Mackenzie Paige - 6/19/10

First of all, she's beautiful and wonderful and perfect. 

Labor Story

I had a 37+4 day check up...still having lots of cramps and terrible back ache.  Dr. N's nurse said I should ask Dr. N to move my induction up a week.  Dr. N came in and asked how I was....I explained again that I had cramps but nothing I could measure like contractions.  He did an internal exam and I was dilated to 3, still only 25% effaced and she was still high.  He said, "Let's just go over to the hospital now."  He explained that he couldn't induce but he could break my water.  Now, as much as I kept saying how ready I was...when I actually had the choice, I backed down.  Mainly because I didn't want to be in labor forever and end up having to have c-section.  When he checked me, he REALLY checked me.  So I assumed I'd have worse cramps.  He promised that I wouldn't make it through the weekend.  I told him he better not be getting my hopes up, or someone would pay.

It was a friend's baby shower at work, so I headed back to work.  Still having bad cramps, loose stool (sorry) but no "measurable" contractions.  I visited with the girls and our token male.  Thought about going to walk Wal-Mart or target, but was hurting bad enough I decided to just go home.

I got home, did a couple loads of laundry, the dishes, made the beds, picked up toys, then decided to head on over to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things.  I walked around there for a while before heading to get Landon for swim lessons. 

After dinner, Nicole and I headed out to walk.  No, not outside - are you kidding, we live in Houston.  We went to Home Depot to pick up some things for Nicole and then on to Target and Wal-Mart. I wasn't cramping much at this point - just super hot.  Came home, showered and figured nothing was going to happen. 
About 11:30, Bryan and I finally climb in bed. I'm cramping again and tell Bryan that I just hurt everywhere, that's its not something I could time, its constant.  I only laid in bed for about 2 minutes before deciding I couldn't take - and I headed to the La-Z-Boy in our bedroom....
And OUCH! contraction!  So I take a look at the clock, just in case.  Sure enough 7 minutes later, another contraction.  And then 5 minutes later, another one.  Bryan and I get back up, make some phone calls, get our stuff ready and wait for Nicole to head over to watch Landon.  Thank goodness she only lives half a block away!
Bryan has a contraction timer app on his phone, so on the way to the hospital, the contractions are barely 2 minutes apart.  (again, thankful we live so CLOSE to the hospital!)  We get there, I check in while Bryan moves the car.  They wondered if I could walk up to the second floor by myself.  (Uh, yeah, if it means I get an epidural sooner!)

We get checked in.  I'm only 3 cm dilated, so plenty of time for epidural!  I have a GREAT nurse, even if she did butcher my IV line.  She decided she wanted to help me get my epidural as fast as possible, so she took blood before starting my IV instead of waiting for the "blood" nurse (don't know what they're really called) to get there.  After getting my wrist cleaned up (from the shooting blood) I filled out a bajillion papers (and yes, we had already pre-registered!)  My contractions are still about 11/2 to 2 minutes apart.  The anesthesiologist finally gets there and gets my epidural going!  Thank you very much!  And then its boring...from midnight on, I had contractions every 1 minute which I joyously could not feel at all.  Bryan tried to sleep in the chair, but with nurses coming in all the time, he didn't get much sleep.  Then, around 3-4 am, I start getting light headed...look over and my blood pressure is around 80/45.  Nurse comes down, we tried several things, after about 45 minutes, I'm back to normal.

Around 6:00 or later, they start pitocin in my IV.  And then....

my epidural bag is empty!  EMPTY!  It starts beeping, so the nurse calls the guy back, who takes his sweet time getting there...meanwhile I'm starting to feel the massive contractions I had laughed about earlier (seeing them on the doppler but not feeling them.)  I'm bawling my eyes out and Bryan's losing circulation in his hand.  The guy says he's done and I should be feeling better soon - he leaves...and yeah, it didn't take on my left half.  Get that dude back in here ASAP!  He finally comes back and loads me up.

Dr. Nguyen comes in and breaks my water and says he'll be back later.  Bryan decides he has time for breakfast, so off he goes.  I keep thinking I feel pressure, but the nurse checks and says the baby is still high.  Finally around 10, I tell the nurse the pressure thing again, she checks me and then walks out.  I realize at that moment I'm going to be sick - Bryan rushes around to find something for me to throw up in - my water cup...and I start puking.  At the same time, about 7 nurses and Dr. N come in and I start apologized for throwing up.  (Because throwing up causes you to push out at the same time!  As every pregnant woman with a weak bladder knows.)  They assure me this is a good sign.  And tell me if I need to push, go for it.

Yeah, yeah, I pulled the whole "woman-screaming-can't-do-it-put-her-back-in" thing.  Three pushes (long pushes) later, my baby girl is out!  She's beautiful!  Bryan moves to the baby's bed and Dr. N finishes up (had to get stitches - ouch.)  She was a little bit bigger than Landon - by over a pound.  Which meant a bigger head! Mackenzie nursed right away, she was a pro!

So, at 10:14am on Saturday, June 19th - Miss Mackenzie Rhodes was born weighing seven pounds, five ounces and measuring 18 inches.  She was gorgeous!

Soon after delivery, Danny and Nicole bring Landon up to see us.  He is the best big brother.  You can see on his face how proud he is!  Bryan hang out with me for a while, then Nicole came back to visit in the evening.  Then it was just me and Mackenzie.  She was wonderful.  She nursed great and slept great.  It was a good night.

Bryan and Landon came back the next morning, which was Father's Day, to pick me up.  We spent some time there, waiting for both doctors to release us.  Then we finally got to head home, a family of 4!