McKenna's Birth Story

Most of you will probably find this posting to be a total bore. It's the story of McKenna's birth, play by play. I'm posting these details for those of you who have asked and are curious about how things went and also as a record for myself. I never actually went into labor on my own with Christian so I didn't really know quite what to expect. Unfortunately, what I should have expected was several days of contractions. I started having contractions at 4am on Wednesday morning. They weren't anything major and they continued, on and off, for the next three days. I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday night and I found out that I was 3 cm dialated. After my doctor's appointment on Thursday we went out to eat. We figured we might as well enjoy one more night out together as a family of three.



My contractions became pretty regular on Friday at about 9am (this is when I actually think I started to go into labor). I picked up Abby and Nate from daycare at 12:30 and put everyone to bed as soon as we got home. I called Ryan around 3:00pm and asked him to come home. I told him that I didn't think I was in labor (ha, ha...what do I know), but the contractions were bad enough that I just couldn't handle all four kids. I let the boys sleep until he got home which meant they had very long naps. Christian didn't fall asleep Friday night until 11pm.


Our small group from church meets on Friday nights and I actually debated whether or not I should go. I decided not to (thank goodness), but told Ryan to go and take Christian and Emma with him. I didn't want Emma to miss it because she was planning on having a sleep over with one of her friends and she had been looking forward to it all week. This was her first real friend (not family) sleepover!! So Ryan took the kids and went to small group, leaving me alone with my contractions. It was actually nice to be in the house by myself and around 7:30pm I decided to try and go to sleep. Sleep did not come, but the contractions did.


Ryan and Christian got home at 8pm and at 8:14 I was in full blown labor. I finally realized that this was IT! My parents were on their way to our house for a preplanned visit (Isn't God's timing good?!!) and my mom pulled in the driveway at 8:35pm. Ryan and I left for the hospital at 9:00pm. Ryan made a few phone calls while going 85mph down the highway (despite the fact that I assured him I was not about to have the baby in the car) and we made it to the hospital in record time. Ryan jumped out of the car and started to head into the hospital without me. I actually had to call after him and remind him that he had to wait for me. Needless to say, he was a little jittery.

I was a little disappointed to learn that I was only 4cm dialated when we arrived at the hospital, so the doctor decided they needed to observe me for an hour before they would admit me. That was a very long hour. I was begging for an epidural at this point, but of course they wouldn't give me one since I hadn't been admitted yet. They finally admitted me aroung 10:30pm and then told me I had to have an entire bag of IV fluids before I could have an epidural. At this point I totally thought I was going to loose my mind the contractions were so intense. I was able to keep it together for the most part and breathe through them. I had a great nurse who coached me through some of the worst ones. I was finally allowed to get an epidural at midnight. My contractions were almost back to back at this point and the anesthesiologist actually said to me, "Are you sure you really want this? You're going to have that baby really soon." Apparently he was the only one who recognized the fact that things were moving along quickly. The epidural took a few tries before it was finally in place and then much to my dismay it only worked on my right side. The epidural started to kick in around 12:20am and even though it didn't work great it still took the edge off and helped me to relax. I think I had been panicking the whole time that I wasn't going to get an epidural. Christian's birth was in the back of my mind the entire time and when he was born things went downhill quickly and it was a good thing I had one. Christian ended up going into great distress and the doctor had to get him out quickly. It took me six months to recover from the last three minutes of Christian's birth and I was worried that I would have to have the same sort of interventions with this baby. Thankfully I was wrong. My mom got to the hospital around midnight. Her timing was once again perfect!



A little before 1am I remember telling the nurse that I felt like I needed to push. She told me not to and told me that I was only 8 cm dialated. I don't think she was right because at 1am my body started pushing for me. There was no stopping McKenna at this point. This is when I started yelling and telling all the nurses that started running into the room, that I wasn't kidding, that I was in fact going to have this baby. One of the nurses told Ryan to pull the emergency cord on the wall, which brought a few more nurses into the room, but no doctor. This time when they checked me McKenna's head was already making an appearance. Three pushes and she was out at 1:09am. McKenna was looking a little green since she had pooped sometime in the hours before her birth. A nurse did have to stick a tube down her throat and suction her stomach and they did come up with some pretty nasty stuff. McKenna's Apgar score was 7 (much better than Christian's 1 when he was born). My doctor arrived about 20 min. after McKenna's birth. I have no idea where she was, but the nurses were very competent and did a great job.


This is our very first picture of our sweet girl!

I do not care for this picture of me, but I guess you're not supposed to look good after giving birth. Unfortunately, some women do, but I am not one of them!!!

I actually found this birthing experience to be rather invigorating. I wasn't even tired when it was all over. I was so thrilled that McKenna was healthy and that things went well. I basically stayed up the rest of the night looking at my little girl and marveling at the goodness of the Lord!

Ryan had no problem falling asleep after McKenna was born. Apparently the whole thing completely wore him out.