Our Happy Gift From God

As you read in the post below, our sweet Makenna Grace has arrived! First of all, thank you for all of the well wishes and congratulations on the last two posts. We are so happy she is finally here and of course we think she is the most beautiful perfect baby ever! While the story is fresh in my mind I wanted to write the story of her birth.

On Sunday January 24th, I was admitted to the hospital for an induction of labor. My doctor decided to induce me because I was starting to have problems with pregnancy induced hypertension and he thought she was going to be a big baby, so it was best to get her delivered. We got settled into our room and listened to what my doctor's plan was. He gave me a drug called cervidil and things got going pretty slowly. That next morning I hadn't made significant cervical change so they started me on a drug called cytotec, it got my contractions really going and I started dilating a little by little. My doctor was happy with my cervical change but the baby wasn't moving down the birth canal at all. Since the contractions weren't strong enough to move her down, he started another drug called pitocin. The pitocin really kicked things into high gear and I was definitely getting more and more uncomfortable. After quite a while, my Dr came in and checked me. I had made good cervical change but baby's head was still not coming down into the birth canal. He said that he thought we should keep a c-section in the back of our minds if she didn't start moving down soon and he was afraid that her head may be to big for a vaginal delivery. The fact that her head may be to big was not a surprise to anyone. All of us including my doctor thought she would be at least 9 pounds. He kicked up the pitocin and broke my water and said he would be back in an hour and we would make a new plan from there.

Almost immediately after breaking my water my contractions became stacked one right on top of another and I decided I was ready for my epidural. The epidural was amazing! I went from feeling as though I was splitting in two, to not feeling a thing! I loved it! Not only could I not feel my contractions but I was now more comfortable than I had been in weeks. I no longer felt my lower back aching or my sore hips. It was heaven. I highly recommend an epidural to anyone. My doctor came back an hour later as promised and I had made more cervical change but babies head still wasn't coming down. He really liked the contraction pattern and because I was comfortable he decided to wait for one more hour and if it wasn't working than I would need to have a c-section. After an hour she still wasn't coming down and now her head was molding into the birth canal and he was afraid she would start distressing so off to the operating room I went.

From the time that we had decided to go ahead with the c-section, it was about half an hour or so before the whole operating room crew had arrived and I was moved into the OR. They got things situated and Nick came in and held my hand. Just a few minutes later, the anaesthesiologist told Nick to stand up so he could see her birth. At 10:12pm on January 25th, our little miracle was born. Before she was completely out of the womb, she was wailing! The instant we heard her, we both began crying too, it was the best moment of our lives to date. The second Nick saw her he said "Oh my gosh Reba, she has tons of hair! She's perfect!" After her initial assessment, the pediatrician called Nick over the recitation table and he was able to get some pictures of her while the nurses continued to get her ready to head to the nursery. Not long after that, they brought her over to me and laid her by my head and I got to give her a quick kiss and we had a couple of pictures taken.

Nick got to walk her out of the OR a few minutes later to help take care of our little girl in the nursery while the Dr's finished my surgery. Nick said it was as though the paparazzi was waiting outside the OR for them, because the second the double doors opened, the camera's flashed! Both of our immediate families were waiting to meet our sweet baby. After they gave her a clean bill of health and bath Nick got to show her off to our families. The pediatrician that helped out with the delivery gave him some advise that I greatly appreciated, she had suggested that no one else hold her until I had a chance to, seeing how I was still in surgery.

While I was still in surgery the Dr's got a kick out of the fact that I talked to them the whole time. Go figure! I chatted with the anaesthesiologist about his family and asked my Dr if he could do a tummy tuck while he was in there. He just laughed at me and told me he's not the right kind of surgeon for that job. I also asked how big they all thought she was and they guessed about 8 pounds. The anaesthesiologist called the nursery and got her stats. She weighed in at 7 pounds 2 ounces and measured 19.5 inches long. Not quite the 9 pounder we were all expecting! It turned out that her head wasn't to big at all, she was trying to come out sideways. Little heads don't fit very good when it's not the soft spot coming out first. One thing I realized while still in the OR was that before Nick left we didn't give her a name.

I'm not exactly sure how long it was from the time that Nick left the OR to the time that I went to my room for recovery but I'm guessing 45 minutes to an hour. As I came down the hall on my bed I first saw my Mom and she kept telling me how proud she was of me and how beautiful my baby was. I then saw the rest of our families for a brief second and into my room I went. After they got me all situated, Nick and our little girl got to come into the room with me. I got to hold her for the first time and then put her right to breast. My nurse was impressed with how well she latched on for the first time. She has been a great breast feeder ever since! While I was feeding her, I asked Nick if he thought she still looked like a Makenna and he said "well I definitely think so" and that is the name we gave her. We had heard the name Makenna sometime during my pregnancy and we both really loved the name. We also loved the name Grace and decided to use that as her middle name. After we had tentatively chosen the name Makenna Grace I looked up the meanings. Makenna means happiness in Hawaiian and Grace means gift from God. We thought it was perfectly fitting for her. She is our happy gift from God.

The next few days flew by in kind of a blur. I blame that on the pain killers not sleep deprivation. We had lots of visitors come and visit us which really helped our stay go by a little faster. I love that I work in the OB department because the whole time I felt like I was surrounded by friends, not just nurses. Our nurses took such good care of us that we were almost sad to leave.

Our first few days at home have gone pretty darn good. We have really enjoyed getting to know our little girl. We feel truly blessed that she is finally here and she healthy and perfect in every way. It was a long, rough road to get here, 3 years, 2 miscarriages, fertility treatments and it has all been worth it! We love you Makenna Grace! You are truly our happy gift from God.