A week ago today, Kenzie was officially the same age out as she was when she was born. Yeah, in my head that makes sense. Kenzie was born at 37 weeks, 1 day. Last Tuesday she turned 37 weeks, 1 day old. In honor of that I wanted to repost her birth story. This was never posted on this blog as it was not in existence when she was born and therefore it wasn't really shared. I figured now was as good a time as any to share. =)
So much has changed since July 30, 2012. We are quickly approaching her 9 month birthday and I can't believe how much she has grown in just a few short months.
Happy Birth Day Mackenzie! Trust me though, when I got up this morning, that is the last thing I expected to be saying. Let me back up a bit first though.
As you may remember from my last post… Friday I had my usual weekly appointment. We found out then that my blood pressure was getting high. So, I rested as directed. Momma and I went for our pedicures which were very nice. Always nice to be pampered once in a while. The rest of the weekend I didn’t do much. Steven took great care of me and didn’t let me do anything really. He even went to the grocery store for me. That was nice considering he probably hasn’t gone to the grocery store alone since before we were married.
Monday I went back to the doctor in hopes that my blood pressure had lowered. I had figured that if it didn’t, then we would be talking about bed rest for a couple of weeks. I started with having another NST. Again, Mackenzie was doing really well and moving like she was supposed to. It appeared that my blood pressure wasn’t bothering her any. Then, the moment of truth… my blood pressure was taken. 138/94. Not only had it not dropped any, it had gone up! They put me in a room and the doctor walked in. Usually he starts our conversations with “So… still pregnant?” This time he came in and said “Kristen, I want to check your cervix.” That was my first clue that something was different. So, during one of the most uncomfortable periods of my life, he checked my cervix, which I was informed sometimes decides to hang out near your tonsils and I think that’s about where mine was. I was two centimeters dilated… but… he couldn’t feel her head. He was pretty sure he was feeling a butt. Great. Then he decided to just get a quick ultrasound to confirm what he was thinking. Sure enough, two seconds into the ultrasound we knew that Mackenzie had managed to flip herself around and was breech. Little bugger. The doctor decided at that point that based on the fact that I was already over 37 weeks, instead of waiting her out any longer he wanted to talk about a c section. Definitely not where I saw my birth experience going. If she were head down, we would have induced but with her being breech it was a different story. The doctor explained that we could try a version, where they give me an epidural and attempt to manually turn her head down. The chances of it working were about 50% and with my blood pressure rising it was a concern. The other option was to consider waiting her out to see if she flipped but the chances of that were 2% and he didn’t recommend it either because of my blood pressure. Before I knew it, I was signing consent for the c section and coming to terms with the fact that we were going to have a baby by the end of the day. The doctor instructed me to go to the hospital after going home to finish packing.
Steven met me at home and we were both a bit worried and scared because when we got up, this was definitely not where we expected to be at lunch time. Speaking of lunch, we knew the c section couldn’t take place until later in the afternoon because I had breakfast and water and they want your stomach to be entirely empty for the procedure if possible. We went to Winnie Palmer and checked in. We were informed then that they had scheduled my c section for 4pm and we technically didn’t need to be there until 2 (it was closer to 12:30 or 1) but we decided to stay because it would take us too long to go home and come back. Momma was on her way to the hospital as were Mom and Dad Young at that point. Momma met us there around 1:45 thinking she would have just a minute to see me before they took us back… yet…we waited. And waited. And waited. At 3:15 we went back upstairs to see what was going on and was told that they were just coming to look for me. They pushed back the section a bit because an emergency had come in before me.
They took me back and started prepping me for the procedure. I was really nervous knowing that none of this really fit into my original plan and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I had thought about the possibility of a c section but never spent much time thinking about it because I just KNEW that everything would go the way I wanted to. Unfortunately, birth is never what you plan I think. Let me tell you, you lose all sense of modesty during labor and delivery. They had me behind this curtain with a gown lifted up to my stomach and people just kept walking in and out. They would randomly leave the curtain open. It was crazy. The nurse and anesthesiologist prepped me for the epidural. That was seriously the worst part. That thing hurts!! I just kept asking who would want one of these things? To which I was informed that labor pains are worse. I’m sure they are… but I would like to think that our bodies are designed for it. To each their own though. I don’t knock any one for having one. It just wouldn’t have been my first though. I had never ruled it out though of course and I would have been open to it had I felt I needed it. The epidural didn’t take long to start taking effect. Before I knew it, I was numbed up and ready to go. I started shaking uncontrollably at this point as a side effect of the epidural. That was not fun. I was definitely not cold and couldn’t control it but I could barely talk without my voice sounding crazy because of the shaking. I was ready to have the section at 5pm and as we closed in on that time I found out that the doctor scheduled to perform the surgery was caught up in another surgery and we needed to push to 6pm. So again… we waited. There was some concern that they would have to give me more of the epidural as we waited but we lucked out and the doctor came out early. I was wheeled into the operating room around 5:30. Steven followed shortly behind. They set up a few things before allowing him in. They started the procedure around 5:50 I think. At 5:58 we were informed that it was definitely a girl and our little Mackenzie Anne came into the world with a bit of a wimper and whine. She didn’t all out cry which didn’t surprise me because I’m sure we surprised her. She was likely just chilling in her warm bath thinking nothing of anything and then was ripped out and into this cold room with all these people staring at her. Steven got a few great pictures of her as she was born. I’m glad he did because I couldn’t see anything over the divider of course. While the doctor was stapling me up and cleaning everything up, they wiped her down just a bit and wrapped her up before handing her to me. I was still able to be the first to hold her. She is beautiful! I’ve never seen a more beautiful baby (though I may be biased). Her little legs are all bowed because of her sitting in such a cramped position. She even had indentations on the sides of her head from where her feet and toes were pressing into her head. Those went away fairly quickly but it just goes to show you how cramped she had made herself in there. We took a few pictures of our new family before Steven and the nurse took her out to meet the rest of her family. At this point Mom and Dad Young were there along with Joe, Rick and Rachel. Unfortunately, due to Dad Young’s shingles, he was unable to come up to see her.
By the time they had finished showing off our beautiful daughter, they were done with my surgery and I met Daddy and Mackenzie in the recovery area. Although still numb from the upper waist down from the epidural, I was able to do skin to skin with Mackenzie and start breast feeding. (Our “issues” with that is an entirely different story but she was a trooper through it all.) As soon as I was able to move my legs as they deemed appropriate they prepped to transfer me to an actual room. We met the family on the 8th floor before I handed off Mackenzie to the nursery for a bath. Everyone was so excited to see her (again). After getting me set up in the room everyone came in. Joe, Rick and Rachel had to get going but I was so glad that they were able to be there. Mom Young stayed for a bit but needed to get going and would be back early the next day. Momma ended up waiting to see Mackenzie come in after her bath so that she could hold her for a minute before heading to our house to deal with poor Jack who had been alone now for over 13 hours.
Our first night with Mackenzie was interesting but not as bad as it likely could have been. A major issue was the fact that I could not get up. So, every time she cried Steven had to get up to hand her to me so we could feed her if necessary. Every diaper change fell on his shoulders. Let me tell you… Steven did an amazing job. It’s so interesting to me how once you have your own child instincts seem to kick in and you just know how to handle everything. I have also decided that he is the master swaddler. We have experimented with all different types of swaddles but Steven got that skill down very quickly. It was a life saver too. During the day now she doesn’t like to be swaddled but she won’t sleep at night without it being done.
Monday, July 30, 2012 was the day that our lives changed. For the better. Now that Mackenzie has arrived, I can’t seem to remember our life any other way and I know that I would definitely not want it to be any other way. I’ll take the lack of sleep at night (though she is a really good baby so far and only gets me up a few times each night as of right now) and the constant worrying about her to know that our little girl is finally here and we get to love on her each and every day.
So much has changed since July 30, 2012. We are quickly approaching her 9 month birthday and I can't believe how much she has grown in just a few short months.
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| Our 7 lbs 6 oz (breech... my goodness check out those legs) bundle of joy and our very happy almost 9 month old |
Happy Birth Day Mackenzie! Trust me though, when I got up this morning, that is the last thing I expected to be saying. Let me back up a bit first though.
As you may remember from my last post… Friday I had my usual weekly appointment. We found out then that my blood pressure was getting high. So, I rested as directed. Momma and I went for our pedicures which were very nice. Always nice to be pampered once in a while. The rest of the weekend I didn’t do much. Steven took great care of me and didn’t let me do anything really. He even went to the grocery store for me. That was nice considering he probably hasn’t gone to the grocery store alone since before we were married.
Monday I went back to the doctor in hopes that my blood pressure had lowered. I had figured that if it didn’t, then we would be talking about bed rest for a couple of weeks. I started with having another NST. Again, Mackenzie was doing really well and moving like she was supposed to. It appeared that my blood pressure wasn’t bothering her any. Then, the moment of truth… my blood pressure was taken. 138/94. Not only had it not dropped any, it had gone up! They put me in a room and the doctor walked in. Usually he starts our conversations with “So… still pregnant?” This time he came in and said “Kristen, I want to check your cervix.” That was my first clue that something was different. So, during one of the most uncomfortable periods of my life, he checked my cervix, which I was informed sometimes decides to hang out near your tonsils and I think that’s about where mine was. I was two centimeters dilated… but… he couldn’t feel her head. He was pretty sure he was feeling a butt. Great. Then he decided to just get a quick ultrasound to confirm what he was thinking. Sure enough, two seconds into the ultrasound we knew that Mackenzie had managed to flip herself around and was breech. Little bugger. The doctor decided at that point that based on the fact that I was already over 37 weeks, instead of waiting her out any longer he wanted to talk about a c section. Definitely not where I saw my birth experience going. If she were head down, we would have induced but with her being breech it was a different story. The doctor explained that we could try a version, where they give me an epidural and attempt to manually turn her head down. The chances of it working were about 50% and with my blood pressure rising it was a concern. The other option was to consider waiting her out to see if she flipped but the chances of that were 2% and he didn’t recommend it either because of my blood pressure. Before I knew it, I was signing consent for the c section and coming to terms with the fact that we were going to have a baby by the end of the day. The doctor instructed me to go to the hospital after going home to finish packing.
Steven met me at home and we were both a bit worried and scared because when we got up, this was definitely not where we expected to be at lunch time. Speaking of lunch, we knew the c section couldn’t take place until later in the afternoon because I had breakfast and water and they want your stomach to be entirely empty for the procedure if possible. We went to Winnie Palmer and checked in. We were informed then that they had scheduled my c section for 4pm and we technically didn’t need to be there until 2 (it was closer to 12:30 or 1) but we decided to stay because it would take us too long to go home and come back. Momma was on her way to the hospital as were Mom and Dad Young at that point. Momma met us there around 1:45 thinking she would have just a minute to see me before they took us back… yet…we waited. And waited. And waited. At 3:15 we went back upstairs to see what was going on and was told that they were just coming to look for me. They pushed back the section a bit because an emergency had come in before me.
They took me back and started prepping me for the procedure. I was really nervous knowing that none of this really fit into my original plan and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I had thought about the possibility of a c section but never spent much time thinking about it because I just KNEW that everything would go the way I wanted to. Unfortunately, birth is never what you plan I think. Let me tell you, you lose all sense of modesty during labor and delivery. They had me behind this curtain with a gown lifted up to my stomach and people just kept walking in and out. They would randomly leave the curtain open. It was crazy. The nurse and anesthesiologist prepped me for the epidural. That was seriously the worst part. That thing hurts!! I just kept asking who would want one of these things? To which I was informed that labor pains are worse. I’m sure they are… but I would like to think that our bodies are designed for it. To each their own though. I don’t knock any one for having one. It just wouldn’t have been my first though. I had never ruled it out though of course and I would have been open to it had I felt I needed it. The epidural didn’t take long to start taking effect. Before I knew it, I was numbed up and ready to go. I started shaking uncontrollably at this point as a side effect of the epidural. That was not fun. I was definitely not cold and couldn’t control it but I could barely talk without my voice sounding crazy because of the shaking. I was ready to have the section at 5pm and as we closed in on that time I found out that the doctor scheduled to perform the surgery was caught up in another surgery and we needed to push to 6pm. So again… we waited. There was some concern that they would have to give me more of the epidural as we waited but we lucked out and the doctor came out early. I was wheeled into the operating room around 5:30. Steven followed shortly behind. They set up a few things before allowing him in. They started the procedure around 5:50 I think. At 5:58 we were informed that it was definitely a girl and our little Mackenzie Anne came into the world with a bit of a wimper and whine. She didn’t all out cry which didn’t surprise me because I’m sure we surprised her. She was likely just chilling in her warm bath thinking nothing of anything and then was ripped out and into this cold room with all these people staring at her. Steven got a few great pictures of her as she was born. I’m glad he did because I couldn’t see anything over the divider of course. While the doctor was stapling me up and cleaning everything up, they wiped her down just a bit and wrapped her up before handing her to me. I was still able to be the first to hold her. She is beautiful! I’ve never seen a more beautiful baby (though I may be biased). Her little legs are all bowed because of her sitting in such a cramped position. She even had indentations on the sides of her head from where her feet and toes were pressing into her head. Those went away fairly quickly but it just goes to show you how cramped she had made herself in there. We took a few pictures of our new family before Steven and the nurse took her out to meet the rest of her family. At this point Mom and Dad Young were there along with Joe, Rick and Rachel. Unfortunately, due to Dad Young’s shingles, he was unable to come up to see her.
By the time they had finished showing off our beautiful daughter, they were done with my surgery and I met Daddy and Mackenzie in the recovery area. Although still numb from the upper waist down from the epidural, I was able to do skin to skin with Mackenzie and start breast feeding. (Our “issues” with that is an entirely different story but she was a trooper through it all.) As soon as I was able to move my legs as they deemed appropriate they prepped to transfer me to an actual room. We met the family on the 8th floor before I handed off Mackenzie to the nursery for a bath. Everyone was so excited to see her (again). After getting me set up in the room everyone came in. Joe, Rick and Rachel had to get going but I was so glad that they were able to be there. Mom Young stayed for a bit but needed to get going and would be back early the next day. Momma ended up waiting to see Mackenzie come in after her bath so that she could hold her for a minute before heading to our house to deal with poor Jack who had been alone now for over 13 hours.
Our first night with Mackenzie was interesting but not as bad as it likely could have been. A major issue was the fact that I could not get up. So, every time she cried Steven had to get up to hand her to me so we could feed her if necessary. Every diaper change fell on his shoulders. Let me tell you… Steven did an amazing job. It’s so interesting to me how once you have your own child instincts seem to kick in and you just know how to handle everything. I have also decided that he is the master swaddler. We have experimented with all different types of swaddles but Steven got that skill down very quickly. It was a life saver too. During the day now she doesn’t like to be swaddled but she won’t sleep at night without it being done.
Monday, July 30, 2012 was the day that our lives changed. For the better. Now that Mackenzie has arrived, I can’t seem to remember our life any other way and I know that I would definitely not want it to be any other way. I’ll take the lack of sleep at night (though she is a really good baby so far and only gets me up a few times each night as of right now) and the constant worrying about her to know that our little girl is finally here and we get to love on her each and every day.
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