McKenzie Elizabeth Cuff has arrived!!

I haven't updated in a while - and if you didn't hear, its because our little princess has arrived!! Here's the story of her birth (most graphic details spared!)

On August 31, we left for the hospital at 7:00, so I could be induced. After all of the baby's attempts to join us early, she had decided she wanted to be late, and with our midwife, we decided to induce. We got all settled in our room on the maternity floor, hooked up to multiple machines & IV's and then we waited. Turns out there were a ton of girls laboring (turns out 6 babies were born that day, and 3 of the mothers were named Samantha! Random, huh?) and the floor was super busy. Even though I arrived having contractions, they were completely unproductive, and my cervix actually closed a bit since my previous exam. Pitocin was started at 10:00am.


For the first hour, nothing really bothered me, I felt the contractions, but my only complaint was that I was hungry. That all quickly changed!! By noon I needed pain meds, so I opted for Nubain (which is an opiate, given through the IV), because I figured I would be in labor for quite some time and I didn't want to be confined to bed yet with the epidural. It made me VERY loopy and I kept saying, "I shouldn't be in public like this..." hahah...

By 2:00pm, I was basically screaming & in tears - the medication wasn't helping at all anymore with my contractions and I was begging for the epidural. They checked me and I was already at 8cm!! I had started at 1cm only 4 hours earlier! We were almost past the window where I could get the epidural, and the anesthesiologist was in a procedure and not available right away, so I was completely freaking out - but luckily, he rushed in and just in time saved the day. Within a minute, I was comfortable - it was WONDERFUL. It didn't even hurt to get put in, my IV hurt way worse (and I'm a pro at them!). TJ & I were able to talk and relax for a little bit after that - it was a nice time, all things considered!

At about 5:00pm, the midwife came and checked me and said, "Its time to start pushing", and I was completely in shock. So that's what I did - and that was NOT FUN. I felt like I was making no progress & it was taking forever, but I was & it wasn't. However, at some point the baby's heart rate started dropping and extra nurses & one of our doctors came in - he finally said if she doesn't come out in the next two pushes, he was going to use the forceps - so the midwife made a cut (owwww.... and it still freaking hurts), and out came Kenzie at 5:44pm! And what a surprise, her estimated birth weight was 7lbs, and here she was, 8lbs 5oz and 22 inches long!! No wonder she was stuck!

We all rested at the hospital until Friday - we had a wonderful experience at Newton Memorial, though it was great to come home, and SO nice being only 10 minutes away.

We have never been happier - we are so blessed with a beautiful family, and we are looking forward to everything coming up, but we are taking our time to enjoy every minute...  <3