McCoy Moments: Ollie's birth story

In May we celebrated Oliver's first birthday. It came so fast. Way too fast. I hadn't even had the chance to post his birth story his first year. So now I'm finally here writing it down. Hopefully I can remember all the details. If not, I'll make some up. Haha. Kidding.

The Night before baby arrived. Bart & I went out to eat for a steak dinner date. If you know me well, you know I LOVE a good steak, but I could barely finish mine. No room in the belly!

Once again, my belly was HUGE! Like FREAKISHLY HUGE. And my body was so swollen. And Tired. And in pain...said every 9 month pregnant lady out there. I'm always amazed when I look back at my preggo pics that our human bodies can form, hold, carry, and SURVIVE a baby inside! How can you deny a Creator after you've carried life inside of you- knowing how little you have to do with all that is going on inside, yet a beautiful baby comes into the world- in all of God's glory and perfect way. It is truly remarkable and a miracle.

The kids were very anxious to meet little baby. And I'm sure they were ready to have a not so tired mom back into the picture. This pregnancy was super hard on me. All of my pregnancies have been hard, but this one took the cake. Totally worth it though. Always is! :) How easy I can say that when it's been over a year ago and it's now just a memory! haha! :)

Once again, I was asked if I was carrying twins. And I had to follow up with, nope, just one. I'm just huge. Yep, really huge. Yep, I'm 100% sure there is just one. There is this amazing thing called ultrasounds that check for twins. I've had about 5 and all showed just one baby. And yes, I do have 2 months left. Yes, I know I look like I'm due any day.

Why do people say such things? Don't they know I'm well aware of my freak show of a belly?! Haha!

On Monday morning, I started the induction process. We switched doctors due to insurance changes, so their way of inducing was a bit different than my prior doctors. I liked the prior doctors' way of doing it better. That's putting it nicely.

This was the first time we didn't find out the gender, and it was pretty fun not knowing. So many people had their personal guesses, and often asked me what I thought I was having. I truly didn't have a 100% gut feeling like I did with Jude (I knew the moment I found out I was pregnant with him that he was a boy-then it was obviously confirmed at 20 weeks), but towards the very end of my pregnancy with Oliver, I felt like baby was probably a boy. When we checked into the hospital, a lady that walked us into our room was talking and asked what we were having and what kids we already had, and when I told her we had a girl and then two boys, she said, "I have a daughter and then 3 boys after. She's our princess. I kid you not, when she said that, I knew our little baby was a boy. Call me crazy, but it was like I just knew.

Starting off with a smile on my face!

The classic clock picture- 8:20 a.m.

This picture was taken late afternoon.

With my other inductions, they broke my water pretty early on (and then I had a baby like 2-3 hours later), but with this one, they waited FOREVER. I kept telling them that I progress really quickly when my water is broken, but they just didn't listen. After a full day of HORRIBLE and steady contractions from the pitocin but no dilation progression, the baby's heartbeat kept dropping. That totally put me into a worry frenzy as well as Bart. They kept turning me side to side, and that helped a little, but every time the monitor signaled distress, I was panicking inside. I kept praying for God's protection over our little one and that He would give me strength and make me strong. Finally around 8 p.m. they listened to me and agreed to break my water. As soon as they did, I was dilating very quickly and it was baby time. At this point, I was so tired and just ready to have the baby. After pushing for about 10 minutes, the baby was VERY ready to come out, the nurse tried to call the doctor on her phone to have her come and deliver, but for whatever reason, the phones weren't working. I've never been sooooooo mad at anyone than I was then. (I wanted to offer up my ability to scream loud enough so that wherever the doctor was in the hospital, she could find me!) :) ;) The nurse made me stop pushing and wait for about 10 minutes till they could locate the doctor. It was very frustrating/painful/etc. I kept looking up at Bart and giving him a pleading & frustrated look. He was frustrated too, but our only choice at this point was to follow instructions and keep a good attitude- or attempt to. I didn't have a good attitude. I just hid it! :) Finally, the doctor came in, put her gloves on, and I was able to finally push again. After 3 pushes, out came our sweet baby boy. It was so funny because I always longed to hear the words, "It's a ..." (gender announcement) and of course I did hear Bart & the doctor say it, but I could see VERY clearly that it was indeed a baby BOY even before they could speak! It was like the only thing I could see from my angle, and I will always look back at that moment and giggle. Right away, Oliver was screaming soooooo loudly, louder and stronger than any of our other babies did when they first came out. It was like he too was mad at the way the delivery went down. He & I were equally annoyed and mad that they made us wait to deliver. Right away they put him up on me for the treasured skin to skin time. I can't tell you the kind of high a mama gets when this happens. If you've experienced this, you know. It truly feels like its just you and your baby and life is perfect.

The kids were SOOOOOO excited to meet their new baby brother. I was really worried that Zoe was going to be really disappointed as I knew how much she wanted a little sister, but she was thrilled and so proud. They all took their turns holding and kissing on Oliver. It was so sweet to watch them all adore him. I teared up.

One thing I will never forget was when everyone left the hospital, and I got showered, Oliver was fed and in his little bed, Bart & I ordered a pizza and ate almost the entire box that night. It felt like the days when we were newly wed and we'd order pizza on Friday nights, drink soda & just hang out. It seemed odd that those same feelings were coming back to me as I was sitting there in a hospital room after giving birth to our FOURTH child. That feeling was awesome though.

MeMa & Ollie

Ahma & Papa meeting Oliver

Bart's Aunt Jo Ellen came too!!

Oliver Zeke McCoy

Again, name meanings are very important to Bart & I . We've always wanted to give our children names with strong meaning behind them.

Oliver means affectionate and peaceful. It comes from Olive tree and the Biblical meaning of Olive tree signifies fruitfulness, beauty and dignity.

Zeke is short for Ezekiel which means God strengthens.

Day 2 visit

Sometimes I'm so amazed when I look at this little Tribe we have. They are fearfully and wonderfully made, and I can only give God the glory b/c He is their maker and Father. I am just honored to be chosen to be their Mama.

My cup runneth over

The kids were very into the bath time. Lots of helping and lots of questions.

Aunt Courtney & Ollie

Time to go home!

Oliver's hair was the lightest of all our kids when they were born. We had a feeling he'd be a blondie! :)

Oliver Zeke McCoy, you are a gift. I pray God's blessing and favor over your life.

lots of our cell phone pics for the month of may 2015

My sweet friends from church put on a dinner shower for me. It was sooo much fun, and I actually thought I was going to go into labor from all the laughter, food, and good times we had that evening. But I didn't! :)

This was at my last Dr. Appt before Ollie came

When the kids first met Ollie- precious

Ready to go home

Our little superstar

Meeting Uncle Sam back home

Sleeping through the commotion

Max & Jude not sure they are liking the crying side of Ollie.

Auntie Cailyn came to visit

Zoe, Cailyn and I were able to slip out of the house for a little fun shopping at the antique store.

Cowpokes holding down the fort

Cousin Johnny & fam came for a visit too (Ollie was about a week old here and Johnny is 2 months)

This double rainbow was extra special to me. Ollie is a rainbow baby. God's promises are unfailing.

Zoe giving Ollie his first bath at home

Ollie's 24/7 fan club

The sweetest

The boys lined up there cars/trucks so Ollie could "see" them. Welcome to the wheels world, Ollie!

Our first date out! So great!

Pool fun

Zoe's 2nd to last day of school. It was hard having to finish up the last few weeks of school with a newborn, but I have a pretty amazing husband and some awesome friends that were huge helps with picking up Zoe from school. Truly thankful!

It was also hard to finish up Max's last week of preschool since I was the teacher, but he was a good student and patient with our baby interruptions.

Ollie just going with the flow

Zoe's last day of school. I took this pic while I was nursing Ollie. It's safe to say that I'm a pro at multi-tasking. What mom isn't?! Comes with the job! :)