Cooking, Crafting & Kids: Makenzie Lynne's Birth Story ~ August 2nd, 2013 ~

We may have missed our post on Wednesday but I assure you these next few posts are going to be totally worth it!!

Here is the story of Makenzie Lynne’s arrival on August 2nd, 2013 at 9:03am.

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we.

Wednesday, July 31st:

Ross and I were in the Doctor’s office for our 38 week appointment. I was still only dilated 1-2cm and 50% effaced and our Doctor began to talk to us about our birth plan and the likelihood of an induction. She recommended that we go home and discuss at what point we would consider induction (she recommended between 7-10 days overdue). She was adamant that I wouldn’t be able to fight them for going much past 10 days.

My birth plan consisted of the following:

I want to go as natural as possible but I am not ruling any options out at this point. However, I would love to not have to have a c-section if at all possible and would like to go into labor on my own, I’m just not a fan of being induced medically.

Thursday, August 1st:

Just a normal Thursday, Ross and I went to the gym to get a swim workout (me) and a weights workout (Ross) in for the day. As we were swimming our first laps I had only gone down and back once and had felt an interesting sensation in my lower abdomen. It felt like slight discomfort but was nothing that concerned me, it was just a little different. The discomfort subsided shortly and we continued our workout. Later that afternoon I felt the discomfort again and this time it lasted a little longer, but again it subsided. It wasn’t until late afternoon that the discomfort came back, this time a little bit stronger. This is about the time when I decided to download a contraction monitoring app (just in case). At 6:30pm I decided to start tracking when the discomfort began and stopped. By now the discomfort felt more like period cramps in both the lower front of my abdomen and in my lower back.

Ross was going to be leaving for work around 9:00pm so I began to research what early labor was. Ross didn’t believe me when I told him I thought I was in early labor, but in the books early labor could last days to weeks so I wasn’t too worried about it especially being a week and half from my due date. As the night went on I began to consider this discomfort to be contractions since it would come and go similar to my braxton hicks but completely different at the same time; different location and different pain. I had posted about my irregular contractions and was wondering if they were real or false labor pains. I had several people recommend calling my doctor and several that said it wasn’t anything to worry about. I decided to stick with the 5-1-1 rule. I didn’t want to be that lady that goes in at 2cm with false labor pains just to be sent home. So Ross left for work at 9:00pm and I turned on Grown Ups for a good laugh.

Halfway through the movie I called my sister in law next door and asked if she had a minute to talk about labor pains. We talked for a while and I was having sporadic contractions that were starting to feel a little stronger. She went home after a little while and I decided to watch some more movies. I wasn’t very tired. I finally decided to call my doctor around midnight and he said that because my pain level wasn’t a 7-8 and the contractions weren’t consistent that I didn’t need to go anywhere. He actually said he wouldn’t be surprised if I had our baby in the next 3-5 days! I was shocked!. So I called Ross and my mom with the update. My mom recommended trying to get some sleep and that laying down might help ease the pain of the contractions. That was a big fat negative! After almost 40 minutes I couldn’t take laying down, the only position that provided any sort of relief was laying on an exercise ball and rocking back and forth. by this point the contractions were averaging between 5-8 minutes apart and a minute long or longer. Still I was thinking that’s not good enough to warrant calling again. The first contraction where I got sick I thought “something is up, I didn’t eat anything bad, I’m not sick, hmm”. So I decided to track even more seriously between 1:00am and 2:00am. If the contractions were less than 5 minuted apart during this time I was calling again!

Wouldn’t you know it, the contractions increased in strength, I began vomiting with the super strong ones, and they were coming every 3-5 minutes and lasting for 1+ minutes. 2:00am hit and I called my doctor. Sure enough he said to go to Labor and Delivery and get checked out. So I called Ross, and I called my sister in law and asked if she was ready for “round 1” (I really didn’t think I would stay at the hospital), and I called my mom.

I was admitted at 2:45am and was dilated to 4cm!!! Ross was on his way straight from work and my mom and sister hopped in the car and headed to Walnut Creek. In an hour’s time the contractions had gotten so much stronger it was difficult to breathe through them but Ross was so helpful. My water broke naturally as I was taking a bathroom break and my nurse asked if I wanted to be checked again. In one hour I had gone from 4cm to 8cm!!! Here is my reaction, “8!!!! What!!!!! Is there still time for an epidural?” I had waved the white flag, I wasn’t going to try to be a hero. I had experienced quite a bit of the birth experience and now I really wanted to be able to enjoy the birthing process so they hooked me up with an epidural and it was glorious!

Shortly after being administered the epidural and it had taken I was feeling pretty good. I felt the tightness in my belly from the contractions but that was it, no pain! All of a sudden a flood of nurses rush into our room, one checks my cervix, one quickly puts an oxygen mask on me, and others are just busy doing something. I look at Ross like, “what is going on?” and he gives me the same look. The nurses worked so fast without saying a word to each other, or to me. Then a nurse says they are going to put me head down and before I know it my bed swings up and my feet are in the air and my head is tipped down. “What is going on???” Is all I can think. Then a nurse tells me I am getting a shot of medicine to slow labor. huh??? I was so confused.

Apparently Makenzie nose dived into my pelvic cavity and her heart rate had dropped. At this point I was at 10 cm and station +2! I knew that meant delivery was right around the corner, so I thought. The medicine definitely worked. Her heart rate was regulated and she moved back up and I dilated down to 9.5cm. The nurse said I would labor on my own for an hour and then they would check me to see how things were going.

I ended up “laboring down” for about 2 hours and had dilated back to 10cm and was fully ready, then at 8:00am my nurse said I was having a strong contraction and that I should push so I started pushing!

When all the commotion was going on my mom and sister were still 20 minutes from the hospital and Ross had texted them to “Hurry, Hurry!” They finally arrived after the craziness had settled down and I had pushed a few times.

My support team finally complete, and just in the nick of time too. I pushed for the next hour and at 9:03am I pushed my last time and she was here at 6 pounds, 12 ounces; 18.5 inches after 14.5 hours of labor.