Our Birth Story

The arrival of our sweet baby #2 was an adventure Shawn and I had not prepared for to say the least. I have always been one to believe that modern medicine has been discovered and developed for the purpose of making life easier, especially when it comes to having a baby. I had an epidural with Reagan right when I got to the hospital and her delivery was a piece of cake. They literally had to tell me when to stop pushing because I didn't feel anything and had no idea when she came out. Although recovery was pretty rough due to the doctor giving me quite the episiotomy, I automatically planned on having another epidural with baby #2 because the thought of experiencing the pain I saw on "birth shows" frankly scared me to death. However, while pregnant I did have a feeling of needing to be educated on natural child birth. It wasn't something I was considering seriously but felt I should be somewhat prepared for it for some reason or another.

As the due date of baby girl approached we went to the doctor for my 37 weeks visit and saw I was dialated to a 3. While every woman is different, I felt I knew my body pretty well and knew that the baby would be coming earlier than expected. My mom made her plane ticket based on when I felt the baby would come which was 2 weeks earlier than what the doctors thought. The day before my mom flew in I began to experience on and off contractions. Nothing consistent or regular though and nothing too painful. The next day I felt the same on and off again contractions. My mom was to fly in at 7:30pm and so I was anxious to go pick her up and was pretty sure she would make it to witness the birth of our baby girl. At around 4pm the contractions seemed to be making a pattern and coming every 12 min. For some crazy reason I thought that it would be smart to hurry and go grocery shopping before my mom got in so I went to Walmart and shopped while stopping to breathe through contractions. When I got home it was 6pm and I started to talk to Shawn about the contractions and how I felt they were coming regularly every 8 min. We would be leaving to get my mom in 2 hours so we decided that after we picked her up we would go straight to the hospital.

At 6:30pm I called our good friend Elizabeth Sorenson and asked if she would be willing to come over and watch Reagan while we picked up my mom and went to the hospital. Under such short notice she said of coarse! and told me to call her whenever we needed her to come. After I hung up the phone I went upstairs into the bathroom and had a bigger contraction than normal. I decided to call my sister Sherri because well she has had 5 kids and is always okay with me explaining nasty details about my body with her haha. She's a good sister! She told me that if she were me she would not go to the airport and would go to the hospital right away. So I hung up with her and had Shawn call Elizabeth back asking her to come over right away. Within 20 min. Elizabeth had arrived. In the matter of those 20 min. my contractions were coming every 4 min.and were INTENSE! When she arrived Shawn and I were already in the car and took off as soon as we saw her pull up in our rear view mirror. We still had about a 25 min drive ahead of us and I was clinging to the car handle in pain. When we were about 7 min. away from the hospital I felt something in my body change. I'll spare the nasty details but I felt as if the head was pushing to come out. I was screaming at Shawn to hurry and when we pulled up to the hospital I was in tears because I was literally trying not to push but couldn't help it. Shawn pulled over on the side of the road and ran into the hospital to get help. No one was around and all he could see was a wheelchair under a sign that said "DO NOT TAKE." Naturally Shawn took it and came out to the car. I literally could not move because I thought the baby would fall out. When he ran us into the hospital there was a lady in scrubs down the hall and Shawn screamed that I was having a baby and that it was coming out right now. She ran us around a couple corners to the ER during which my water broke. When we entered into to the ER there were people EVERYWHERE. Some were crying, some were bleeding, but everyone was staring as we ran in with me yelling and screaming, "SHOULD I TAKE OFF MY PANTS?! SHE'S COMING OUT! I FEEL HER!". Nurses quickly took over my wheelchair and rushed me to the side of the hall where they lifted me onto a stretcher and pulled a curtain to divide us from the rest of the people standing around. Shawn said that as they lifted me onto the stretcher they took off my pants and saw that baby was already "crowning" (eww gross word I know!) :) This is when I became a crazy person because it hit me that I wasn't going to be able to get an epidural and I would be having the baby naturally- I began to instantly panic.

This is where I'm going to let Shawn take over because I was a little out of it at this point....

Alright, so when Cindy was placed on the stretcher and they looked at her they saw that she was in fact having the baby right then. I've never seen Cindy so demanding or vocal before. She was literally like the woman on tv screaming and crying at the same time like a crazy person. While one nurse had her left hand, I held her right hand and tried to do what I could to comfort her (which wasn't much). While pushing she was begging for the epidural which the nurses in response kinda laughed while saying "Sweety, she is already half way out." Cindy then began crying and yes even bit my hand really REALLY hard. It was the saddest thing to watch my wife go through so much pain and not be able to do anything about it. Within minutes of being put on the stretcher, Cindy had a perfect baby girl placed in her arms. Right away the nurses then took us up to labor and delivery. As we opened the curtain in the ER all the people were looking at us and making comments of "Woah that was fast!"

 

Back to Cindy:

When they took us up to labor and delivery they then weighed and measured the baby. Our little one was 4lbs 12 oz and 17" long. She was a TINY little girl with A LOT of blonde curly hair.

 

The nurses also then changed me into a hospital gown and got me all checked in. After about 10 min. there, my actual doctor arrived and checked me over. I was still in a state of shock and just started crying. The experience was just so overwhelming and I couldn't believe that I had just had a baby. We were then moved to a recovery room after the doctor cleared me and the baby and that's when things began to really set in. My mom had landed 15 minutes after the baby was born and received a text from Shawn letting her know that I had had a baby and that we wouldn't be there to pick her up. Luckily she was able to get a rental car and made her way straight over to the hospital from the airport to meet her new little granddaughter.

For the first 3 days of baby's life we called her Rylee. A name we had picked out a while ago and planned on naming our daughter. After about 3 days though the name just didn't seem to sit well and our little girl just didn't look like a Rylee.

Our daughters official name is now:

Rachel McKay McNaughton

We now have two little Rae Rae's who are the Rae's of sunshine in our lives. We couldn't be happier and are so blessed to have the most beautiful little girls sent to our family.

Our Newest Addition

On October 5th 2011 we were blessed with the newest addition of our family, Reagan Ilise McNaughton. Weighing in at 5 lbs 9 oz and being 16" long she was the most perfect thing Shawn and I have both ever seen. Here is a look into her "birthday story"...

On Oct.5, 2011 i woke up early (which is like 9am to me) with cramps. Shawn had already left for work at 4am and wouldn't be home until 5pm and i was nervous that i was starting to feel the effects of going into labor.  I kept track of how often i was feeling "cramps"/contractions and noticed that they were coming every 11 minutes. I went ahead and texted Shawn saying how nervous i was and also called his parents to let them know i thought i was going into labor. Shawn's mom came home from work and stayed with me because she could see i really was in pain and Shawn wasn't allowed to leave work because he had physical testing he couldn't miss. I was praying i wouldn't have a baby before he got home. At around 3pm i called the doctors to see if i should go to the hospital. My contractions were 9 min apart and we are about 30-40min. from the hospital i would be delivering at. The nurse told me no and said to wait until they were 5 min apart or less and felt as if i couldn't talk,walk, or move anymore. I was really upset and just kept waiting and timing my contractions which seemed to get more intense each time. I was so happy to see Shawn once he got home from work, and told him how much pressure and cramping i was feeling. He told me to call the doctors again because my contractions were now 7 min apart. When i called they once again told me no not to come in yet. When i hung up i started to get teary because i didn't understand why i couldn't just go in so Shawn decided we were gonna go to the hopital anyways. In the car i continued to have contractions and by the time i was registered and in my hopital room my contractions were 4 min. apart. GOOD THING WE LEFT WHEN WE DID! We arrived at the hospital at around 7pm and when the nurse checked me informed me that i was already 6" dialated. WOAH! Only 4 more inches and i was ready to push.

The nurse was so nice and right away got someone to give me an epidural (a decision i made long before arriving at the hospital). The epidural was done in a matter of minutes and didn't hurt at all. Right away i wasn't able to feel any contractions...or my legs :). They told me that i should dialate an inch an  hour but the next time they came in to check me i was already dialated to a 10. They hurried and called a doctor by 9pm i was pushing. Because of the epidural i didn't feel any pain and was able to have Reagan without feeling hardly a thing. As Reagan was coming out though they found that her umbillical cord was wrapped around her neck and her heart rate was dropping rapidly. They needed to get her out quick so they gave me an episiotomy (which again i didn't feel) and before i knew it my baby was out. I didn't get to see her right away (daddy got to QUICKLY cut the umbillical cord though) because she was rushed over to be checked by doctors from the NICU due to some complications that had occured while inside my tummy. After they cleared her as healthy they brought lil Reagan over to me and i was able tohold my little girl for the first time. It was the most amazing experience and i was overflowing with emotions. I was so happy, tired, and still in shock that i had just become a mother.

After the delivery things are a bit hazy for me. I can't remember how i got into the recovery room but i do remember not being able to move or walk because i couldn't feel my legs. This continued for a good 12 hours...the epidural they gave me sure was a good one! :) In the recovery room we got to spend the first 2 days with Reagan learning how to watch and take care of her. Shawn was able to sleep on a fold out cot right next to me and was such a good husband getting up at 1am to get my food from the cafeteria. We loved the hospital's food! But even more we loved our new little girl and were so excited to take her home. On Oct.7th we were able to leave with our little girl. We couldn't have asked for a better delivery (although the recovery time after is tough) and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect little girl. We love our daughter Reagan and are excited to see our family of 2 now become a family of 3!