6 lbs, 7 oz
19 1/4 in
Two days ago, Baby Madelyn made her way into our world. We are so excited that she is finally here…it was quite an adventure! Here's her story...
On Sunday night, around 11:30 PM, I woke up feeling some minor cramps with a backache. I tried to change positions to help relieve the pain, but nothing really seemed to do the trick. So, I got up with a book in hand and went out to the living room to read so I wouldn’t wake Chris. Little did I know that he was awake, too. He called for me and told me to come back to bed. So, I came back into the bedroom and read a couple chapters in our baby book to him. After reading, I still felt the same. Chris and I joked that this could be it. We waited things out for a few hours, and then I called the triage station at the hospital and asked them if I should come to the hospital. The nurse asked me some general questions and by the end of our conversation, she told me to stay home and relax. Apparently if you can talk through your contractions, they are not so serious. So, we waited. Chris gave me a back rub and I took a long hot shower, both of which made me feel a little better. But by 5:30 AM, things were starting to pick up a bit. I could still talk through my contractions, but by 6:00 AM, that luxury was gone. Chris quickly jumped in the shower and we were out the door by 6:30 AM making our way to the hospital. And what a ride that was….by this time my contractions were about 7 minutes apart and definitely more powerful. I even diluted our conversation with several expletives.
We arrived at the hospital at 7 AM, and the triage nurse checked us into the examination room to see how far along I was. Fortunately, I was already dilated to 5 centimeters and the nurse assured me they would not be sending me home, but would instead get me checked into a Labor and Delivery Room (LDR). Of course the only thing in my brain was, “Cool. Dr. Tom said I had to be a three to get an epidural, so I am ready for the drugs...WOO-HOO!” The nurse did some other tests and asked several pages of questions, but she did eventually follow through with her promise, and by 8 AM we were in our Labor and Delivery Room.
By the time we got settled into the LDR I had already progressed to 7 centimeters. I told our nurse that I needed her to call the anesthesiologist NOW so I wouldn’t miss the window of opportunity for the epidural. :) He was in the room by 8:30 AM, and I was pain free by 8:40 AM. Ahhhh….now I was able to relax. The epidural did slow things down a bit, but who cares?? All I knew was I didn’t even know when a contraction was at its peak and I thought that was awesome. The nurse continued to check me and I was gradually progressing, so they pretty much left me be. We invited my friend Michelle to the delivery so she could take pictures for us. This ended up being a blessing in more than one way. She kept Chris company while I nodded in and out of sleep over the next few hours, and that helped keep his mind off everything that was going on in the room.
More good news…this just happened to be Dr. Tom’s on-call day. How lucky can we possibly get? Dr. Tom came in a checked me throughout the process as well, and at one point she mentioned she thought Madelyn would be about 8 ½ pounds. Listen, don’t mention that to a woman who has still yet to push the baby out. Seriously. She said that and I was now a little scared to push. Well, if I’m being honest, I was a lot scared. But it wasn’t until the last examination by the nurse, when she proclaimed, “Wow. Your baby has a really big head.” Okay, again. Don’t give this kind of information to the woman who is just about ready to push this little being out of her. So at this point I looked at Chris and told him I was not feeling real well. He reassured me it was just a case of nerves and that everything would be just fine.
At 3:30 PM the nurse said it was time to start pushing. I looked up at Chris and before I could tell him I was seriously reconsidering this whole thing, he looked down at me with tears in his eyes. The emotion of it all had hit him, and he knew we were only moments away from meeting our little girl. Tears filled my eyes, and I smiled knowing how much we were about to gain.
I won’t go into the gory details, but I pushed for 30 minutes, and at 4:07 PM, Baby Madelyn was born! And what a perfect site was she! Chris and I were overcome with emotions and couldn’t believe our eyes when they laid Madelyn on my stomach. Going into this phase of the pregnancy we knew how very blessed we were and what a true miracle it all was, but it wasn’t until this moment that we would feel the truest kind of love known to anyone. Love at first sight.
Sleepless in Glendale
They kept us in the LDR for two hours and then moved us to our room where we would spend the remainder of the time. Once we got settled, and had all vitals taken, we were visited by our night nurse. She mentioned that we may want to have the nursery take Madelyn for the night so we could get some sleep. Chris and I laughed at the thought, asking her who would do that? Seriously, you’ve just welcomed a new life into this world and now you’re going to send them away??? That’s crazy. So here we are, in our little room (not exaggerating) hanging out with our little peanut. And the next thing we knew it was 5 AM…and we hadn’t gone to sleep. It was at this time that Chris looked at me, both of us with eyes half-closed, and said, “Maybe we should let her sleep in the nursery tonight.” I looked back at him and said, “That is a fantastic idea.” :) So on Night Two, we sent Madelyn on her very first sleepover to the nursery, and we both got about 6 hours of sleep. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t easy letting her go, but I knew if I didn’t get my sleep there was no way I could properly function for Madelyn. I woke up a few times missing her terribly, but I forced myself to get back to sleep. I think that was probably one of the wisest decisions Chris and I have ever made. Hopefully will continue down that path…
Our Little Love Bug
Madelyn is the most perfect baby we have ever seen. No. Seriously. We know we’re the parents, and that makes us incredibly biased, but we know we’re right. She is perfect in every way. We can’t help but to sit and stare at her, looking at her perfect features. I just want to eat her up. She is precious, and extremely alert. We are amazed at how much she wants to look around and get to know her surroundings. It’s not difficult to get completely wrapped up in her sweetness and her already forming personality. We can’t wait to share her with the world! Although she has already had many visitors who came to see her in the hospital, we know everyone is anxious to meet her, and there are many of you who live far away, so as usual, we are posting some pictures from the last three days so you can at least get a sneak peek. We hope you enjoy them and we will continue to update this blog to keep you posted as we start to find a routine for our new life with Madelyn.
Click here to see the pictures. There are three new albums: Madelyn is Here, Hangin' in the Hospital, and Going Home. A huge Thank You goes out to Michelle for helping us capture all these great moments!
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