The Story of Us (Madeline)

If you saw my previous post then you know that little miss Madeline arrived this last Monday morning. I went to bed on Sunday night having mild cramping, but this wasn't anything out of the ordinary since this had been happening on & off for a couple weeks almost nightly. They'd usually peter out over night & I'd wake up to nothing. Sunday night was different, I woke around 2:30AM on Monday morning with some pretty consistent contractions. I got up, used the restroom & tried to go back to sleep. By 3AM I was pretty certain that I was in labor so I decided to hop in the shower after waking K to give him a head's up that I was in labor & he needed to let his boss know that he wouldn't be coming in. I had started timing my contractions before I got in the shower & they were about 6-7 min & were lasting about 30-45 seconds. I got out of the shower around 3:30AM & continued to get ready for the day/to go to the hospital. I dried my hair & continued to time my contractions. They were kind of weird & sporadic for 45 mins or so, but around 4:30AM they were about 4-5 mins apart & lasting 45 seconds. As I was finishing up getting ready & packing the rest of my things into the hospital bag I felt a strange popping type sensation & felt a trickle. I went to use the restroom immediately after & more water trickled out. At this point it was about 5AM, and since I had never had my water break before I wasn't sure what to expect.

I woke K up to let him know that my water had broken & went into the kitchen to eat a quick, light breakfast of yogurt & a banana. While K got ready, I called my friend who was going to come over  the kids while we were at the hospital, at this point it was about 5:20AM. I didn't want to wake her up too early, but since I wasn't sure how fast it was going to go from there I wanted to give her a head's up that things were happening. At this point, contractions were coming about every 4-5 mins & lasting about 50-55 secs. K & I sat around & chatted between while we waited for the boys to wake up. Carter woke up shortly after 6AM & H shortly after. We fed the boys breakfast & while they were eating things started to get more intense. I was trying my best to breath through the contractions, but it was definitely getting more difficult. Around 6:40AM, I text my friend to let her know that my contractions were about 5 minutes apart still & lasting about a min. At the time, I thought that we'd probably be going to the hospital within the next house. By 7AM though my contractions were starting to couple & were getting pretty intense so I text her back asking her to come right then.

We left as my friend arrived around 7:25AM & took the 5 min drive to the hospital which I thankfully only had one contraction in that time. We checked in at the front desk at 7:30AM & as I was trying to get all the information to the front desk my water broke the rest of the way. Kyle had gone out to get our bag & park the car & I new at that point that this baby was going to be fast just like her brother. They brought out a wheelchair which I could barely manage to get into & wheeled me back to my room in L&D. The nurse had planned to do an NST, but asked if I could use the restroom first. I remember telling her I wasn't sure, but that I would try. I immediately knew when I sat down that if I tried to use the bathroom I would need to push. After that was a bit of a blur, I didn't have to time to get a robe on so I just took my bottom half off & made it to the bed. The nurse checked me & announced that yes, I was just about complete. She rushed out to call the On-Call doctor (who ended up being the one doc in the practice I didn't see during my pregnancy) & told me to try not to push until she got back. The nurse came back shortly with another nurse & they started to ready the room for delivery. All the while I was dying from pain (not literally) & trying my hardest NOT to push. The nurse hooked me up to monitor the baby & did my vitals while another nurse started my IV between contractions. Finally, the On-Call doctor arrived & was able to push. I pushed through 3 contractions & brought my beautiful girl into the world at 8:02AM. The doctor commented that she had a full head of hair & she cried immediately. Her cord was around her neck, but the doctor said it wasn't very tight thankfully. They laid her on me & I was able to hold her while I waited to deliver the placenta. The doctor delayed the cord cutting without me having to ask & was very careful about making sure that my placenta was intact. I did end up with a first degree tear & while that was bring repaired the nurse weighed, measured & cleaned Madeline up a bit. After both of us were cleaned up a bit & checked over I was able to nurse her right away. Fortunately, she is more like Holden then Carter & took right too it.

We stayed in our delivery room until around 1:30pm just sharing the news with family & friends, eating both breakfast AND lunch, and watching TV. It was a totally different experience having a morning delivery vs. night. It didn't earn me anymore sleep unfortunately, but we did get to go home before 10:30AM on Tuesday which was wonderful.

Post-delivery

Ready to go home

Hanging out

Baby footprints

Meeting his sister

Cozy baby