The Birth Story of Mackenzie Lyn

I gave birth to our darling girl Monday, October 15th at 5:37pm via c-section. We knew we were going to have the surgery two weeks in advance, and you would think that would take a lot of the anticipation out of waiting for baby, but I’ll tell you what – the anticipation was incredible. Especially because the surgery was scheduled for the evening and we had all day Monday to be nervous about it.

We learned at our 36 week ultrasound that she was breech, and that because of her size it was likely she wouldn’t flip over (although there is always a chance). We had the option of doing an external version, trying to flip her around from the outside, but I had read that there is only about a 50% success rate with an external version, often they will flip back around, and that there is usually a reason why they are breech and flipping them can cause complications. I will admit that I was worried about having a c-section because I thought I would feel like I had taken the easy way out. Even though I would never think or say that to another woman who has given birth via c-section, I was afraid I would somehow feel inadequate because I never had to push. After Mackenzie was born I felt very secure in the knowledge that she was supposed to come by c-section. But more on that later…

At 3pm we checked into the hospital, they did an ultrasound to make sure she was still breech, and got Mike and I prepped for the OR.

Here is Mike doing his Oompa Loompa Dance.

 It turned out that one of the nurses who was prepping me used to live in our condo complex, so we chatted with her and that really helped keep my mind off of what was about to happen…

They got me all numbed up and “tested” to make sure I was numb before Mike was allowed in. I’m not sure what that means but I’m sure it was something pretty horrific and I’m glad I didn’t feel it. I had a drape up so I couldn’t see anything, but Mike peeked over and snapped a few pictures of the surgery. I have decided not to post any, because they are obviously pretty graphic, but I do have a pretty good shot of a foot coming out of my belly that is available upon request!

Here is our pumpkin getting cleaned off. It turns out she had one leg up by her head (frank breech) and one leg straight down (footling breech), and she also had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck once. My OB said she has done a lot of c-sections, and never seen one like this before. She laughed when she was putting information on Mackenzie's chart because she didn't know how to classify her position. This was how I knew we made the right decision with the c-section. Trying to flip her over could have done a lot more harm than good - and now she will be able to tell people that she was literally born doing the splits.

This is my favorite picture of her in recovery. The look on her face is priceless. To me, it looks like she is saying, “not cool, guys.” You can also tell from the picture that her tongue goes up a little bit on the sides. It’s hard to tell from this, but she is pretty significantly tongue-tied (I didn't even know that was a thing) and it has made it hard for her to nurse. We have an appointment on Tuesday to get her tongue clipped, which sounds really inhumane, but I’m assured that it is just like clipping toenails and will make eating a lot easier for her.

Holding her for the first time. She measured at a perfect 8 pounds, 7 ounces, 19 inches long.

Recovery went well, and we left the hospital Wednesday afternoon. We had one slight hiccup with my blood pressure that landed us in the ER for a few hours on Thursday. I’m taking beta blockers now and am lovingly referring to my feet as “Hulk feet” because they are crazy swollen, as are my calves and hands, but other than that things have been great. Grandma Dixie has been here helping a lot the past few days.

and we are pretty tired….

But I think we are getting the hang of this.