Introducing Parker Ben Olij!!!…..
Just a forewarning…this story involves the story of my labor, so for those of you who are not interested in reading about my labor and delivery, I suggest you skip the reading portion of this little blog. 
For nine months Mike and I were very excited to meet this little one, we never found out what we were having so the anticipation grew and grew, especially when this ‘crazy baby’ started to move around inside of me. From the first little kick to the last this baby barely ever stopped moving! So we referred to this baby as our ‘crazy baby’.
‘D’ day, march 20th….the big day, or what I thought was my due date, apparently I was off by a day, came and went, with no pending feelings that this baby was coming any time soon. That evening I went to bed hoping that I wouldn’t be 11 days over due again, closed my eyes and went to sleep. At 3am, March 21st, and also my real due date as I found out in the hospital…lol… I went to the bathroom, for like the 6th time, and on my way back to the bed I felt a little ‘gush’. Unsure whether this was my water breaking or not I told Mike to go back to sleep. I was sure that if it was my water then labor would be soon to follow, so I went back to sleep as well. No labor came. We woke up in the morning at the usual time, mike got ready for work and got him and Levi some breakfast. (kai was having a sleep over at aunties.) As I walked down the hall to join them, still not knowing and figuring that it wasn’t my water after all, I felt more little ‘gushes’ and promptly changed my mind. We had breakfast, called my Mom to make sure we could drop Levi off so that we could go to the hospital to see what was going on and did just that. We got to the hospital at around 8:45am and I was starting to feel the beginning of back contractions, as I had with Levi, BOOOO! I was so hoping to have ‘normal’ front labor! We explained to the nurses what was going on, they decided to keep us, ordered blood work to be done and said the Dr would be there around 11:30am to check me out and see what was happening. At this point, not a whole lot! One of the nurses told me to do lunges to get the baby to move so that the labor would also move to the front, so up and down the halls we went, me doing lunges….very ungracefully, and Mike and anyone else who saw me, laughing. At 10:00am we headed back to the Non Stress Test room so blood work could be done. By 10:15 the back contractions, yes, that’s right, still in my back!, were getting worse and I had to stop to ‘breath’ through them. At around 11:00 the contractions were on top of each other and ‘breathing’ through them wasn’t so easy. I remember thinking that this was how bad it hurt with Levi right before I got the epidural…ahhhhh sweet relief, maybe I should ask for that now, put me out of my misery cus I was sure this was going to be a loooong labor. The nurse came in and checked the babies heart rate through a contraction and wasn’t happy with how low it dropped, so she said, ‘well, I will just wait for another contraction and see how baby does’, and before she finished the sentence I was having another contraction, still all in my back. She couldn’t believe I wasn’t feeling any of the contraction in the front as she had her hand on my belly and said it was very strong. It was then she decided maybe she should check me to see if anything was going on. She left the Non stress room to go tell another nurse that I was having regular contractions and she was going to do an internal. By the time she came back I was having heavy contractions on top of each other. I also want to note that there was a lady in the bed beside me who had to listen to all of this…poor gal, came in to hear her babies heart beat and instead got to hear me going through labor…lol. Anyways, the nurse promptly checked me as soon as she got back, only to discover that I was ‘ready to go’! She very quickly called the Dr and told her she needed to get there NOW! Then called the other nurse to let her know we needed to get to a labor and delivery room, NOW! All this happened in about 20 min or so. So the nurses, ever so calmly, told me that after my next contraction we would walk over to a labor and delivery room. Ya, that never happened, there was no break and I told them I was feeling pressure to push. So they very quickly wheeled me, in the bed down the hall to a room. On the way baby decided that now was the time and I couldn’t stop myself from pushing. We got to the room, which was already set up, they lifted me onto another bed, all the while I was apologizing for the fact that this baby was coming and I couldn’t stop it. The nurses gloved up just as the Dr walked in, but she left quickly to get her scrubs on. By the time she got back in the room there wasn’t a lot left for her to do as baby was almost out, so she basically just had to catch baby. So 18 min from entering the labor room there I was, my perfect, beautiful, baby boy lying in my arms! Parker Ben. I would take this intense fast delivery any day over the long one with Levi. No drugs, quick and painful, but over before I had a chance to realize what was even going on…lol. So, we came in at 8:45, I labored for maybe an hr and a half, pushed for 18 min and we had our third son! Mike went out at 1:00 to grab tim hortons and as he was walking to the truck, thought to himself, ‘what just happened!!?? I JUST went in there with my pregnant wife, and now I have another son!” It was a pretty surreal experience for the both of us! We were not expecting this at all! So I would like for you all to meet our ‘crazy baby’ and third son, whom we are so blessed by, Parker Ben Olij….
Waiting to meet Parker.
Welcome to the world Parker!
One week old.
Our family of five!!…Praise the Lord!!…
The rest of Aubreys session…
I find I often will post a ‘peek’ of someones pictures, but then I will forget to post ‘the rest’. so here is how the rest of Aubreys session played out. Once she was asleep, we could do whatever we wanted with her and she stayed blissfully sound asleep.
Isabelle.
Here is a little peak at some of the shots from my session with sweet little Isabelle. She was sleepy, then not so sleepy…no wait, yup a little bit sleepy….and never mind, not so sleepy. So that is how the session went…lol. But we still managed to sneak in some pretty adorable shots when she did decide to sleep for those quick moments…
Aubrey…just a little peek….
I have done pictures for Anthony and Yvonne a couple times now and was delighted when they asked me if I would like to take some pictures of their newest addition to the family, Aubrey. If this little girl doesn’t melt your hear, then I don’t know what will!!! Here is a little peek of our session with her…
Kristi and Tyler maternity peek…
I met kristi a while back for a boudoir session, which was super fun, and she got a hold of me asking me if I could do some prego pics for her. We snuck them in just on time,( she now has a adorable little boy,) and had a great time doing it! Here is a little peek….
Shaylene and adorable Brooklyn.
Here is a little sneak peek of a baby/mama session I did with Shaylene and her six week old baby girl. It was good times all around…well maybe not as much fun for Brooklyn, but she took it like a champ.
Answerd Prayers.
Levi Michael Olij came into this world on May 3rd, 2010 at 8:27am. Weighing 8lbs 9oz. Here is a little story about the journey we took while waiting for him to arrive…
In 2007 we had our first baby, a little, and by little I’m talking a whopping 3lbs 14oz, baby boy. Malakai. Malakai came to us 2 months early by an emergency c-section. It was scary and sudden and we were not prepared for that at all. We were flown out to Surrey because I had developed a condition called HELLP syndrome and it was take the baby early or lose Mom. We thank God every day that we had a healthy little boy with no complications!:) However it was hard on the emotions not to have my new born baby handed to me after birth but instead taken to an incubator. It was hard not to have my baby in my hospital bed with me or even next to me in a cot but instead down a couple halls in a nursery. It was hard to walk away from him each night and harder yet to say goodbye when I was discharged and he wasn’t. But like I said we were so very, very thankful that we had a healthy boy and wonderful Dr’s and nurses to look after him.
So, that brings us to our second pregnancy. We were thrilled when we discovered we were expecting baby # 2!! We also were a little nervous and knew that I would be busy with Dr’s appointments, ultra sounds, blood tests and many other tests. All of them more then worth it if it meant preventing or catching early warning signs if things were to take a turn for the worse again. So we prayed every day for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. We also prayed that if it was to be,that we may carry full term and have a natural delivery. Something I dreamed of more then anything. To experience giving birth naturally. Holding my baby directly after giving birth. Breast feeding. All of it. So we had many, many talks with my Dr’s and specialist to talk about a natural birth (VBAC) and all the pros and cons that come with it. I was adamant that I wanted to give it a try. Well week 40 came and went with no signs of baby wanting to come see us. Dr’s would only induce me one way, with a catheter into my cervix with a water balloon on the end resting on top of my cervix. The pressure is supposed to help you dilate to at least 3 to 4 cm. however in order to get a catheter in you have to be dilated at least a little, enough to get it in…and I was sealed up tight. Week 41 came and went and my Dr’s started to talk to me about a c-section. I was crushed. I managed to push my luck and convince my specialist to let me go 11 days over due, which she wasn’t happy about because my fluid was so low..but agreed anyways. So we just kept praying that we have this baby naturally and if not to give us strength to accept other wise and that all may go well. Sunday arrived…day 10 overdue. Finally something was going on!:) I woke with regular contractions. Nothing to serious, but something. By 9:00am they had moved to my back…boooo! At 10:00 we had a NST booked at the hospital, everything looked good. At 12:30 the catheter was in and as soon as it was in I had my first experience with REAL back contractions…not so fun. We went home and I paced, went for a walk, lay down and discovered real quick that laying down was no good…and paced some more. At 7:30 we went to the hospital and at 10:00pm they took the catheter out and discovered that I was only just 2 cm dilated. By 3:00am not much had changed, I had made it to just 3cm and had now been dealing with harsh back labor for quite some time and to top it off had to be laying down because I had to be strapped to a machine the whole time to keep an eye on baby. So when asked if I wanted and epidural my exact response was “Heck yes!!” By 4:00am I had an epidural and was only 4cm. We were thinking that we would defiantly be having that c section. At 6:00 my Dr came in and checked me and with wide eyes said “sherry you are almost 9cm!!” I cried. She cried. I think even Mike teared up. We were having this baby naturally!!!:) I started pushing at 7:50 am and Levi was born at 8:27am. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!!! I held my boy right away. I breast fed my little man right away and to top it off he stayed in a cot beside my bed and then joined me in bed that night! Not only that, we left as a family the very next day! So this experience was all about “answered prayers” From a healthy, full term pregnancy. To a natural delivery and healthy baby! God is indeed great!!!!!!
Dave, Amanda and Avery.
Dave and Amanda just had a beautiful baby girl 2 weeks ago and while they were in town, stopped by for a quick baby photo session. Avery is adorable with all her dark hair and little chubby cheeks!
Wes and Monica.
Wes and Mon, my brother and sister in law, are expecting their first child…well….a couple days ago now. COME ON BABY!!!! Anyways, Mon asked me to take some baby bump pictures for her. We had a blast and Monica is a stunning prego momma!:D I just started going through them and thought I’d throw a couple up….
Wes and Mon
Sneak peak:)
I did some pregnancy pictures for two sets of friends in the last month…here is a sneak peak at some of the pictures:) I had so much fun doing them and cant thank both couples enough for trusting me and asking me to take these pictures!
Alvin And Sherry….
Anthony and Yvonne….(I have yet to edit these so there are only a couple..)
karyns baby bump
Karyn asked me if i would take some pregnancy pics for her and I was more then happy. We went out to kin beach and shot a couple family pics and some of just her. We had a blast! Here are some of the shots:)
