My last post I declared I was half way done with my first pregnancy and then not another word was said after that. It is probably time to tie up some loose ends and finish the story. What eventually resulted another 21 weeks later was… a baby! Yes we welcomed baby girl Mckenley into our hearts on March 19th. Pregnancy was something I begrudgingly struggled through all 41 weeks. That is correct, I went over my due date. Plain and simple I really hated being pregnant. There was not one second of it that I found enjoyable. My mom was nice enough to get me some prenatal massages for my birthday that were heaven sent but aside from that I pretty much cursed my way through each day. So now that I painted that grim picture lets get to the day Mckenley finally arrived. Maybe because I felt like my pregnancy was incredibly miserable is why the day Mckenley joined us went as smooth as could be. So without further adieu, the birth story:
The made-up due date of Wednesday, March 16th came and went and I once again cursed my way through the day. I had my doctor’s appointment that day so Steve and I headed in and left the office feeling a little panicked. The doctor felt slightly concerned about my measurements and was worried that the baby was possibly no longer growing correctly. She sent us away with orders to come back for an ultrasound in a couple of hours and at that point they would make the decision if I needed to be taken into the hospital immediately and be induced or not. After the ultrasound they determined everything looked fine and no need to rush anything. Although I was very grateful we had a healthy baby, I was ready to get the labor going. I was promised that if she hadn’t come by that weekend then they would need to induce me Sunday evening because at that point they didn’t want me to go too long.
Steve and I tentatively planned on Sunday and we worked over the next few days attempting to get life all squared away and organized. Saturday morning (4 a.m.) I was very restless and cramping. Most nights I was extremely restless so I didn’t know exactly what to think of anything. At the time I didn’t quite realize that this was the beginning of labor. I went and hung out in the tub for a while, which once again was almost a nightly occurrence. Around 9 a.m. I headed out for a walk. Before leaving I warned Steve he needed to have all of his school projects wrapped up by that afternoon. I knew this baby was coming that day. My attempt at enjoying a nice stroll lasted a total of 5 minutes. First off, I could hardly walk normally which should have been sign number one to quit and go home. Second, without being too graphic, my shorts were quite soaked so back home I went. I sent Steve to the store to grab some snacks for us to have on hand at the hospital. I jumped in the shower and got ready. Then off to the hospital we went.
We arrived at the hospital around 2ish, maybe 2:30 (I can’t remember now). The lady that took all of our information asked me if I was having contractions and I honestly had no idea if I was or was not. All I knew was fluid was leaking out of me and that doesn’t typically happen on a regular basis so I assumed that might be indicating something. Plus, this constant pain in my abdomen was making life pretty uncomfortable so that also might be something to make note of. Basically, I was about as clueless as they come.
After determining I was in labor I was admitted and hooked up to Pitocin. Once that got flowing through me I was in A LOT of pain. I pretended to be tough for a couple of hours but I quickly learned I have a very low pain tolerance level. The nurse continued to encourage me to get my epidural. She couldn’t really understand the point of sticking it out if I was planning on having an epidural. Once the dry heaving began I was ready to give up the fight. While the anesthesiologist and nurse chatted about their favorite pizza restaurants, I was hunched over gripping a pillow, silently crying and trying to not move a muscle waiting for that intense needle to be prodded into my back. Lucky for me, they came to the consensus that Grimaldi’s is in fact a delicious place to dine. If only I had the energy to order silence I would have had them scared out of their mind to utter another word. As promised, about 20 minutes later and I was unable to move the lower half of my body. I lay in bed, feeling queasy, feverish and shivering for a few hours. Steve quietly sat in the corner of the room not really sure what he should be doing. It was dead silent. I tried to close my eyes and sleep here and there. I wasn’t progressing much for a few hours. Then things rapidly changed and it kind of caught the nurse off guard with how fast things were moving. Around 9 p.m. it was show time. The nurse tried out one round of pushing with me. I did one push and then she stopped me half way through the second push and rushed out to get the doctor. In came the doctor and I did 2 sets of pushes and out came our baby girl. Steve said my face looked like a bright red lobster during those 10ish minutes of pushing. At least he was staring at my face and not somewhere else. She did have the cord wrapped around her neck but our doctor quickly got that under control. She was tiny and beautiful. Everything happened so fast and all of the sudden I had this squealing baby laying on me. I really didn’t know what to think or feel in that instant; there was so much to take in all at once. I really couldn’t focus on anything going on for about the next 15 minutes. It was a whirlwind. We were eventually moved out of the delivery room around midnight. Of course, neither Steve nor I slept more than five minutes all night long. The same was the case the second night in the hospital. After a lot of love and support from our family visitors and being checked out by who knows how many nurses, we headed home early afternoon on day two.
Everyone continues to tell me I have an angel baby. I have nothing to compare it to but I can’t complain so far. She is definitely heavenly sent and brings out the affectionate side in me that I hardly realized existed. I can’t count how many times a day I smoother her with kisses.
Mckenley is now 4 months old and the first months of her life are already starting to blur. Month one was very trying for me. You are given so much advice it gets to a point you don’t even know what to do anymore. She wasn’t sleeping very well and as a result she did a lot of crying. Eventually I got that sorted out and life became much more manageable (I won’t tell you how because it goes against doctor’s orders but it worked so if I had a sleeping baby you bet I was going to do it). Now she is a fabulous sleeper and can sleep for hours on end. I won’t mention how many hours she sleeps at night because I know it will riot an endless supply of jealous moms. Although she handles almost everything wonderfully, she does have a few hiccups. One major one being her issue with traveling. We have determined she has motion sickness. Therefore, I can rarely leave the house. She can’t handle the stroller, a car or really anything of similar movement. Trying to get her into a car seat is a delicate matter. I have to put on quite the distraction in order to get her buckled in. On a good day, she can last about 15 minutes in the car. That is when things are going as perfect as possible. The scream that can come out of her mouth is potent and painful to listen to. It breaks my heart listening to that cry because I know she doesn’t feel well. For the most part I try to stay put and avoid going much of anywhere. I am currently looking into remedies that could help. So that is where I am at in the land of mommy hood.
I think I am caught up now. In summary, we have a daughter that we love and adore!
