Presenting... Olivia Joy Hartley!

Okay, so here's the story. We checked in the hospital at 10:30 am Thursday, August 11th for my scheduled C-section. This is my last picture with Olivia on the INSIDE.

Everything happened really quickly once we were checked in. The surgery was over before I knew it. I could feel some tugging and pressure but no pain. Tyler stayed up by my head and held my hand the whole time. All the nurses and doctors kept telling me I was doing a great job. Mostly I was concerned that all of them were doing a great job. I remember the doctor saying "there's a little shoulder" then we heard a little whimper. Tyler and I both gasped and then she started to cry. We were both in tears. The doctor showed her to us for a brief second then the nurse took her to clean her up and weigh her. I wish we had a picture of all our faces when she called out "ten pounds, 4 ounces!"

Olivia was born with low blood sugar. This is a result of me being a Type 1 Diabetic. We knew this was a possibility. This is Olivia's very first feeding. She needed formula to raise her blood sugar. Since I was hoping to breast feed, it was really hard for me to see her being fed formula from a stranger. Not exactly how I pictured it, but still ok. My nurses were all so great. I think nurses make or break your hospital experience. We were very lucky in the nurse dept.

Everyone has their glamorous after birth shot, and here's mine. They only let me hold her for a couple seconds. They decided to go ahead and take her up to the nursery without me because her blood sugar wasn't coming up. After two more ounces of formula and a feeding tube, it was decided that she needed to be taken to the NICU. They brought her back to me for another short second before they took her away again.

Here is Tyler with her in the NICU.

After a couple days in the NICU, her bilirubin levels started to climb, so she was put on photo therapy. It was a day to day battle in the NICU. Everyday the doctor would say hopefully she could be released the next day, then the next day, then the next day. It was a very emotional time for me. I was up in my own hospital room a couple of floors up trying to recover from surgery. Tyler would wheel me down stairs for feedings.

Finally, after seven days in the hospital, we were able to take Olivia home. At that time, I had spent the same amount of nights in the hospital as I had in our new apartment. Tyler was so great helping to take care of us both. He jumped at the chance to do anything for me. Tyler's brother Jeremy and his wife Natalie have been a really great help too. Natalie was able to come spend a couple hours with me in the hospital when Tyler couldn't be there. She was the emotional support I needed while Tyler was starting orientation for Med School.

WELCOME HOME, OLIVIA!!!!