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

A blast from the past.

Well, Since I am recovering from having our new baby girl, I would treat you guys to the birth story I wrote out from when I had Austin. I will warn you, it is long. Hope you enjoy reading and I hope I have a new birth story to share soon!

I wrote these out and posted them on the bump, the message board I belonged to. There were 3 different posts and here I am to share....

The first post, written shortly after my water broke, before we went to the hospital. (I have taken out the things that are probably too much info)

Last night I was tired so decided to go to bed around 10:30/11. I haven't been going to bed since before anywhere from 2-4am the past week. Well, com0e 2am, I have to pee, then I'm wide awake. yay. I stayed up till Dave got up for work. I'm sitting downstairs and feeling a little crampy. I had one cramp after Dave left that was so strong and painful that I thought for sure I was going to squeeze the baby out right there. I finally get out of the chair, realize that it was probaby gas pain. I went upstairs, didn't feel anymore pains. Decided to go back to bed around 6.

Somewhere between 8 and 830 I had the gas pain again and went to the bathroom. As I was about to sit down I started leaking fluid. (Which in the past week has become a normal occurance since it takes me so long to waddle to the bathroom I may have peed myself a little) I go #2 then decide, hmm maybe I didn't just pee my pants. Got up went back to bed and laid down for about 5 min got back up waddled to the bathroom, sure enough, didn't pee my pants. My water had broken.

I call Dave and tell him he better get home. I'm pretty much trapped on my toilet because I'm non stop peeing involuntarily. I then think, oh crap, my mom has her remicade today. She pretty much comes out of it stoned. Because I'm stuck on the toilet I can't look up the number so I call my father in law and get him to look up the number for me. I called my mom and told her what was going on and gave her the option to skip her treatment today or come to the hospital stoned. I realize I should probably be timing my contractions at this point but I didn't have anything to write them down with. I find a pencil and use an empty toilet paper roll to write down the times.

I then get up, get a clean pair of underwear, put on a pad. It still felt like I was peeing myself and the pad wasn't going to do me any good so I went and grabbed the laptop and am currently sitting on the toilet while writing.

The best part? Apparently I completely skipped early labour and am right into active labour because the contractions are 3-4 minutes apart. I started timing about 50 min ago and Dave will be home in about 10 min so we will be leaving and I won't be on for the rest of the day!!! Yeah, here's hoping for an epidural when I check in, I'm in a lot of pain right now...lol.

Oh how I love how much I overshare on the internet. However, looking back over 3 years later there is a lot I didn't remember!

Here is my second post about the birth itself.

Austin Karl was born Nov 13th at 10:58pm. Weighed 11lbs 7.5oz, 23 inches long. All I have to say is ow. His head circumfrence was 39cm!!

When Dave got home we left immediately for the hospital because my contractions were getting hard to breathe through and they were 3 min apart. Got to the hospital and was only 2cm!! Very frustrated but they kept me because my water had broken. By this time it was about 11am. They tried to start an IV in me but I have really bad veins. The nurse was trying to get a vein to come up in my left hand while another nurse took blood from my right arm because I had elevated protein in my urine. My nurse put the needle in my left hand and couldn't get it in the vein. She then called another nurse to try and she got a vein in my right wrist but then it collapsed on her right away. They called in another nurse who finally got the iv in my right hand.

By the time the 4 needles were done I was bawling from the pain and frustration. Also the contractions were pretty bad (I guess I am kind of a wimp..lol) and the nurse offered an epidural around 1 because the dr was coming to give it to another lady and figured she would ask so that if I wanted one soon I wouldn't have to wait for the dr (We had already discussed whether I wanted one) I said no because I could still deal with the pain but did decide to have a shot of Nubaine instead. The nubaine was great, made me really sleepy and I tried to nap a bit since I had only slept a few hours the night before. I was able to breathe calmly through the contractions where I couldn't before because I was still worked up over the IV plus the pain of the contractions. The downside to the nubaine was that it made my contractions die down. They went to about 5 min apart so the dr ordered pictocin. After the pictocin had been running for a while my contractions were starting to get stronger again and I heard someone mention that the dr was coming for an epi for someone else and decided to get it then. (My room was right across from the nursing station so I heard everything..lol)

Thankfully the dr let Dave stay in the room with me for the epi. I was amazed how well I stayed still during contractions but aparently the dr had to do it twice, thank god I could not feel it! After that things were great. I could still tell I was having contractions but no pain. The dr checked me around 7:30/8 and I was 5cm. Around 9 I started feeling the contractions again and told the nurse. All of a sudden the contractions were horrible and I realized that I could feel my right side of my body again. The new nurses on were trying to tell me that it was just normal but I told them that I knew the epi had worn off on the right side only. They checked me at 9:30 and the right side of my cervix was ready to go but there was still about 4cm on the left side.

Coming up to 10pm I was feeling the pressure and told the nurses I needed to push. They checked me again and I was fully dialated. I started pushing at 10 and baby came out at 10:58. Because his head was so big though it was crowning but then receding more than normal. Another dr came in to help out because my dr was delivering in the next room over but ended up getting Austin stuck so they had to call for my dr and apparently her plus a million nurses came running into the room to deliver me. Within a few minutes of my dr coming in Austin came out. My mom kept saying look at him but there were so many people I couldn't see. When I first saw him I remember saying "Holy crap, what is he, a year old???" By the time Austin was born my epi was pretty much all worn off and unfortunately no one told my dr and she started my stitches. I was just told it was a 2nd degree tear but Dave thinks it was about 13 stitches. OMG they hurt. Yeow. Thankfully though they got me sewn up and everyone came in to see us. Apparently I looked pretty good for just giving birth...lol.

It's crazy the things you forget after having the baby. I blocked out the protein in the urine thing. I've even told my dr that I had no issues with protein. I've had quite a few issues with protein in my urine this time around and the dr has been monitoring it. I didn't even remember the issues in the hospital. Thank goodness for modern technology. And finally, a bit of Austin's hospital stay in story as well.

Poor Austin is very happy to be home now, he had quite the few days. First, because of his size they had to monitor his blood sugar so they had to prick him in the heel before 4 different feedings. He was a trooper though and didn't cry, just fussed a bit. Then, he was very mucousy so every time I tried to get him to latch he would start gagging and bringing up mucous. He really didn't eat much the first day but the nurses said until he brings up the mucous his stomach is full anyways. I had a very hard time getting the latching down and ended up with my nipples blistered.

Some time during the friday afternoon and night shift one of the nurses had said that he had jaundice and ordered blood work for saturday morning. Our day nurse was the first person who told us this info on saturday. DH had no idea that Jaundice was very common and was really worried thinking something was wrong. The blood work came back with a high level and the dr ordered him to go under the phototherapy lights. Dave was at home getting the house ready in hopes we would get to go home saturday and my mom watched Austin while I went and had a shower. By the time I got back from the shower they already had him under the lights. I have to say it's a good thing my mom was there, then some friends showed up because all I wanted to do was cry when I saw him under the lights!! He had to wear a little mask over his eyes and couldn't wear anything but his diaper. The only time he was allowed out of the lights was to be fed then had to go back under the lights right away. I felt so bad for him!! When DH got back to the hospital I think he was also fighting back the tears.

Also saturday because I was still having some troubles getting Austin to feed we had decided to supplement with formula. Even after having him on my breast he would still take anywhere from 30-40 ml of formula so he was obviously not getting enough from me. I started pumping as well as breast feeding and supplementing. My breasts were very sore and blistered right away. We're starting to get the hang of breast feeding now though but I have a feeling we are going to have to supplement with formula tonight.

We were hoping to come home yesterday but the dr and nurses wanted me to stay another night just to get a bit better because I was still walking badly after all the hip/pelvic pain I had before baby came. Since we were staying anyways we kept Austin under the lights so when they did the blood test for his jaundice this morning it was much better than before.

My lady parts are definately a little tender. I am completely swollen shut down there but it really isn't that uncomfortable to sit. My stitches are starting to get itchy so yay for healing!!

And there you have it. If you've continuesd reading this long, thank you. Hope you enjoyed this birth story.

It's a Birthday

It's my little man's birthday today!! He's 2 years old. Sigh. I does not feel like the past year has been that long. It's like, counting up to his first birthday I knew exactly when it was coming and was prepared for it. Something went missing this past year. Because before I knew it, here we are. Even having his birthday the beginning of October didn't really faze me. But the past few days I've been thinking. I have a 2 year old.

Will I look back every November 13th on that magical day and remember perfectly all the details? I don't want to forget. I remember the frustration I felt when my water broke. Thinking I had peed my pants, even though I was *right* there at the toilet. Then finishing and going back to our bedroom only to discover that omg feeling of, I didn't pee my pants, my water broke, the time is here! I remember running into our bedroom for clean clothes and my cell phone. Being uncomfortable with the leaking I just sat on the toilet. And I called my husband. Leading up to this date I hadn't been able to sleep and had been falling asleep around 6am. That night I went to bed at 10pm with my husband and couldn't really stay asleep. I wasn't waking up completely, but it was disturbing my sleep. I thought it was weird that I was so tired so early. I got up to pee at 2am and then was hit with the insomnia again, I was up until 6am. I had a bowl of cereal and kept having weird feelings, like contractions, but they were about 20 minutes or so apart and I really thought it was just false labour. Dave and I talked about him going to work. I told him to go ahead, thinking nothing was going to happen.

8:30 my water broke. Now, close family members know this, and the nurse at the hospital knows this and thought it was hilarious. As I had said, I felt uncomfortable with the leaking so I just sat on the toilet. I sat there for a few hours while I waited for Dave to get home from work. Knowing that I should be keeping track of my contractions I looked around the bathroom. I found a pencil and the core of the toilet paper roll. Yes, I wrote my contraction times on a TP roll. It was the only thing in the bathroom to write on, so I did it. Confession: I still have that TP roll. I packed it and moved it from Ontario to Alberta (I think.... haven't found it yet) and if I don't have it I think I will be upset. When we finally got to the hospital I handed my TP roll over and the nurse laughed. Oh well, it shows the steady consistency of 3min apart contractions.

When I first got pregnant and we talked about the birth, I was 100% sure on one thing... ok 2.. Give me the drugs, and that I didn't want a c-section. The thought of a c-section scared the bejesus out of me. Closer to the end of the pregnancy I remember thinking, ok, I can do it, I can go without drugs. I changed from give me the drugs to I will try to make it as long as possible without the drugs. Well, we get there and at one point (pretty sure before the epidural) I thought to myself, you know what, just do a c-section now and get it over with! So glad I didn't say that out loud though. lol..I did get the epidural and wasn't as scary going in as I thought. It was nice to kind of relax through the contractions. I was told to get some sleep but I couldn't keep my eyes closed for more then 5 mintues.

When I was given the epi I got itchy. But, because I was frozen even though I was scratching it wasn't really helping. Well, around 8-9cm dialated I went to scratch my leg and that's when I realized something was wrong. My epidural was wearing off. I scratched my leg and it was being relieved. I wasn't numb there anymore. Perfect timing. There I was, pushing and delivering without any epidural left. It's definately crazy but I'm amazed at the whole childbirth thing.

My son got stuck, and they had to lay me down flat to finish delivering him. I remember when he came out my first thought wasn't let me see. I put my head back on the bed, (apparently) rolled my eyes into my head, cried and thought omg it's finally over!! I didn't look over to Austing (who I couldn't see anyways) and my mom kept telling me to look at him. When I finally did look over at him all I could see were nurse and doctor bums because I wasn't propped high enough to see. I also remember as the nurse was carrying him over to be checked out she said "I'd say 12 pounds" I remember laughing to myself and thinking yeah right. We just had an ultrasound 3 weeks before and we were told the baby was aprox 6lbs. He was 11lbs 7.5 oz. he is a big baby. Big and swollen. But he was beautiful

And he is still beautiful and amazing today. It's crazy how this bundle of energy who runs around and doesn't want to sit with me used to depend on me so much, and how I used to get all these cuddles from him. He's super smart and suprises me ever day. He is also like his daddy and makes me laught at least once a day.