Welcome Oliver Maxwell!

It's pretty neat to discover the reason you were born.

The boy has arrived!  Oliver Maxwell Turk was born at 5:00am on Sunday, May 22nd at the New York Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, NY.  He was delivered by Dr. Fayez Guirguis, who was telling jokes between pushes and reminding me how to push (which didn't help - my face looked like it had been through a meat grinder).  Ollie is beautiful and absolutely healthy.  Wanna hear how it all went down the day after the world was supposed to end?

All last week, I was feeling what I now realize were contractions but at the time I thought were severe gas pains.  Hey, I hadn't "moved" in a while!  Saturday night, Doug and I didn't really eat dinner.  I had a little bit of bran cereal and we went out for ice cream.  Skyped with the Cook family, who were all at home in Niles and watched Kenzie try to eat Mallory, then went to bed around 11pm.  At 12:24am, I woke up with a start - I felt that familiar pop right before you pee - and bolted to the bathroom.  Doug came and asked what happened and I told him that I either had peed the bed or my water had broken.  His face went white and he asked, "Do we call the doctor?"  My response, "Now that it's happening, everything I've learned just went out the window!"  I woke up Dr. Guirguis, who told me to wait until I had contractions and call him when they were 5 minutes apart.  So we went back to (a dry) bed to try and get some shut-eye, thinking that labor would take forever.  15 minutes later, contractions began at 10 minutes apart.  A few minutes later, 8 minutes apart.  By 1:45pm, they were 3-5 minutes apart.  WHAT?  Doug was rushing around finishing up the to-go bag, we took showers, he called the car service while I called Dr. G and we headed to the hospital with a towel folded neatly under my undercarriage, even though I wasn't having any drippies.

We got to the hospital at 2:30am, they immediately admitted me and put on the fetal monitor.  I was 7 cm dilated and 100% effaced, so almost ready to go.  I asked if I was going to be able to get an epidural and they said they hoped so.  Twenty minutes later, I was 9 cm and epidural was a dream juuuuust out of reach.  3:30pm I started pushing and because I do not want to focus on that awful part of delivery (the only part of delivery), I'll just say that it was the hottest and longest hour and a half of my life, with Ollie not as far down as originally expected, Doug feeding me ice chips and the doctor fanning me between pushes with a medically sealed catheter hose.  It just felt like a lot of waiting, but I used the time wisely.  I remember telling Doug that I didn't think I could do this but still encouraged the staff in my delivery room and even introduced them to each other if someone new came in.  I'm that type of girl, I guess! 

Theresa had told us that the baby would not come until we got good and pissed.  Right before Oliver was delivered, I remember saying, "Okay contraction!  It's you and me!"  The doctor told me to feel his head as it crowned.  As of 5:00am the bran cereal of the evening before was a slight regret but my bowels were clean as a whistle.  (I remember advising the group - "I'm pretty sure I just pooped again, you may want to clean that up").  By blowing out my bottom half, Oliver arrived screaming and angry with the world!  He scored a 9 out of 9 on his 1 minute and his 5 minute APGAR tests and everyone in the room were taking bets on how much he weighed.  I think the student resident was closest to the mark - Oliver Maxwell weighed 8 pounds and 10 ounces!

My first words after Oliver came out (that I remember) were, "I just pushed a baby out of my vagina!"

Doug was stuck on the opposite side of the bed of the baby because the doctor was between them stitching me up.  They couldn't hand the baby to Doug over me, so we just waited until the doctor was finished.  Doug got to hold Oliver first  - he sat down in a chair and just glorified over him.  It was a memory that I'm grateful to always have. 

Special thanks to my dearest husband, Dr. G, Dr. Katy, John and Tamika for all their support and hard work!

Here's his first photo:

 

He has brown hair, mystery-colored eyes (we can't figure it out), ten fingers, ten toes, paper-thin earlobes, a butt chin, angry fists, questioning eyebrows...and two of the most adoring parents in the world. 

More to come...