Baby Madelyn is here!

When I went to my 38 week appointment, the doctor told me that I was dilated to 2 cm and 70% effaced.  He predicted that I would go into labor that week on my own.  I'd never heard a doctor predict that I would go into labor.  So, I felt pretty confident that I would . . . Then I didn't.

At my next appointment, I was still at 2 cm and 80% effaced.  I was pretty disappointed, especially since the doctor said that he did not think I would go into labor on my own and helped me schedule an induction.  Now, I was induced with Reagan, and it was a good experience, but I really didn't want to be pregnant for another week since I'd been expecting to go into labor at any moment for such a long time.

It's hard to say exactly when I started feeling real labor contractions.  Was it Thursday night?  Was it Friday night?  I know I was experiencing real labor on Saturday, but everything felt so slow.  I'd been expecting to have a quick labor if I went into labor on my own, but this was anything but quick.  Saturday evening I went to bed, and I woke up to a strong contraction around one in the morning.  I watched the clock for awhile.  The contractions were getting closer together, and they were definitely stronger.  Around 2:30 I woke up Matt and called my mom to come watch the girls.

Matt and I drove to the hospital, and I was able to walk up to labor and delivery, which was nice.  When Kirsten was born, my labor was progressing so fast that by the time we got there I was throwing up from pain--and panic, probably.  They got me checked in at the hospital and watched me for an hour.  Stupid contractions--they started slowing down again near the end of the hour.  They were still strong, which indicated that I was probably pretty close to giving birth.  But who knew how long that would be?  I was in luck though because my doctor was the in-house doctor that night, and he told me that if I wanted to augment the labor with a bit of petocin we could do that.  He wasn't crazy about the idea of sending me home because I would probably just need to turn right back around to come back.

I opted for the lowest dose of petocin, which they gave me for a very brief period of time.  My water broke on its own, and with the epidural in place, I closed my eyes expecting to have several more hours before it was time to  push.  After about an hour and a half, maybe, my eyes opened, and I said, "I'm about to have a baby.  It's time to push."  Fortunately, the doctor walked in right after that because Matt couldn't understand me.  The doctor confirmed that it was time to push, and I pushed.  Apparently, I forgot how to push though.  I only pushed once with Reagan, but I had to push quite a bit more with Madelyn.  At one point, her heartbeat went down to 60 beats per minute, which was really scary, and everybody made it pretty clear that she needed to get out with the next contraction.  I said a prayer and pushed, and she came out.  Her heartbeat returned to normal very quickly, and everything was okay.  But then my blood pressure was apparently dangerously low.  So they had to focus on that for awhile.  I do remember someone saying, "That's a really big smile for someone with that blood pressure."  Well, I was happy.  My baby came to the world.

Baby Madelyn

Madelyn with her daddy

Happy daddy

Happy mommy

Later that day my parents brought Reagan and Kirsten to see us at the hospital.  They were so excited and kept saying that she was the most adorable baby they'd ever seen.  When Daddy offered to have Kirsten hold Madelyn, she seemed a bit nervous and insisted that Reagan go first.  Reagan was very pleased to do so.

Reagan is a proud big sister

Kirsten took her turn and did a great job.

Three happy sisters!

Madelyn with Grampa

Madelyn with Nana

The whole family

Three happy sisters!

 Since Madelyn was born early Sunday morning, we opted to go home Monday night, so that we wouldn't have wake up at 4:30 in the morning to get checked out of the hospital.  The hospital stay was very nice, and I particularly liked my nurse on Monday.  Britini was so friendly, and she made the check out process so easy and smooth.  I really appreciated that.

Madelyn with her first stuffed animal "Bao Bao," a present from Daddy.

Porter really couldn't muster up much interest in the baby, but he was glad that we were home.

Kirsten with baby

Having a picnic with Nana

Playing on the floor for the first time

Reagan is crazy about holding her little sister

More floor time.  She is so loved.