That Newborn Phase

(photo cred: Mela Photography)

We're finally venturing out of the newborn hazy waters & we survived. This time has been filled with many changes, lots of late nights & early mornings... but mostly just a lot of love. A lot of love for this tiny human who keeps changing & growing every day. I don't think I ever understood just how much babies can change in a day before I became Olivia's mom. 

I love watching her change though. She smiles so much & already has a bit of a personality. She likes to sleep on her side or while being held. She tends to smile & giggle first thing in the morning when she wakes up, but sometimes it can take her quite awhile before she fully wakes up. The moment you take off her diaper to change her, she shoots her arms straight over head and straightens her legs with flexed feet all in one BIG stretch with the cutest little duck face. She sucks on her fist now & drools all over your arm while making bubbles. These are the little things I want to remember.

I have mixed emotions about this phase ending... I so badly want it to stay, while at the same time, I am loving watching her grow. I'm happy to say I've figured out what she wants with certain cries & that I'm actually surviving on just one cup of coffee a day. Although, there are days where two cups sneak in there. I've learnt so much over the past months & I want to share a few things I have learnt myself...

1. You do YOU momma! Do what works for you, your baby & your family. There were moments where I started to panic or stress about things I could be doing wrong, or better... but then I was reminded that God gave me & Jonathan Olivia. He entrusted US to care for HER & no one else.

2. Nursing is really hard at first. There were nights where she would wake up, hungry & I would cringe... I wanted to provide for her but I knew what was coming & I dreaded each feed. My toes would curl while feeding her from the pain & I would just cry through it. Every feed. However, slowly but surely & a lot of nipple cream later, it got SO MUCH BETTER. My recommendations... nipple cream & a good supportive nursing pillow. (Because you're upper back will hurt like it never hurt before). Be patient with yourself, your baby & get help from a consultant or your midwife if you're struggling with the latch, etc.

3. On that note... if nursing doesn't work & you need to supplement, or pump... then YOU DO YOU. You are doing everything right for YOUR baby. And mad respect to you momma! ;)

4. You're probably going to cry a lot, physically hurt a lot from labour & fight more than normal with your significant other. Communicate, try to be positive & remember you're both tired... just because your spouse isn't up at night breastfeeding doesn't mean he isn't allowed to be tired. 

5. No one can truly prepare you for the emotional roller coaster of becoming new parents. You just have to experience it for yourself honestly. But remember, you can always ask your family & friends for support or help!

6. Your baby will smell like Heaven. Biology is crazy, because I've never met a newborn baby that smells as good as how Olivia smells. It's just how it is. And it's lovely. (When they have't just pooped or tooted I mean).

7. You don't actually need a lot for the first few months. Obviously it's fun to prepare & get everything ready as there are things you'll need further down the road, but the first three month essentials (including that first week postpartum) for us were:

• diapers & wipes
• sleepers (with zippers are best!)
• blankets
• soother
• kid vitamin d drops
• noise machine
• swing
• wrap
• car seat (obviously)
• coffee
• nipple cream
• breast pads
• water bottle
• pre-made freezer meals
• snacks (granola bars of sorts were the best)
• laptop/tablet (for those long days of feeding & you're too exhausted to do anything but binge watch netflix shows)
• nursing pillow

Things I have yet to learn:

• how to dress my postpartum body
• how to get Olivia to nurse super quickly & discreetly while out in public... still takes a few minutes to get all sorted out.
• how to ensure I eat breakfast before 1pm

.... and I'm sure many other things that I can't think of right now.

Of course, we got piles of information & advice from a lot of people, but I found the best advice I received was always from our midwives. They always gave advice/provided information, but it was always followed with: "you can do this, you do what works best for you & your baby". They informed us of what to expect always, while entrusting us with making the decision that best suited our family. These are all things I've learnt in the past few months, so there you go! Enjoy!

Olivia Agnes

Olivia Agnes - Born November 1st, 2015

We did it!! Our little girl joined the world on Sunday November 1st! Yes, I'm only now getting around to writing about her birth. (10 weeks after the fact). They really don't prepare you for the post partum world of learning how to breastfeed, long sleepless nights, accidental co-sleeping because your babe doesn't like to be put down or sleep alone (understandably), and the physical pain your body goes through after being in labour and pushing a baby out.

But, I'll share the story now while I can still remember it. 

This was the last picture I took at 40 weeks pregnant. So there's my final "bump date" for you.

At this point, I was basically living in pi's... and yup, I care not.

October 31st as we were heading to bed around 1am, I noticed my braxton hicks were hurting a lot more and were possibly the early stages of labour. I started timing them over an hour just to see how far apart they were... 5-8 minutes and increasing in intensity. At the end of the hour, they were 4-5 minutes apart and quite painful, so we called the midwife at 2am. By the time she arrived at 2:30am, they were 2-3 minutes apart and I was almost 3cm dilated... no longer wearing pants. Since things were progressing so quickly, the midwife decided to stay. (THANK GOODNESS). I was much more prepared for labour to start out slower and last longer, so when things didn't go that way, it was a bit of a shock. Chantel (amazing midwife) was so calm, reassuring & helped me the whole 12 hours. I'm so grateful for her.

After 4 hours of back labour, demanding the huz turn the AC on, then; "NO! OFF!",  the pool was ready and I basically lived in there the rest of labour, which of course resulted in one wrinkly momma. If only I was a mermaid, right?

At 9:35am my water finally broke! Yay! And then.... 3 contractions right on top of one another. . . . and no one prepares you for that experience. Double peak mode had commenced & it suuuuccckkkeedd. (all my Creighton friends I'm sure can giggle at that). And I thought I was in pain before.

Then I vomited.

The rest of labour was extremely intense with many contractions on top of each other with very few breaks. Each contraction generally lasted about 45 seconds to 1 minute. When the midwife checked things out again, it looked like I was about 5-6 cm, however already feeling the need to push, which is such a crazy sensation. It took every ounce of strength I had to not actively push... this lasted a good 2 hours. I believe this point in time is dubbed "transition", however, I think "hell" would better describe this phase.

Not much time goes by, and by 12pm I'm about 8cm when Ros (second midwife) arrived. When Ros arrived, my husband tells me that she walked in the door, and said "things are looking great in here!!" (this is the time I was roaring like a lion still fighting the need to push with every contraction). I recall gripping onto my poor husband's fingers for the final hours, asking for water & whimpering before another contraction would start: "noooo... I'm not ready".  I'm not too sure there was an exact moment where I started actively pushing, I just know I pushed for about 1 hour until Olivia was born. "Push where it hurts" they said. To which I replied "that's a terrible idea", while obeying their orders anyway. I'm proud to say I didn't drop the F-Bomb once. I do remember thinking a C-section would be nice right about now.


Once her head was born, Chantel had to use her 'midwife voice' and told me to "get out of the pool now!"... so I did... I hobbled out of the pool somehow...

. . .

with her head already born.

. . .

I'm not going to attempt to describe that scene.



Her shoulders had gotten a little bit stuck, so Chantel needed me to get out of the pool right away, because they needed her out ASAP. Also, the movement of me getting out of the pool & changing positions a bit usually helps get baby unstuck!


About two big pushes later, she was here!

Blue faced beauty with tons of dark hair. (which I predicted!) While Chantel suctioned mucus out of her mouth, Ros & I were wiping her down encouraging her to breathe. Shortly after, she was breathing & crying a little bit! It didn't take her long to pink up & Chantel didn't need to give her any oxygen! Yay!

I had tears of joy & relief at this point as I held her to my chest & we decided she was our Olivia Agnes. (named after Saint Olivia & Saint Agnes). My hands & arms were numb from labour, it hurt to move & I was exhausted, but she had finally arrived & she was perfect. So perfect.