Disclaimer: If you are my father, or you don't want to hear the details of Maddie's birth, please feel free to just skim and look at all the cute pictures. :) I wanted to write everything down so that I don't forget, but if it's not your cup of tea, you've been warned!
Madelynn Kate Saunders, born 10-03-14 at 7:22 AM.
9 lbs 1 oz, 22 inches long
My beautiful daughter. That is still so weird to say - my daughter. I have a daughter. And she is beautiful and sweet and yes, I am her mother so I am biased but she really truly is. She is such a good baby.
On Thursday, October 2, I had my 38 week OB appt. By this point, Kim was in town and I was READY to have this baby. I was swollen, uncomfortable, and constantly trying to get little girl's feet out of my ribs. I was doing everything possible to get her out - walking, bouncing on an exercise ball, etc. At my appointment, I was dilated to a 5 and still 80% effaced. I had dilated a centimeter per week since 36 weeks and couldn't believe that I was at a 5 and STILL not in active labor. Dr. Huish stripped my membranes and said that he expected to see me in the hospital in the next few days. If not, he would induce next week because he was going out of town and wanted me to deliver before then. My fundal height jumped up 3 cm in one week, so we also scheduled a growth ultrasound the next day to get an idea of how big baby was. He thought it was just the way she was positioned, but wanted to be sure.
After my appointment, I just felt "off" all day. I was crampy and sore and crabby and something just felt different. I tried not to give myself false hope with each Braxton Hicks contraction, but it was hard. I was hoping that baby girl was going to be here soon!! We scheduled the ultrasound, went to Chandler and had lunch with James and showed Kim around Origami Owl, then came home. I really just laid on the couch because I didn't feel that great. We spent our evening as normal, and went to bed late, around midnight.
That night, I was awake tossing and turning and getting up to go to the bathroom even more than usual (and I was usually up A LOT) and just felt off. I thought maybe I was getting a stomach bug because I was also really nauseous. About 2:30 AM, I went to the bathroom, and felt a little pop and a small gush of fluid. I honestly wasn't sure if my water had broken or if I had just peed myself - cause, you know, I was 9 months pregnant. That's a definite possibility. I decided to go ahead and wake James up anyway, figuring that if it was my water I would continue leaking.
James woke right up and said, okay, let's go to the hospital. If they send us home, they send us home but we should at least check. He got up, we both got dressed and grabbed last minute things for our hospital bags. Right after I got dressed, I felt a HUGE gush of fluid and knew that my water had broken for sure! Almost immediately I started having very strong contractions about 3 minutes apart. They were so strong and painful that I couldn't walk or talk with them. I told James that we had better get over to the hospital quickly! We woke Kim up and headed over.
Worst car ride ever! Every time a contraction hit I got really carsick and thought I was going to throw up. I was having a really hard time breathing through the contractions and they were pretty consistently 3-4 minutes apart. We went in to triage and I was already dilated to a 6.5, so the nurse said we were going to have a baby tonight! My blood pressure was SUPER high, and the nurses were all really concerned about that and my swelling. My belief is that I was borderline pre-eclampsia and labor may have sent me over the edge. Plus, the pain was awful and I was having a hard time breathing through contractions.
The nurses were really nice to me and sent the anesthesiologist over to give me the epidural while in triage. I sat SO still through painful contractions while he put the meds in my back. Once the epidural was in, they started my penicillin IV and after about 5 minutes, the pain was much less. I could still move and feel my legs and feet, but the pain was less in the contractions and was mostly just a "pressure" feeling.
We got moved to a delivery room, settled in, and they checked me again and I was at an 8. By this point it was about 5 AM and the contractions were beginning to be really painful again. I realized that the pain I was feeling was from my bad kidney that has bothered me this entire pregnancy! The pain was so awful. I didn't think I was going to be able to make it through. The anesthesiologist came in and added to my epidural to try and get rid of the kidney pain. It sort of worked - I was still in a lot of pain but the drug took the edge off pretty well.
As soon as he was done, I started feeling the urge to push. The nurse checked and, sure enough, it was go time! They paged the doctor and I started learning to push. I will say, it was a lot harder than I though to figure out exactly how to push. I thought for sure it would come naturally and my body would just do it - but not for me! I had to really focus and figure out where to focus the pushing. I was feeling a lot of pain at this point too. I think the epidural just couldn't do much more for me at this point and wasn't strong enough. I pushed for about 30 minutes and by then, baby's heart rate was dropping dramatically each time I pushed, and Dr. Huish decided that we needed to get her out and fast.
He gave me an episiotomy because I was having such a hard time getting her out, then used the vacuum on her head. As soon as he made the cut, I felt so much relief as I was able to push my baby girl out! Her shoulders seemed to be stuck for just a second and then she was here. My baby girl. She was HERE. I had imagined this moment for a very long time. All of the doctors and nurses kept commenting on what a big baby she was and how huge her umbilical cord was! They said she must've been eating well in there because they had never seen an umbilical cord that thick.
They laid my baby on my chest for a minute as they cleaned her up, and I got to kiss her and hold her for a minute. She wasn't crying; just looking at me like, "hey, who are you? What just happened and how did I get here?" Then they took her over to be weighed, get her shots, and other newborn procedures. She weighed 9 lbs 1 oz! and she was 2 weeks early!! We couldn't believe it. She was such a trooper through all the newborn procedures as well - she hardly cried, just held James' finger and she was fine. They wrapped her up and handed her over to James while I got stitched up.
Maddie is a great nurser already - she's gotta keep her rolls! :) She sleeps well and when she is awake, she is very alert and just loves to watch everything and take in the world around her. She does not like to be alone - she hated the hospital bassinet and just wanted to be held and cuddled. We were happy to oblige. :) We have had some trouble with her having jaundice, but her biliruben seems to be going down which is great news. She will only be "glow worm baby" for a little longer!
We love our little Madelynn so much! Already she has brought so much joy to our little family and I can't imagine life without her.
