Makynzie's Birth story and pictures from first month

As always...late, but I definitely wanted to write this down for Makynzie to have later on. Lots of detail and feel free to skip it. There are pictures...I love them all. The one where she has a frog and a doll next to her in her bouncer is so sweet to me because Kaci did that all on her own, and those are the things she sleeps with. She is always sharing with Kynzie everything!


Ever since I found out my due date with Makynzie, I just KNEW that she was going to come close to Thanksgiving. I knew this because this would mean that it would be really hard to figure out what to do with our older kids while we went to the hospital and it just figured. When I had Kacianna, it was right in the middle of Christmas break and even though between us, David and I had three siblings that we knew we could call should we need them to come, they were all home for Christmas. Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I just knew that would happen. :) I will forever be grateful to my dear friend, Christy who was pregnant herself and left her own little girl in a snowstorm to come and sit with our boys so we could go to the hospital. :) Maybe that's why Kaci came so quick, so she didn't have to stay all night (although it was close).

Anyways...I just knew the same thing would happen again, but luckily I have a wonderful family and when I expressed my worries to my mom months before, she told me that they like coming to Utah for Thanksgiving (which they do) and that this year would be a good year to come. :) That relieved my feelings so much 'cuz then I knew that Katie and Forrest would be here too and so we would be able to call them if we needed it. Mason was 5 days early, Carter was 10 days early, and Kacianna was 12 days early, so I was really thinking that Makynzie would be at least 10 days early and come the week or few days before Thanksgiving. But she didn't. When I found out Katie and Forrest were going to be staying in SLC on Thanksgiving night with my parents and brother, I began worrying that that that one night where we didn't have anyone to watch our kids would be the night when we would need it. I knew that my parents would drive down if we needed them, but I hated to have to make them do that since the drive between Salt Lake and Provo is long and not very fun at all.

For Thanksgiving, we were planning to eat with Cindy's extended family up in Salt Lake since that is where my parents would be. That morning I woke up with a little bit of a stomach ache, but nothing too bad and went about getting us ready to go up to Salt Lake. Looking back, I wonder if the irritations in my stomach spread and started the contractions. On the way up to Salt Lake, when I was able to sit still and pay attention, I realized that I was having contractions...about 10 minutes apart. But they were not intense or even hurting too much so I figured I had at least until the end of dinner. :) When I told David this was happening he made sure I time them and they were coming between 7 and 11 minutes all the time we were at dinner. I was mentally trying to deny it because I knew that everyone was staying up on Salt Lake and I would have no one to watch my kids if I had to go to the hospital that night. By the time it was time to leave, I realized that I couldn't hold it off or deny it any longer and started getting really worried about what to do. I knew the contractions still weren't strong enough to go to the hospital, but from my last two labors, I knew that I would most likely have to go some time that night. It was such a lifesaver having my parents there and of course they offered to help in any way that they could. I just didn't know if we should just go home with the kids and call them if (when) I had to go to the hospital or send the kids, with no change of clothes or anything to spend the night with my parents at their hotel. I kept thinking what if it was a false alarm and we didn't even need to find someone to watch them. But...the contractions were still coming and they were even getting a little stronger...and knowing my past history...I knew that Makynzie would be born in the next 24 hours. So my kids got to spend the night with Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Michael. It was such a relief to know they were happy and in good hands (well I was a little worried about Kaci who is so shy and screamed when we left her, but I'm told she did great!). As soon as I sat down and we started back to Provo...my contractions slowed down...like to 15 to 18 minutes apart. They were still strong but not nearly as close together. Maybe it had to do with I wasn't carrying around Kaci anymore? But I started to think we made the wrong decision in sending the kids off. So we got home and made sure my bags were completely packed. My contractions were still about 15 minutes apart, but if I was doing something they got closer together. So I put away some laundry.

With Kaci and Carter, we had gotten to the hospital and had the baby within an hour and a half of being seen and I really wanted to get there earlier this time just to make sure it wasn't too late for an epidural...so we decided to make the 1-minute drive and go to the hospital probably around 8 p.m. or so. We got checked in and I was surprised to find out that I was only dilated to barely over a 2. I was sure I would be further than that. I was so worried they would send me home. Because this was my fourth delivery and I had a history with the last two of dilating quickly, they said I could stay and be monitored. The contractions were still about 10 minutes apart and after and hour, I had not dilated any further.

I had a really sympathetic nurse who said she really thought I should stay (thank goodness!) so they had me walk around and around the labor and delivery floor for 45 minutes and then checked me.... Well walking definitely got my contractions coming closer together and harder...and I dilated to a 3. Since I had made progress the doctor (who was covering for my doctor and I had never met) said over the phone that I could stay, but I couldn't have an epidural until I was at a solid 5. The reason for this is because I had a prior C-section and epidurals sometimes slow down contractions and necessitate pitocin, which is dangerous for someone who has had a C-section. So....off to walking I went.

After another 45 minutes of walking I was at a 4 and the contractions were getting pretty painful and closer together. They told me to walk for another 45 minutes to try to get to a 5. As I was leaving the room, I had a contraction and had to stop and brace myself and work myself through the pain like I had been doing for the last few hours of contractions. My nurse saw me and asked, "Do you just want your epidural now?" All I could say was thankfully, "yes!" So I got my epidural probably around 11 and it was as wonderful as I remembered. :) It was so nice not to be in pain any more. The only problem was that I kept getting horrible heartburn, but luckily I remembered that happened with Kaci, so I had packed some TUMS, which helped relieve it for 1/2 an hour at a time or so.

I was really slow progressing and around 3 a.m. I was only at a 6. The nurse came in and while she was checking me she "Accidentally" broke my water. This was fine with me...I started to feel a small amount of pain with the contractions, which started to worry me because if I could start feeling the contractions, who knows if I would feel the actual birth and I really was perfectly fine with being numb. So I started pressing the button that added medicine to the epidural and told the nurses. They said that it was normal to feel the contractions harder after my water broke because there was more pressure. I was still worried, but just kept pressing the button to make sure I could feel as little as possible.

After about 35 minutes, the fetal heart monitor stopped picking up the heart rate so David immediately went out to get the nurse. Our nurse was helping another one of her patients so another nurse came to check on us. After some fiddling around with the monitor she picked up Makynzie's heart rate and said that it had slipped off because she moving further down the birth canal. She said she better check me....and I was at a 9.5! She said that she thought this was the case because of losing the heart rate all of the sudden like that. So, the next step was just to wait for the doctor to come.

As soon as my nurse was free, she came in and set up camp. :) I was so close to having the baby that she didn't want to leave me alone 'just in case' until the doctor was there. She never said that specifically, but she never left and when I told her that I felt the baby was right there and about to come out and asked if she could please check me, she said, "I would rather not right now, I don't want to move things around down there too much." It was then I knew that the feeling of Makynzie's head about to come out was real.

It seemed like it took forever until Dr. Glenn, who was filling in for my doctor who was in Africa, came. It was time to push and I was ready! I pushed through two contractions and Makynzie made her entrance at 4:18 a.m.! She was a born nurser and started sucking the doctor's fingers as she was being delivered! She immediately started screaming and it was so cute! I think she screamed the most of any of our kids when they were born (well i guess i don't know about Carter since I was knocked out for his birth :( ). She was and is perfect and we loved her instantly. I needed a few stitches, which is always disappointing to hear because that usually means a painful recovery, but this time I had almost no pain at all during recovery, so that was such a blessing!

Whew, that took a while to write. Next posts on the agenda are Colorado, Christmas, Kaci's birthday...and lots of cute moments along the way. :) Hopefully I can get them up before next year!