It's Official! Daddy is Outnumbered...baby girl #2 has arrived!

Well folks, here it is! The birth story of baby #3! It's a little bit late, but life with two toddlers and a newborn has proven to be a bit of an adjustment...obviously...haha!

Some parts of this post may be TMI, so read at your own risk.

Please be sure to visit the link at the bottom of this story as well. It has some of the missing details that didn't make it into this post. I will be adding them here, but until then, the link will have to suffice. :-)

When I went in for my 38 week appointment, I was a "good" 2 cm dilated. I didn't get too excited by that because women can walk around 3-4 cm for a week or more without going into labor.

At about 9:45 pm Saturday, March 23, I started having some contractions. I told Michael and said that they were about 4 to 6 minutes apart, but not overly painful yet. I asked what he wanted to do, and we decided to go ahead and go to the hospital. Since Justin was born so fast, we didn't want to take any chances. We changed out of our pj's, called my sister, and got everything ready to go. Contractions came and went, occasionally going about 10 minutes in between.

When my sister got here, we headed up to the hospital, not rushing because it didn't feel completely urgent yet. Let me tell you something...registration at triage is a whole lot easier when you're not doubled over in pain from contractions! Ha! We got all checked in and situated by about 11:00. They hooked me up to the fetal monitors and verified that I was in fact contracting. They monitored me and the baby for about 30 minutes before checking me. I was still just 2 cm dilated, though, so they gave me a few options. I could either walk around for a couple of hours, or they could send me home and we could come back when the contractions got more intense and closer together. Again...given how fast Justin was born, we opted to hang out and wander around the hospital. After about an hour and a half of hallways, stairs, up and down elevators, some more wandering, and even more wandering, all while I was contracting every 2 - 3 minutes, we headed back to triage. It was about 2 am at this point, and Michael and I were both getting pretty tired. They got me hooked back up to all the monitors, and watched for about 20 minutes. I was still contracting every 4 - 6 minutes, but the nurse said it seemed more like it was an "irritable uterus" issue rather than full on labor. Especially since all of the walking didn't put me in a labor and delivery room. They monitored me for another 30-ish minutes, and re-checked me before we left. I was *still* just 2 cm dilated. I was pretty darn bummed!!! We walked out of the hospital, without a little squish, and I was still contracting.

We got back home about 3:00 in the morning, and headed to bed. When I woke up, the contractions had all but stopped, and were down to a dull ache. I was still pretty bummed out. As the day went on, I would have random contractions here and there, but nothing too bad. Michael decided that we were going to get Mexican for lunch since it seemed to work with the other two. It sounded super yummy, so I wasn't going to complain! We sat down for lunch and I happily enjoyed my enchilada, tamale and beans & rice. After lunch, I laid down for a nap. What I woke up to kind of caught me by surprise! I was still having contractions, but these...these were a little more intense! I was actually having to focus and breathe through them more than I did the night before. They were starting to take my breath away, so we decided to have my sister come back so that we could head back to the hospital...again.

We got to the hospital, and got checked in around 5:00. We headed back to triage again and got all hooked up to the machines. They monitored me for about 30 minutes or so and checked me. I was 4 cm with a bulging sac, so I was NOT going home again!!! Wooooohooooo! I was so worried that they were going to want to send me home again. Anyways...I decided that rather than go natural, I wanted to go ahead and get the epidural. They had to run a test on my blood because my platelets were low at one point, so I had to wait until that result came back before they would give it to me. Once we got into a labor & delivery room, I started having some pretty wicked contractions and asked about 150 times when the anesthesiologist would be up with my drugs!!! LOL!!! About 30 minutes and 15 contractions later, they were in the room giving me the epidural! Yay! HUGE difference. HUGE difference. I went from wanting to kill someone and practically breaking the bed to laughing, chatting, and having a good old time. Heck...I could open my eyes again! I felt a warm gush and said "Oh, I think my water just broke!" But I was wrong...it was just the bloody show. Then, the doc broke my water, and I was still able to feel the pressure when the contractions got stronger, which I couldn't really feel with Julia, so I knew when it was time to push. When I said "Ok, I'm ready to push!" the doctor checked where the baby was, and she was practically crowning already. I had labored down so much, that she was right there waiting! My doctor said "Ok, you get two pushes, that's it!" (hahahahaa) When the next contraction came, I pushed, paused for a breath, pushed again, and her head was out. Breathed a few times, pushed again, and out she came! Less than 5 minutes, and about 2 1/2 pushes later, and our baby girl joined us!

Little Miss Alaina McKenzie was born just after 8 pm on March 24, 2013. She looks just like her big sister and brother did!

Just a few more details...

Here she is on her birthday!

And here she is with her big sister and big brother on Easter Sunday! (Justin was less than thrilled with the idea of a picture...lol)

God bless!!!