Jack MacKenzie is here! PIP (really long)

nycjenny · February 2011

Jack was born on the 11th, and it was absolutely NOTHING like what I had planned for, expected or imagined.

February 10th was a totally normal day. Work was fine, camehome to dinner made by fianc?, we watched a little TV and then he went to bedtotally exhausted. I stayed up for a bit and then got ready for bed. As I was crawling under the covers at 11:30ish I felt a little pop andthen a gush. Um, wtf? Woke FI up and I ran to bathroom to getcleaned up (seriously, it was EVERYWHERE), all the while we're talking likecrazy people, "I don't remember what to do if water breaks BEFORE contractionsstart!!!"

I get new panties, a pad and some pants on and we call the doctor. She told us we could hang out at home for a max of six hours to letcontractions start on their own or come to the hospital. Our decision. Okay, we're going to nap while we can and hope things get going naturally. We'll see you in six hours, Dr!

An hour later contractions start. I slip out of bed and gotidy the living room for some strange reason. By 2:30am they're anywherefrom 5 to 3 minutes apart and I'm moaning my way through them, pacing in theliving room. I wake FI up again and say, "We need to get a cabNOW".

The cab ride was pure torture as the driver chose to take 2ndAvenue downtown which is currently ripped up due to a new subway line beingbuilt - pothole city... cabbie asked fianc? at one point, "should I driveslower or faster???" "FASTER!" was the answer.

At the hospital things go pretty smoothly, checked in - yes,contractions are about 3 minutes apart. 3 cm dilated. No, I don'twant the epidural - let me see how long I can take it. Okay, good girl. The nurse brings a ball for me to sit on, I walk, hold FI and then all ofa sudden I just couldn't do it anymore and ask for an epidural.

Turns out the epidural works great expect for the lower left frontof my abdomen. I can still feel everything there. Awesome. So wework with that for a few hours. Bad news...I haven?t dilated past 5 at thispoint and it's now afternoon. Pitocin is brought in. Pain ramps up. D*mn non-working epidural.

Takes until 8:30pm (ish) to fully dilate. They're preppingme to push and all of a sudden something goes wrong with the baby's heart rate. Bed is thrown flat, I'm rolled to my left side and given oxygen. Heart rate goes normal, they insert an internal monitor and decide to letme start pushing. After every push I roll back to my left side and slapon the oxygen mask. I think I kind of went into a trance at this point. Push and then roll. Push and then roll. Baby won't budge. We try pushing on my side. No go. Two hours of this and Iknow what's coming. I'm focusing on the baby's heartbeat through everypush and am so exhausted. This kid will NOT come out.

The doctor calls a time out and says I can push for another houror we can have a c-section now. I say something to the effect of"he's not moving down is he?" "No honey, he'snot". I opt for the c-section. I?d been crying through the last few pushesand really felt I just couldn?t do it anymore.

Everything went really fast after that. The amazing feeling asthat spot of pain FINALLY went away as the anesthesiologist prepped me forsurgery...wheeling down the hall, FI coming to sit by me and holding my hand...I remember the doctor announcing that "this little boy is facing up to thelights!" and then hearing him cry shortly after that. I cried andcried to finally hear him. February 11 at 11:07pm. 7lbs and 3 ounces, perfectly perfect in everyway.

FI was allowed over to take pictures of the baby and then hebrought him to me. He laid on my chestwhile they sewed me back up then it was time for him to go back to the nursesand for me to go to recovery. Thehospital was great and brought him back to me in the recovery room to hold andbreastfeed, but I was shaking so badly that I couldn?t do it. When the shaking stopped and we moved to ourroom, I was finally able to REALLY hold him at about 3am.

So, definitely not as I had imagined it all going down, buttotally worth it. 100%

sarahbeth827 · February 2011

Congrats! We had the name Jack MacKenzie picked out for this LO for the longest time since MacKenzie is a family name, but we just recently changed the middle name to Hudson and we are are going to use MacKenzie for our next LO!