Makayla's Birth Story - Viewer Discretion Is Advised

My due date was soon approaching (November 4, 2009) and I went for my 40 week appointment with my OB on Monday, November 2, 2009. My Doc was leaving the following day to Mexico for 10 days for her daughters third birthday and she assured me that there was NO WAY that I would be having this baby while she was sipping on a margarita! I left the office with a three non-stress tests booked for November 11th, 13th & 14th, an ultrasound for the 13th and an 8:00am induction on the 16th (the day after she would return with a tan). So away I went, huge, disappointed that I would still be pregnant for a few more weeks and happy at the same time because a complete stranger wouldn't be delivering my baby!

By Thursday I was getting really cranky, so big, so sore and so tired. So what do I do, stay up late watching TV! I finally went to bed at 1:30am just to awake at 2:00am with "gas pain". I got up, had a drink, went to the bathroom, went again, and again, and again....All I could think of was what we learnt in our prenatal class "your body will clean itself out". Yet I still didn't believe anything was actually happening. By now this "gas" was really bad, I was pacing up and down the hall, going back to bed, sitting on the toilet, pacing, pacing, pacing....moaning. STILL...I just kept saying that it was only gas. Finally I thought, ok, maybe this could be more. I called my Mom and asked her opinion, while I was telling her about this gas pain, I handed the phone over to Clint so that I could take a moment to "breath". When my Mom heard me in the background she told Clint "this is not gas pain, get her to the hospital".

I had already packed my bag a few days prior, as my due date had now come and gone. So I threw my toothbrush in and walked down our 15 stairs to the front door. When I squatted to sit on the last step to put my shoes on, my water broke! Ok, this is really it! It was now 4:45am. The 10 minute ride to the hospital seemed like an eternity. We pulled up to Emergency and Clint dropped me off so he could go park. I waddled in and was now sitting in admitting, with soaking wet pants while the lady behind the desk seemed to take forever to enter my information into the computer. I got wheeled into a room where I was told to change and give the nurse my underwear so she could test to see if my water had actually broken. NO, I'M LYING! After it tested positive they checked me to see how far dilated I was. Apparently I was only 3cm so they were planning on sending me home because they don't admit until you are 4cm. Give me a break, my water had already broke!



About an hour later the nurse came back and gave me morphine and demerol (which did nothing for the pain) and advised me that I was going to be moved up to a delivery room. I didn't really have a "birth plan", my plan was to go as long as I could before taking an epidural or whatever it was that I needed. After I was transferred to the delivery room I was given laughing gas as the pain was getting quite bad. They hooked me up to oxytocin because the contractions had slowed down and shortly after that I was told that if I wanted an epidural I had to take in now, because the anesthesiologist was really busy that morning. I knew that I was going to end up wanting it because this pain was getting hard to handle. I wasn't going to be a hero, I decided to take it. I was so worried about getting it because of what they showed us in prenatal class, let me tell you it was wonderful!

A few hours later a nurse checked me, I was now 9cm dilated, she said they were going to take a lunch break and after I could have this baby! At this point the epidural was wearing off, so they topped it up and inserted a catheter (I was able to get up and go to the bathroom with the original epidural as it was a low dose). I finally met the Doctor that was going to be delivering my baby, if you recall my OB was chilling on the beach. I was advised that the baby's heart rate dropped to 60 bpm, stayed there for a while and then shot up to 220bpm and the operating room was being prepped for us; then it stabilized around 150bpm. I was told that I could try to have her vaginally, but if the heart rate went wonky again I would be rushed away for a cesarean. The Doctor informed me that the baby was face up, so he reached up and manually turned her. That hurt! I was now ready to push.

After pushing for only a few minutes the Doctor said that I wasn't "stretching" properly and that he had to give me an episiotomy and use forceps; he then went on to explain that the forceps were not going to be used to pull the baby out, but to pry me open. So he did. OUCH! After only 20 minutes of pushing a healthy baby girl was born! Her very proud Daddy was there to cut the cord, and Grandma Vicki was there to take pictures!



On November 6, 2009 Makayla made her appearance weighing in at a whopping 7lbs 1oz and was 19.25in. All the waiting, 9 months of pregnancy and 13 hours of labour and delivery were worth every minute when I got to hold my baby girl!