Macie Lee's Birth!!

I am still having a hard time believing that I have another baby girl in my arms right now!! At 3:35 am on August 31st, 2013 an intense sweetness filled the delivery room as I brought a beautiful baby girl into the world!! She was 6 lbs 8 oz, 19.5 inches long, and wow did she make an entrance... A lot of people have been wanting to know the details, so I'll lay them all out now.

Not going to lie, everything about this delivery caught me by surprise. People are going to think I'm ridiculous for saying this, but part of me felt a little cheated initially because I hardly had time to process that I was even in labor until it finally felt real to me about 30 minutes before Macie was born. Also, I was not at all expecting to start labor until at least week 38-39... My doctor did tell me that he didn't think I'd make it to 38 weeks, but I really thought he was going to be wrong about that. Needless to say, I was very caught off guard when it really did happen that early!!

I had spent so much time in the months leading up to that moment, just preparing and praying... and envisioning how I wanted everything to go. For some reason my anxiety about giving birth again was extremely difficult to handle. The one thing I prayed for consistently was that God would bring me faith. Faith that He would have His hand on us, and that He would bring me peace and comfort that everything would go perfectly as planned. Why I was so anxious about it? I have no idea. But He sure brought me faith... not only in Him, but literally.

So... sometime around 1:15 am on the 31st, I woke up feeling a slight "trickle" and I thought maybe I was peeing... or that maybe my water was breaking. As I walked to the bathroom, it became evident that I didn't have much control over keeping this fluid in... Confused by the small amount and the fact that there wasn't any more leaking, I called Jeff and told him that my water may have broken, and to be ready to leave work in case things started to pick up soon. I called his mom (Jill) and sister (Jamie), unsure of a course of action at that point. We decided to go ahead and call labor and delivery to see what to do since SUPER mild contractions had started about 25 minutes after I suspected my water had broken (around 1:40 am). They started out about 20-30 seconds long and about 1.5 minutes apart. They were so mild that they required no focus or attention whatsoever. (I was literally standing up in the bathroom doing my hair while having these contractions). When I made the call, the nurse wasn't quite sure what to have me do other than to wait it out, see if contractions started coming on stronger, longer, and closer together, or if more fluid started leaking... I told her over the phone when I'd have contractions, so we both thought maybe it was still pretty early if it was indeed labor... and typically when one's water breaks it will continue to gush out during a contraction or when baby moves. That did not happen for me at all because Macie's head basically acted as a cork which was why I was so confused as to whether or not my water had broken.

I got off the phone, called Jeff and his mom and told them I would wait for about 20-30 minutes (until around 2:15am-2:30am) and see where things were. Well... needless to say I decided if things were getting real, I better get my crap together. So, after doing my hair, throwing stuff in my bag, getting things out of my car, and tidying up a bit, my contractions started becoming more noticeable. By the time I had everything together they were stopping me and demanding that I at least breathe through them. A great sign that labor was beginning... however, their timing was still so off. They lasted about 45-50 seconds at that point, and were about 2 minutes apart. Mine were getting longer, stronger, and further apart... weird... nothing like my previous labor.

At about 2:25 am I decided it was probably time to get checked out, despite my desire to wait it out for contractions to get into a more regular pattern. They were definitely uncomfortable and required some focus, but they weren't anything like I remember them being when I was deep in the throws of labor land with Annie. Regardless, I felt like I needed to be safe and get antibiotics going (I was GBS+ this time), and I think everyone else felt better about going in as well. With my last labor being around 4 hours, it was a good idea to be cautious. So I called Jamie and Jill and they arrived a few minutes later. Jeff's dad also came up to stay with the kids so we didn't have to wake them up, which was soooooo awesome!!

So off we went... I sat in the back seat with Jamie, who was a wonderful personal assistant... making phone calls, timing contractions, giving directions, she was awesome! We got about halfway to Monroe before the contractions started getting pretty intense. They weren't super consistent yet (they were getting there), ranging from 4-5 minutes apart I believe, but they were consistently around 90 seconds long. I had also noticed a bit of nausea and shakiness... that gave me some anxiety because I hate throwing up, especially in the car, and ESPECIALLY in labor. At that point, I decided I didn't want to be checked for dilation because I didn't want to be disappointed if I was only 4 cm and that uncomfortable already, and I didn't want to introduce bacteria to the baby if my waters had really broken. When the water bag is no longer in tact, contractions are typically stronger than when the water bag remains intact, so that made me nervous that I was in for a longer more intense labor this time.

I continued laboring by leaning over the back of the seat on my hands and knees, breathing through the contractions, all while focusing on relaxing every muscle that I could feel getting tense. Tension=pain... This really helped a lot... made things manageable. By the time we got outside of Monroe, I could feel the baby's head descending which caused a lot of pressure. I felt this more and more with each contraction. I was really starting to get a little nervous that my labor would drag on and the pain would get unbearable... so I prayed that God would have mercy and make the delivery a quick one because I was starting to doubt my ability to birth naturally at that point. (Classic signs of transition by the way). I think since I was so focused on the job at hand and staying relaxed, I was unable to recognize how close I really was to being done.. I was shocked at how much better I was at staying relaxed this time.

When we pulled up to the maternity center, Jeff was waiting at the door, and I think Amber (friend and fabulous photographer) was there waiting too. It got a little foggy at this point because things got really intense crazy fast... so my account may not be completely accurate. I grabbed my phone, got out of the car and raced through the doors in order to beat the contraction that was coming on... I may have had a mild melt down because I didn't remember where to go at that point and I didn't want to have a contraction right there in the lobby, but a nurse came out and I bolted over to her. I totally forgot we had to check in, so that kind of pissed me off a little bit that we had to stop. (Just as a reference, we checked in at 3:29 am). I felt really bad for the lady at the desk because I got a bit snippy with her.

After I made it through a couple contractions and scribbled on a consent form, they asked if I needed a wheel chair. Ignoring her question, I just asked for a room number... So Jeff answered for me and said we'd better get a wheel chair. Again, I asked for a room number... as she told me, I saw someone with the wheelchair coming down the hall in the distance, and I did not feel like waiting. I asked the nurse where to go and I was gone. I went in, hopped up on the bed, had a really tough contraction, and then the nurse asked to check me and see if she could monitor the baby for a minute. I was reluctant to say yes, but I felt a lot closer at that point so I consented to the cervical check. Sometime in there, I asked for a shot of nubain and for someone to run me a bath so I could maintain some sanity. It was really getting intense... Monitoring didn't really happen at that point, and when the nurse checked me and said I was at 7 cm, I was slightly irritated. I also decided that laying on my back was totally not happening... I could feel the baby's every move and it made the contractions far more painful. So I flipped back over on my knees, leaned my head against the back of the bed, and continued focusing on relaxing and letting the contractions do the work for me. It felt ten times better that way.

Not more than a minute or two later, my body started pushing... which was crazy because the nurse had JUST told me I was 7 cm... So somehow I went from 7 cm to complete in just a minute or two. So... I pushed. Nothing was ready, and I'm pretty sure there was a lot of scrambling going on behind me, but as the nurse asked me to try not to push, out came her head and soon to follow was the rest of her body.  So, at 3:35 am (6 minutes after arriving at the hospital!!) we had our second baby girl! Most amazing feeling of relief ever in my life. I think I sat there on my knees for a second, completely in shock. Macie had the cord wrapped once around her neck, so the nurse unwrapped the cord and I think she rubbed her down a bit to get her to cry and start breathing before handing her up to me. As soon as I had my baby Macie in my arms, the only thing I could do was laugh and cry at the same time... I could not believe that had just happened so fast. Seriously, nothing was set up, there were two nurses in the room, and no doctor in sight. It was awesome! A very beautiful moment! I loved that they let us just sit and soak in the moment before checking me over after birth.

Seriously, looking back, I couldn't have asked for a better experience. It was too much to process in the moment, but it was great having the opportunity to allow everything to happen completely naturally and to be able to do everything I needed to do to make myself the most comfortable. It was my birth center type experience in a hospital. It was truly amazing. I had so much love and support in the room, and that made it so much more special.

After a few minutes, the doctor came in and examined me. This part was not at all fun. Since I have a history of excessive blood loss, they decided to play it safe. The nurse gave me a shot of pitocin to keep contractions coming and to help keep my uterus nice and firm. After the placenta was delivered, the doctor had to remove a clot which was very painful, but as soon as she had the little bit of bleeding under control I was able to relax and enjoy our new baby.

As soon as she left, the nurses got everything all cleaned up while we all got a good look at our little princess. It was such a sweet time. I will never forget how crazy awesome that night was... Quite a story indeed. God was sooo good to me. He truly answered my prayers for mercy... as well as my prayers for faith. Not only did my faith grow in Him, I found out later that the nurse who delivered Macie was named Faith. I couldn't believe how crazy awesome that was. That delivery could not have gone more perfectly.

All is perfect in our little world right now. It feels like Macie has been here forever. Can't imagine our family without her. The kids are really loving their new sister! Joey is very excited about her. Annabelle was a little unsure about her initially, but she warmed up to her very quickly and is such a great sister. I feel so incredibly blessed to have had such a great birth experience. I'm just so in awe of how God designed our bodies to bring these precious tiny humans into the world. It's absolutely amazing to me. Almost two weeks later and I'm still enjoying this birth high!

Anyway... there you have it!! Macie Lee's crazy awesome birth!! Thank you, friends, for following my updates and being so excited with me. It's so much easier to get through pregnancy and birth knowing you have so many behind you who love and support you. I'm truly grateful for everyone who helped me throughout the last 9 months, but I am the most grateful to God for bringing me through my third pregnancy with good health and a healthy little baby. I am so incredibly blessed. Thank you for reading my friends!! God bless you!!

PS- Stay tuned for my delivery picture post!! Don't worry, I'm not posting graphic images... just the modest ones, as well as the first pictures of our little Macie Lee. SO excited to share them!! :)