Her birth. My story.

We went in for a scheduled induction on August 6, 2009. I had been having contractions off and on for a full week but Mikayla was on her own time (boy how this has proven true). We strolled up to the 6^th floor, registered and walked into our delivery room. I remember seeing her bassinet with the blanket, syringe, and hat all waiting for her to come. Our baby would be here in a matter of hours. This was really happening. Having been here 4 years before I knew what to be excited, terrified and anxious for. Welcoming a second daughter into our family was about to happen and I was so ready. Our nurse came in and before we even had the paperwork finished she had the pitocin dripping through my IV bag into my arm. Slowly my contractions began. She talked about how I wanted the day to go. I told her I cried easily. I told her that I wanted an epidural and that I really didn’t want to push for 2.5 hours like I did the first time around. I also made it very very clear that I could not labor lying down. I needed to move for as long as possible. Move I did. Comfortable in our room, by ourselves, the contractions began to get stronger. I ended up sitting in the bathroom for a good length of time. I breathed through each contraction determined to hold off on the epidural as long as possible so that gravity could help with the delivery. I made it out to the birthing ball by about 9:30—2.5 hours after the pitocin was started. The contractions were increasing in duration, coming quicker, and becoming unbearable so I decided to get the epidural. I was 6 cm dilated and was worried. I thought I was giving too soon by putting myself in the bed too early. However, I was ready for some pain relief. I received the epidural. After the initial fear of the big needle, I was able to joke around with the anesthesiologist as he taught me how to control my pain. My nurse got us all settled in and said she was going to take a quick lunch break and she’d be back in a little bit. It was about 10:45. She told me I should try and rest (yeah right), instead I made a few phone calls to let family members know how we were doing. However, minutes later all I wanted to do was push. We called a nurse in and she checked me—I was fully dilated and ready to go. I guess my body just needed some time to relax which is what the epidural offered me. With the desire to push so incredibly strong the first nurse let me try a few pushes. She told me to hold off until Jess (our assigned nurse) was called back. Jess paged our doctor and told him I was starting to push. Back at the office, he got the page and, thankfully, thought he should head over instead of seeing any more patients.

With a handful of pushes, and only minutes after beginning, my nurse gave me the red light. Stop pushing until your doctor gets here or she would be the one delivering our baby. Red light is not something any woman in labor should be given. The worst pain I have ever been in came in these minutes. My body was telling me, urging me, pleading with me, to push this baby out, but instead I had to breathe through each painstaking minute. My doctor came in, barely got his gown and gloves on, and I was pushing. Thirty five minutes after I first started pushing, including about 10 minutes waiting on my doctor, my second miracle was born into this world.

It was 11:35 am. I did it. If a woman can call her delivery beautiful, this one was. I was in control of my body, focused and like a rock star I made it happen. She was immediately placed on my chest and we cried together. They let her stay with me for as long as I wanted and then took her to clean her off and swaddle her up. She was seconds old, listening to my voice, and it was like she already knew who I was. She was at home in my arms…

We called my dad, who had Mallory, and gave him the news. He went and picked up my mom and brought her and Mallory to the hospital. It was my absolute plan to have Mallory be the first person behind Brent and me to meet Mikayla. Mallory and I went through almost half of this pregnancy together while Brent was in Oklahoma. She was the one who felt her first movements and she was one of the voices that Mikayla was going to recognize. Not even two hours later Mallory came into the room to meet her little sister for the first time. Writing these words brings tears back to my eyes. My beautiful daughters were in the same room. My family complete. Amazing. We put Mikayla on the bed and let Mallory inspect every little part of her body. I undressed her and showed Mallory her little toes, fingers, and belly button.

We snuggled Mikayla back up and from that point on have moved through our days, weeks, months as a family of four. Parenthood was breathtaking the first time around. The second time around it was incredible. I was able to completely devote my thoughts and memories on these two girls as they grew as sisters and we grew as a family-completed.

Happy Birthday my sweet Mikayla! Mommy loves you more than you will ever know…