Makenzie Marie

Hello Friends!  I’m getting personal on the blog, I hope you don’t mind.  As I sit and wrap my head around the fact that eight weeks have come and gone with our sweet baby girl, I thought it was time for me to sit down and get her birth story recorded so that I wouldn’t forget any details. 
Before I get to the best day, the day we welcomed our little girl into the world I want to back up and tell the story from the beginning.  If you follow me on Instagram you may have started to get the drift that becoming parents was not the easiest for us.  I have alluded to this fact through hashtags or different captions, but have not necessarily come out and screamed it from the rooftops.  We struggled with infertility.  I feel comfortable sharing this information because the more I talk to people the more common I am realizing it is.  Many couples struggle with infertility and need a little assistance to get to the end goal of parenthood.  As we tried to get pregnant it was so hard for me! I have always wanted to be pregnant and be a Mommy! So needless to say when it wasn’t happening as soon as I wanted I took it pretty hard. 
To help with all my feelings I started another private blog to get my feelings out, it was cathartic! I also started this blog and my TpT journey! I must admit deciding to join TpT was the best decision I have made because I have had the opportunity to meet some amazing teachers turned friends. I am honored to be a part of The Primary Punchbowl, a group of ladies who support each other through the happy and sad times and everywhere in between! 

That Amy Poehler is one smart gal and she couldn’t be more right! This journey has changed my life and instead of coming home and focusing on our struggle I could channel my energy on creating, blogging, or connecting with friends! 
As I stated above, the more I talked to people the more I began to realize I wasn’t alone in this struggle, nor should I be afraid to talk!
By sharing our story, I hope that I will inspire someone who reads it to know that you are NOT alone!
After about a year or so of trying my husband and I decided that it was time to seek some guidance.  I spoke with my doctor and she referred me to a fertility doctor.  We scheduled an appointment and met with him to discuss our options.  He told us the routine of scheduling a panel of tests to see where we were at and then explained that he would have a better idea of what path we needed to take. 
After our initial screening we decided that our best option was IVF.  After our decision was made we got the truckload of medicine and began the process.  The egg retrieval was successful and we were able to implant one embryo.  After nine days I had to go in for a blood test to see if I was pregnant, (talk about the longest nine days of our lives)  The weekend before the blood test we were busy packing because we were in the process of moving into a new house. (Because this was the best and least stressful time to do this of course ;)) When I woke up that Saturday I was feeling pretty icky, and in the back of my mind wondered if I could possibly be pregnant.  I had one pregnancy test left in the back of my drawer, but told myself that I wanted to wait until we got a positive blood test because I wanted to finally see what a positive test looked like.  I couldn’t take the suspense any longer and as my husband was packing I snuck up to our bathroom to bite the bullet and take the test. I didn’t even have to wait the designated time because it immediately started to show positive! I started jumping up and down and although I told myself I would keep it to myself and surprise my husband I couldn’t keep this secret to myself. I raced down the stairs crying and screaming and scared my husband half to death because he thought something was wrong! I waved the test in front of his face and we both just smiled and stared at it! 
Our dreams were coming true! 
Now we knew we had to be caustiously optimistic because the test could have been a false positive, but for that weekend I was giddy because I knew in my heart of hearts that I was pregnant! That night we went to the Sox game with my husband’s family and it was so exciting to have this secret between the two of us! 

We also moved into our house and it was so exciting knowing we were soon to be a family of three!

Luckily my pregnancy was easy and I loved being pregnant! I loved watching my bump grow, I loved feeling the movement of our sweet baby, I loved how everyone was so excited to share our joy! 

The doctor’s decided that they wanted to induce me due to some unrelated medical problems. I went in on Thursday, June 9th to start the process. After I was checked in and hooked up to about five different machines the nurse told me to get some rest (oh ok ;))

My water broke naturally at five in the morning on Friday and my labor started. I unfortunately had back labor which I hear is the most painful. Going in I wasn’t sold on an epidural, however after laboring for four hours and only progressing to two centimeters I quickly changed my mind and asked for the good stuff.
For two hours I was able to relax and rest for a bit, but little did I know that an epidural wears off and after two hours I was back to the painful contractions. After about four more hours my best friend the anesthesiologist came back to give me the good stuff and I had a few more hours of relief. At around two the doctor told me I was at six centimeters and unfortunately at six I was still at six centimeters. At nine o’clock and still at six centimeters after sixteen hours of labor they decided it would be best to do a c-section and at 9:31 p.m. our little girl was born.
We didn’t know if we were having a boy or girl and to have my husband stand up in the operating room and tell me it was a girl with lots of hair was the most surreal and magical moment. To hear her first cry was breathtaking! 

These past eight weeks have been nothing short of amazing! I feel so lucky to be this sweet little girl’s Mom! Every day is such a gift!

For anyone out there reading this who dreams of one day being a Mommy, is working towards becoming a Mommy, or has to jump a few hurdles to be a Mommy hang in there and know…

Thank you for taking the time to read this and letting me share with you one of the happiest days of my life!
My dream has come true since I was a little girl, I am a Mommy!