Oliver Seth Poulsen!

Oliver Seth Poulsen
Weight: 7 lbs. 10 oz.
Length: 20 inches

He's here! After 18 hours of labor little Oliver finally made his appearance at 10:32 p.m. on September 26, 2008.

The Birth Story:

Jayne and Seth checked into the hospital to be induced at 5 a.m. on Friday the 26th. Oliver's due date was the 25th so they were more than ready to meet their little guy! Pitocin was started around 6:30 a.m. and by the time I got there around 11:30 a.m. she was having some pretty decent contractions. Soon after I arrived the nurse came in to check her progress and determined that she was still almost 2 cm, but the baby was 'coming down' nicely. With how her contractions had been for the past few hours we were sure she would have been more dilated, but came to the conclusion that it was her first baby and first baby's take their time. Around 1 p.m. another check revealed that she was all of 2-3 cm dilated. At this point Jayne's contractions were about a 7 on a scale of 1 - 10 (ten meaning the worst pain she could imagine) so she decided to go ahead and request an epidural. About 45 minutes later she was feeling much better! However, she also began to feel a little nauseated so her nurse also put some anti-nausea medication in her I.V. And that's when we lost her...LOL!!! The medication totally knocked her out - which was a good thing since she really needed to rest. Those of you who know Jayne well know that she has a history of talking in her sleep. It was no different during her labor! :) Seth and I heard all sorts of fun things including a request to make Christmas cookies. :)

Once she woke up from her nap the nurse came to check her again and....drumroll.... barely 3-4 cm. By this time it was about 5 p.m. and I was seriously starting to doubt that this baby was going to come before midnight. Jayne was a bit discouraged, but she was such a trooper! The epidural had started to wane a bit so around 6-7 p.m. she was given a second dose. This one didn't seem to be as effective, but she was able to get a little more rest. Another check around 8:30 p.m. revealed that she was finally around 5 cm. Again, I spoke with my dad and told him not to expect a baby until the next morning since we weren't sure if Jayne's doctor was going to stop the pitocin overnight to allow her body a rest from the contractions. Instead her doctor decided to order a new mix of pitocin (apparently it can lose it's power over time?) to see if that would help get the ball rolling.

By 9:30 p.m. we were waiting on the new pitocin and Jayne was in serious pain. The anesthesiologist had administered a third epidural dose, but it didn't seem to be taking effect and her contractions were right on top of each other. Seth and I kept reassuring her that the epi would kick in soon, but it clearly wasn't. I was so amazed and proud of how well she took the contractions despite her pain!

Close to 10:00 p.m. (and still waiting on the new pitocin) Jayne's contractions and breathing were looking a little familiar and I asked her if she thought pushing would help her feel better. She said she didn't know, but when the nurse came in with the new Pitocin I told her that Jayne felt like she might have to push. I just wanted her to check Jayne again (even though it had only been an hour since the last check and she was not quite 5 cm) because it appeared to me that she was definitely in or beyond transition! So the nurse said, "Well, we just checked, but I'll check again really quickly here and see where we're at." After a few seconds she was done and said in a surprised and anxious tone, "I'm just going to go give Dr. Anderson a call and tell her we're about ready to push." (HA!) And Seth asked, "So how dilated is she now?" The nurse quickly replied, "She's complete! We're ready to have a baby!"

YAY!! Finally!!! She had gone from almost 5 cm to 10 cm in an hour! The nurse returned shortly and started prepping the room - then had Jayne do a couple of practice pushes. Once Jayne started pushing it really seemed to give her something to focus all the pain on and she just rocked the casbah! We could see the baby's head coming down with each push and after Dr. Anderson arrived it took only about 30 minutes more of pushing and Oliver made his debut at 10:32 p.m.

Mommy and baby are doing wonderfully!

Congratulations to Jayne and Seth!!! You are both already amazing parents and little Oliver is just perfect!

The official weigh-in!

My favorite picture... Jayne crying tears of joy as she meets her new son!

The new family of three!

A proud daddy!