my Mom to let her know. We were so lucky and she was able to get a flight out for the next morning. As we started to get settled into our room, the anesthesiologist came in to talk about our different options if needed. Because of a previous back injury and titanium in my lumbar, an epidural would most likely be unsuccessful. He recommended that we have a cesarean and that a spinal would also be unlikely to work. He did not recommend going vaginally, due to my elevated blood pressure. With him telling me this my bp had shot up even higher. Jeff and I were now pretty nervous, nothing seemed to be going according to our birth plan. My Dr. called and told us he'd be over after he closed up his clinic. He came over and sat with us for over an hour and calmed us down completely. He told us that it was completely possible and preferable for us to deliver vaginally and that he had no concerns. After he left my bp had dropped back down to normal range where it stayed for the remainder of the night. The anesthesiologist even came back to apologize for scaring us! That night I waited for a medication to take effect to ripen my cervix. Around 7:00am I was started on pitocin to induce my labor. My Dr arrived at 8 and broke my water- what a strange feeling! It didn't take long for the contractions to begin. I didn't know what to expect and I was looking forward to trying different laboring techniques we'd learned in our class. However, being on pitocin limited me to my bedside, and my bp limited me even more. I found myself in bed for the remainder of my labor. The contractions were very severe and very close together, there were moments I didn't think I would make it through. Jeff was an awesome coach though and he really helped me push through them. He never left my side and continuously helped me to relax, just as we'd learned in class. For the majority of my labor, I was completely silent and focused, Jeff said it seemed like I was in an altered state of mind! 
My transition stage was extreme- it was one contraction after another, each one seeming to get stronger and stronger. Pretty soon I could feel the intense pressure, this part was very difficult for me. They checked my dilation and I was at 9- time to call my Doctor! Waiting for him to arrive seemed to take forever, during each contraction I focused on breathing but couldn't help but make farm animal noises during each, it seemed to be the only way to keep myself together. When my Doctor arrived he asked if I wanted to push- you didn't have to ask me twice. I was hoping I would be one to think pushing brought on great relief, but I found it to be quite difficult! I pushed and pushed and tried several positions. I felt the babies head and knew she was close. With a few more pushes she was out and we had our baby Johanna at 4:16pm. She weighed 7lbs 2oz and was 19.5 inches long.
They immediately put her on my chest, she was so beautiful. She wasn't crying and had her eyes wide open looking up at me. Our Dr. let the cord finish pulsating before he cut it (neither Jeff or I had wanted to, ick.) Johanna got to stay with me while the Dr. finished up his work down south. She was able to latch on immediately. The nurses couldn't believe I had gone with out an epidural and told me I needed to come back and teach others. Looking back there are so many things you second guess, should we have induced...was it just being in the hospital to begin with that made my bp elevate...could we have waited any longer... But the safety of our little one was all that mattered and the fact that it had been high made it an easy decision for us. Although nothing seemed to go the way we had wanted, everything worked out in the end. We have our beautiful little angel who we love more than life! 
We had so many people there supporting us, it was so special to have everyone there to meet her. Although Russ wasn't able to stay for her grand entrance, he was there hanging out in the waiting room. We even had Kara and Tyler there via Skype! Grandpa Brian overcame his fear of holding little girls- he's a natural now. Jeff is absolutely in love, he loves to hold and cuddle with her every second that he can. She is going to have him wrapped around her finger!
I love this post! Your pictures are beautiful, and Johnanna is beautiful (good thing you got your camera early)! You truly are a rock star! Way to Go Emily!
ReplyDeleteI was doing fine until you had to use the phrase "ripen your cervix"...ick! :) She is such a doll! Way to go stud muffin!
ReplyDeleteYou did such a wonderful job Emily! She is lovely, lovely, lovely and it sounds as if the birth went very well. I am so proud of you and Jeff. Welcome to the club called parenthood, it's radical. Thanks for posting the details, I couldn't wait to here them. Congratulations, again.
ReplyDeleteHooray, hooray, yippee-kai-ai-ay!!!! :)
Now we have a new Overman to watch grow up in pictures. I just love reading you girls posts. Keeps us Californians up to date. She is just precious. Hope to meet her in person some day soon. Congrats to all of you.
ReplyDeleteWELCOME Johanna Faith the beautiful girl with the beautiful name. What a great story for Johanna to read about herself when she is older. I imagine all these kids will some day sit around with their blog books comparing stories and have some great laughs. I agree with Aunt Elaine continue the good work moms. Johanna your mom was right you did make a wild entrance. We even have some fun waiting room stories to tell you Ha ha ! We love you welcome to the family !
ReplyDelete