Introducing

The newest addition to our family!

Blog Readers, I am pleased to introduce Mackenzie Annabelle.




Tuesday March 6th off we went to the hospital to be induced. We had to be there at 8am. I think Dave wanted me out of bed and dressed by 6:31 when they called to tell us what time we needed to be there at 6:30. I'm not going to lie, I was so nervous. I'd heard about induction horror stories, failed inductions, c-sections, etc. Who knew what would happen.

We got all checked in and settled into a room. The dr came in to check and see if ANYTHING was happening on it's own (I had been about 1/4 of a cm dialated for 3 weeks) and sure enough, nope, it wasn't. Cervadil was inserted just before 9am. The monitored me for about 2 hours. I was then sent to a room in the mom and baby unit instead of labor and delivery. I was put in a ward room with 3 other women. All who were on bedrest so there were no babies in the room. (funny enough the girl beside me lived around the corner from us) We hung out. I was on facebook and twitter. Austin came to visit us in the hospital around 3pm. He was very hesitant when he came in and wouldn't come sit with me on the bed. While Austin and Dave's dad were there I finally started to feel some contractions but it wasn't very consistent.

About 5:30pm I decided to start timing the contractions. To my surprise and excitement they were 4-5 minutes apart. Around 6:30/7 I let the nurse know that I was having contractions and she said I was going to be scheduled for a Non-Stress test around 9pm so they would check me then. at 8:30 they came to get me for the test. I walked over to labor and delivery, got all hooked up, they monitored me for just over 30 minutes. The nurse checked to see if there was any progress from the contractions.

I was dialated to 1 cm.

1 cm. sigh. The nurse left the room and I looked at Dave and said "Only one motherf^*$%& centimetre?!?! You have to be kidding me!"

The nurse consulted with the dr and they suggested I have some morphine and a sleeping pill. Then I could get some rest in case I went into full blown labor during the middle of the night. I reluctantly accepted because I knew I would be exhausted if I didn't get some sleep, but didn't want to because then I would admit that this baby? Didn't want to progress, even after about 6 hours of contractions. Stupid me, thought that something was happening for sure after those 6 hours of contractions. So, off we went to the mom and baby unit. Still having some very steady contractions causing me to stop in the hallway to breathe through them. A nurse stopped to tell me that the morphine/sleeping pill wouldn't be so bad, it will help me rest and if I go into active labor my body will wake me up anyways. Of course I started crying. I was a picture of lovliness walking back to my room.

Because I was in a ward room, Dave wasn't allowed to stay the night. He was supposed to leave by 9pm, so once we were done the NST he had to leave. Of course, I was crying and blubbering and didn't want him to leave. I was worried about him making it back in time (It's about a 25 minute drive to the hospital from our place) and I didn't want to go through active labor alone, in a room with sleeping women, trying to be quiet so I don't wake them up. But, he had to go. So off he went and the nurse gave me my meds. I fought sleep, tried to stay up and watch the duggars. I was also sweating. The nurse came in to check on me and found me half naked, sitting up with my phone in my hand, (I was on my message board) one headphone in, and passed out cold. Finally I gave in and laid down.

Sometime around midnight I woke up to contractions. I pulled out my iPod and started timing the contractions on my app. (It's called Full Term. It was free and worked well!)They were so mild though that I was falling back asleep and forgetting to stop the timer. About an hour of this and I had the brilliant idea to just start then stop the timer when I got a contraction, then I would at least know how quickly they were coming. They were every 1-2 minutes apart and getting more painful. This was about 1:45am. I buzzed the nurse and asked if I should call my husband to have him come back.


She took me over to labor and delivery to see what was up. They checked me at 2:30. I was starting to get to the point that I couldn't talk comfortably through the contractions. A whopping 2cm. Frustrated,(but I didn't swear this time) she offered me more morphine to try and go back to sleep. I agreed thinking if they were this bad and I only progressed 1cm, I was in for long night. Got the shot, finished doing the monitoring. The contractions, omg they were getting so hard and painful. So bad the morphine had no impact. I was trying to sit up and the pain was so bad down below that I was trying to push myself off the bed with my arms to try and ease the pain. This was 3:45 and she checked me again, a 4-5cm. I was freaking out that we needed to call Dave NOW! However, when I went over to labor and delivery I didn't take my phone so I had to wait for someone to go get it for me. (I swear it felt like an hour for them to bring me my phone.) Finally called Dave to come in at 4am.


I went into this hoping I could avoid an epidural. It wore off with Austin so I knew I could do the pushing without one, plus for months afterwards I had back pain that I *think* was from the epi. The pain was so strong though that I was throwing up (which was hell because pain was shooting through my uterus when I threw up) so I said yes please! to the epi. By the time Dave got to the hospital at 4:30 I already had my Epi. Shortly after Dave got there the Dr came in to check me out, I was at 7cm and she was going to break my water.


Water broken and Epi in I laid in bed and dozed off and on. About 5:30 I started feeling the painful contractions and actually saying ow. 2 of these painful ones then I felt a whole bunch of water gush even though I wasn't doing anything. I Told Dave he needed to call someone to come check me because I think I might have to push. Sure enough, the nurse checked and I was a full 10cm. She told me not to push so they could get the dr.

The dr told me to do a push to see how I was doing. After the first push I asked if they had a mirror or something so I could watch. It was something I never thought I would ever ask for, but after Austin I was rather curious and thought it would be an amazing thing to see. I was told that there wouldn't be enough time. I was a little confused but pushed again, was told to do just a small push that time, then a big push and out baby came.

That's right, 3 pushes.


They took her over to the monitors to check her out and I just looked at Dave in disbelief and kept saying "did that really just happen?" and "3 pushes? are you kidding me?" Due to her super speedy delivery she was pretty bruised in the face and scored low on her 1 min apgars. The dr and nurses decided it would be best to take her over to the NICU to make sure she was doing ok, they figured it was just because she was in shock still from the quick delivery. Finally finished in labor and delivery (managed to escape without any tearing!!) and was on our way back to my other room and they asked if we wanted to stop by the ICN (what they call their NICU) and feed her. We did and she latched right on like a champion. I fed her for a while then had to go back to my room because I was exhausted.



Our little girl in the ICN


I attempted to text everyone and update my facebook and message board, but just kept falling asleep. I kept dozing off while talking and doing anything. It was a long long day of very little sleep. Baby finally joined us in our room after about 3 hours of monitoring in the ICN and Dave and I looked at each other and said, "ok, what is her name going to be?" We had been leaning towards Caroline but something in my gut wasn't saying "yes! That's it!!" so we didn't tell anyone. I am glad we didn't because she just didn't look like a Caroline to me so we finally decided on Mackenzie.

She's now almost 2 weeks old and we're all so in love with her. Austin is an amazing big brother and loves to help out (whether we need him to or not. lol) and make sure she has a blanket.

Finally, enjoy some cute baby pictures!










Austin meeting his sister and giving her kisses