Birth of McKenzie- 6/13/13 (cool birthday huh?)

Well what an experience is all I really have to say about Miss McKenzie's birth. It was completely different than Steven's in so many ways! I'm sorry this is going to be long, for records sake I'm making it longer than most will probably want to read. No hard feelings if ya don't :) Where to even begin...

My due date was 6/9, Sunday, and I had worked the night before. That time came and went and there was still no baby. My sister-in-law who was due on 6/15 was being induced that Monday 6/10 due to them estimating her baby to be pretty big. That Monday I kept thinking about how she was in the hospital about to have a baby and I was going to have to wait till Friday to get mine (that's when I was scheduled to be induced). Not cool right? :) Really though, after I heard that Casen (their little boy) was here safe and sound a weight was lifted off me. My "new" due date in my mind was Friday and I wasn't too consumed with it all anymore like I had been. It was fun going and seeing Casen and gave me hope for Steven-he was so gentle and even said his first three word sentence, "I hold her?" which he asked over and over. We at least knew that he'd have the gender right for our little girl, even though he had it wrong for their little boy :)

Tuesday came and Steven and I went to the pool. While there the silly munchkin decided to throw my phone into the pool and it stopped working. Mike was at work till eight and then he was going to be going to his parents after for a bit. Choose this time to have consistent contractions start. They didn't hurt or anything, but at the same time I wasn't moving and in the water when they started and like I said, they were pretty regular and frequent. So naturally I got nervous and wondered how I'd get a hold of Mike if needed. Turns out they didn't turn into anything, and if anything it just made me frustrated that I had semi gotten my hopes up.

Wednesday was my doctor appointment and I told her about the contractions. Then she checked me and apparently they had been doing something because I had gone from a 1 the time before to a 2, almost a 3! Yay! Something was happening :) Then she gave me the news that she wouldn't be surprised if I went into labor on my own and that if the contractions did come back then I would most likely go into or be in labor. Talk about lighting a fire under me! So I went home and after Steven went down for his nap I consistently did the stairs or bounced on the ball and got the contractions to be about every 6 minutes apart. I figured I might jump start the process. However I became tired and so gradually stopped doing them, especially when they slowed down with me. I got upset with myself for getting my hopes up again and tried to focus on Friday being the day again. I was still contracting, but they were more like every 10-15 minutes apart by the time I went to bed and I just knew I'd wake up with them gone in the morning.

Luckily I was able to sleep pretty soundly and get a good nights rest. I woke up around 6:15 (I had been doing that for quite a few mornings now) but this time I had some back pain with it. So of course I was wide awake and waiting to see if more contractions with the pain came. Sure enough another one came, so I started timing them (I had gotten an app on my phone that kept track of how long and the frequency-talk about technology nowadays!) and for about 45 minutes they were ranging from 2-4 minutes apart. I hadn't woken Mike up yet-I wanted him to get a good sleep and didn't want to get his hopes up if they went away like before. They then got slower, about every 6-8 minutes, so I got all depressed again thinking they were going away, but by the time Mike woke up around 7:45 to start going to work, I figured maybe I was in labor for real. Mike had a really important meeting at 10 though, and with Steven's long labor, we decided he should go into work for at least half a day, with me calling of course if they got any closer together at all. So off to work he went.

I went about my morning trying not to dwell too much on the contractions until they either got more painful or closer together. Mike's sisters were coming over to use our pool, and I wasn't going to go, but then decided to take Steven since he was way upset at seeing his cousins and not being out there with them. But I didn't get in-bless Stacie and Angela's hearts they were so good to help watch and take Steven in the pool while I helped watch the kids that wanted to walk around outside of the pool. This was around 10-11:30 that we were swimming and while there my contractions were 10-12 minutes apart so I was really frustrated and irritated at this point and left the pool to bathe, feed, and lay Steven down for his nap. One reason I was irritated was my Mom had just landed and I couldn't go get her because of these stupid contractions that made me think I was in labor but were actually going away now. So I called Mike and voiced my frustrations and asked him to get my Mom saying he'd be fine, the contractions were farther apart. He was going to go, but then we decided against it and to continue with the original plan of his mom picking her up. Irritating to have her so close and yet not get to see her! Lola (Mike's mom) was playing tennis and so I didn't know for sure when she'd get done with the match and when my mom would get to our house.

Mike was home about 12:45, and the contractions were closer together again and a little stronger. By the time we got word that Lola had picked my Mom up they were pretty intense but still only about 5-6 minutes apart so I figured we'd wait till she got home so she could watch Steven instead of taking him somewhere else, and then we could go into the hospital. Well...Mom came, and I think she was there literally for all of 5 minutes before we were out the door on our way to the hospital. I felt bad and was nervous how Steven would do after such a short acquaintance, but she said he did great and was fine! I was trying to tell her everything, but she could tell I was hurting and was nervous I was waiting too long and pushed us out the door. Probably a good thing...I called my doctor's office on the way to let them know what was going on and since it was business hours asked if they wanted me to come there to be checked or go to the hospital. They sent me to the hospital saying, "They'll check you there and see if you're really in labor or not". I felt frustration again thinking, "If this isn't labor I'm an idiot!" But it put doubt in my mind and with the contractions slowing from the every 4 minutes back to every 5-6 minutes apart, I couldn't help but wonder if maybe it wasn't labor and they were going away like before :( Looking back that seems so silly because they were still close together but in the moment I couldn't help but wonder and with Steven it seemed like the contractions really slowed down when I got to the hospital and I felt like that was going to happen again and that DID NOT make me happy ;)

We arrived at the hospital and were "admitted" to a room at 3:20. However they were really busy (we occupied the last available room apparently) and so we sat in the room for awhile before a nurse finally came in. She was the nurse who had put us in the room but wasn't my nurse-however when she found out we hadn't been seen yet she figured she would at least see what was going on and get me hooked up to the monitor. So into the bed I went, monitor in place and then she checked me. I think this was about 3:45 Her face literally changed to puzzlement and determination as she said, "You're having a lot of pain aren't you?" I replied, not really...I mean I wasn't having a contraction at that time. But she just looked at me with amazement and that determination as she said, "Well dear you're at a 7 with a bulging bag". I was floored! She just shook her head and said, "If this water were to break I bet we'd have the baby here within 10 minutes!" So Mike asked what that meant and she replied, "It means you're having a baby, we've got to get you set up-I'm going to go phone a friend now", and she hurried from the room. Through the door we could hear her frantically telling everyone about me and saying she needed some help. I looked at Mike, laughed, and said, "I guess we're going to have a baby!" Three nurses came rushing back into the room and started explaining things, starting an IV, getting the delivery table set up and stuff. They asked if I wanted an epidural and I replied, "I wanted to try to go natural, and I guess I have to decide now huh? So I guess no, I'm doing okay". They kinda laughed and said, "Yeah, you'd have to decide right now!" While doing everything, they were asking me admitting questions, which helped distract me through contractions although when they found out I was answering while contracting they got all weird again and told me I didn't need to be so tough and could answer after the contractions. But like I said-it helped distract from the pain that was becoming more and more intense, but not horribly unbearable quite yet.

I guess there had been some miscommunication and it took awhile for someone to call my doctor to let them know about me, and then the on call doctor waited to see if my regular doc wanted to come in or not. Anyways, it wasn't until about 5 that the on call doc, Dr. Bankston, came in to see me and check me again. I hadn't been checked since the initial admitting check. When she checked me, I was at a 9, so she went ahead and broke my water and then waited for the next contraction to see if I completed or not. It came and went and she said, "Nope, we didn't quite complete, oh wait, umm, yeah okay you just did. So let me go hurry and get on some scrubs and be ready to push when I come back okay?" Umm...okay? Before the doctor had come in Mike had asked me if I was getting nervous and I had said no. Then I started feeling a lot of pressure, and after the water broke I had to have him there holding my hand through the now very intense contractions, and I did feel nervous. I knew I didn't want to push forever like I did with Steven, and I was afraid I was going to be a wuss again. I told myself that I had to dig deep and just PUSH-yes it would bring pain, but it would be over faster if I could just fight past all that. So even though when the doctor told me I could push and I didn't really want to for fear of the pain, I did anyways and I didn't stop. Well no, I take that back. After my first really long push I asked if I could take a break. She kinda blinked-surprised I think-and said okay. But she didn't give me very much time before she instructed me to push again, and really I wanted and needed to. It felt long, and oh so painful, but I kept reminding myself it wouldn't last forever and that if I wanted it to be over then I had to do this. Oh and guess what? I didn't scream at all this time! :) I grunted pretty loud, but no one outside of the room heard this time thank goodness :)

The crew in the room was amazing and helped me so much with encouragement and instructions on when to ease up a little, push harder, helping stretch and massage me to help with tearing, telling me when she was crowning and that I was almost there, and then at the very end my favorite nurse saying, "Open your eyes, look down Camille...she's here". Oh how I wanted to cry! I just smiled so big and said hello to my little darling. Instinctively I reached down-I could see her little hand, and she grabbed my fingers! Just remembering I get the feeling all over again of love, connection, completion, and the joy her little spirit brought into my heart and life. I love that feeling-like I was being reacquainted with an old friend and how instantly connected to her I felt and really, the love I felt from her! I know that sounds silly, but when she grabbed my fingers I just was overwhelmed with a mutual feeling of love and excitement as if she were like, "Finally, I get to hold your hand again!" They put her on my chest and I was able to hold my sweet girl while Mike cut the cord and I was able to say hello before they had to take her away. So different than with Steven! I then asked how I was doing with bleeding (I had informed everyone prior and made sure they all knew of my history) but luckily nothing abnormal-just the normal bleeding occurred! I tore a little and had to get stitches which was also better-the lidocaine actually worked this time and I didn't feel them stitching me. When they announced she was 9 lbs 5 oz everyone in the room kinda stopped and were like, "What?!" and the Doctor said, "You small girls with these big babies I swear! That's HUGE! And you went natural!" Getting up for the first time I laughed...I didn't feel dizzy, lightheaded, and I didn't faint! I didn't even feel like I needed their support! SOOOO different than with Steven! I hardly felt like I had a baby compared to the last time, seriously it was that good and different.

Mike said that I only pushed for 4 minutes-that with the first push he could see the head, the second I was crowning, and then she was practically here after that. Then when I saw my regular doctor the next day she told me that I was topic of conversation at the office all day about how I came in at a 7 all calm like nothing exciting was going on, and then when Dr. Bankston checked me at a 10 how I was still smiling and laughing with the nurses (this was between contractions of course). But over all I have to say what a good experience it was. Some people have said that it sounds like a walk in the park-it wasn't. However, I don't know how much of it was actually contributed to an easier labor and everything with it being my second, and how much of it was contributed to my attitude. I knew more of what to expect and tried to build my pain tolerance early on and I think that helped me a lot. But I don't know if I could have done that with Steven-its hard to say. All I know is that in the middle of pushing I said, "Never again!" which I meant to going natural, but looking back I'm not so sure. (I know I know...how soon us women forget!) I really did have such a good experience and felt so good after which I've heard can not be the case if you get an epidural with the whole not being able to pee and then the pain being worse because you didn't feel as much during the labor. I don't know...thankfully I think I have some time before I have to decide again ;) The recovery has been amazing and good and she is such an awesome baby...I really have nothing to complain about. Steven loves her so much and hasn't been too bad yet. He has changed some and become a little more aggressive but its aimed more at me and Mike and not a terrible amount towards McKenzie thank goodness. He tries to steal her binky all the time, grrr... Anyhow, I'm making another post with pics...hope you enjoy!