I am officially the worst blogger ever because I NEVER update this! However, I had Madelyn (yay!) so I am at least going to post her birth story.


BIRTH STORY FOR MADELYN ANNE

For about 2-3 weeks, I was constantly having contractions, but not progressing. My lack of progression meant my scheduled c-section would stay scheduled for 39 weeks. My last regular OB check-up was on Friday, 10/31 and I left the office sobbing because all of the pain I was having wasn’t changing my cervix, so it was all for nothing, My due date was 11/22 and my c-section was scheduled for 11/14.

On Sunday 11/2 I was feeling kind of “off” all day, but I figured it was nothing. I went to breakfast with my cousin and uncle, then went shopping, and then went home to get some grading done. I had a craving for some Giant brand chicken noodle soup, so I went to the grocery store. As I was walking down the aisles, I noticed that my contractions were getting closer together. I ignored his for about an hour because lately my body likes to play mind games with me. After an hour though, they remained strong, so I called the office and they had the on-call OB give me a call. She said that it was probably nothing to worry about, since I had just been seen on Friday, but she said I should go into Labor & Delivery just incase to get looked at since I was 37 weeks along.

I didn’t grab anything from home because I refused to get my hopes up yet again. John was at work, so I went alone. They hooked me up to a monitor and I texted John to let him know I’d probably end up getting some IV fluids and going home. He stopped by after work for two hours, but then he had to go home to take care of Orion. I had been having false alarms so often that we both assumed I'd get pumped full of IV fluids and sent home again. April came to sit with me at L&D when John headed home because even though I assumed they wouldn't keep me, I didn't feel like sitting there alone and being bored. The first two hours while John had been there my contractions were regular, but not getting any stronger or closer together. The L&D nurse came in and checked my cervix – no more dilation, but I had changed to about 80% effaced. My on-call OB had to come into the hospital because another woman was getting ready to deliver (yes, I was jealous) so she told the L&D nurse that she would check me herself when she got there. When she got there, she looked at my monitor and said that she had to go perform a c-section and I should stay there in triage until she finished and she would check me again… I decided sure, why not?

Well, as I’m joking around with April passing time, my contractions start to get stronger… closer together… I started to notice that I couldn’t talk through the contractions any more. They were hitting over 100+ and I started getting really bad pains in my back. April thought it was entertaining to watch my monitor screen and see how high up the number would go to show the intensity of each contraction. I started to feel like this was real active labor, and not another false alarm. Needless to say, by the time my OB had finished the c-section, they started to prep for mine!!!! She walked into my triage room, looked at my contractions, and said, “No question that you’re in labor so I’m not going to put you through another internal exam. Lets have this baby tonight!” I was in such shock! I couldn’t believe it! I had my sister call my husband and tell him that he needed to come to the hospital because Madelyn was coming that night.

It was 10pm at that point and I was hoping that Madelyn would be born on November 2nd but they hadn’t sent my bloodwork yet, so I knew that she would be born on the 3rd. John arrived as all of the preparations were being done, and he announced that in his rush he had forgtten our digital camera in the car. April showed him how to use the camera on my cell phone, but I was worried he'd either forget how to do it or the picture quality would suck since it was done on a cell phone. The triage nurse shaved me, got all of my information, and gave John his paper scrubs. The anesthesiologist came in to discuss the spinal with me and DH didn’t like him at all – he thought the dr was rude, but I was so excited to see Madelyn that I didn’t notice his rudeness. I was a total wreck with nerves by then. I was scared for Madelyn, scared for me, etc. We all walked down to the OR together, except for April, who waited in the lounge area. When we reached the OR, it was freezing cold and they had me sit on the operating table. My OB, the assisting OB, the two triage nurses, and the anesthesiologist were all running around getting stuff together.

They had me sit on the edge of the operating table, with my legs dangling down, and hunch over as the anesthesiologist found the right spot in my spine for the spinal block. The anesthesiologist joked around saying that I was the first patient he had seen all day whose backbone was actually visible, which made his job easier. He said the other c-sections that day had been for women more than double my size My OB’s response was, “Well not everyone can be 5’2 and weigh 118 pounds at full-term” lol Honestly, I braced myself for the spinal to be severe pain, but was relieved when it ended up being not bad at all! John was finally allowed to come sit by my head and talk to me. The doctors had to swing my legs around and onto the operating table for me and they put in the catheter and starting asking if I could feel them pinching. I remember the assisting OB commenting on how high the arches of my feet were - interesting/weird memory of a c-section. After I was good and numb (which seemed to take forever), the OB finally began cutting. It didn’t seem to take long before I heard Madelyn and the OB said “Wow, she’s a big girl for a woman your size! And look at all that hair!” John jumped up and was a champ about snapping pictures of Madelyn's arrival, even though his wife was all open and insides were exposed on an operating table. I was SOOOO excited!! I had hoped our little girl would have hair!! They held her up above the blue curtain for me to see. I was so glad that she was okay, although she was covered in all that goo. I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly they let me hold her right there in the OR! I was really happy to hear that her APGAR scores were an 8 and a 9. My DH went with the nurse when they went to clean Madelyn up. The only hard part for me was how long it took them to sew me up afterwards because I didn’t have anything to distract me… I was just laying there trying really hard not to think about how on the other side of this blue curtain I was cut open on an operating table!

I got a little bit panicky at one point because I heard the doctors talking about my bladder and fluid. I asked what was going on and they told me that they were just checking to make sure my bladder hadn’t accidentally been cut or damaged because they noticed some fluids. Of course I pictured my bladder having a huge gash in it and leaking urine into my stomach – so I freaked out and asked if they could get my husband back. One of the nurses went to the recovery room and brought John back to sit with me again. I felt a little guilty for leaving Madelyn with the nurses in recovery and having John come back with me, but at the same time, I was really scared. Turned out that the fluid was just some amniotic fluid, but my catheter was blue for the first few hours because of whatever they filled my bladder with to check for leaks.

After a short stay in recovery, where they closely monitored my vitals and Madelyn’s vitals, we were taken to our mother/baby suite. I kept waiting to feel tired because everyone always talks about how exhausted they were afterwards... but I wasn't feeling sleepy. I felt very awake. We got to our room around 3:30am. Luckily the wing wasn’t full when I was put into a room and we got a nice room with an outside view. John was so exhausted that he fell asleep right away on the pull-out couch. I don’t know if it was the excitement or the discomfort, but I was unable to sleep. One of the nurses came in to say she'd be taking Madelyn to get her first bath. I wasn't allowed to go because I was practically strapped down to the hospital bed because of the catheter and IV. The nurse said John could have gone and taken pictures, but he was passed out. April had joined us in the room and I asked her if she would mind following after the nurse and taking some pictures for us.

That pretty much sums up the birth of Madelyn Anne!

I now find myself spending a lot of time just looking at her… I just love our little princess! I know why women put themselves through all of the pregnancy crap… the end result is simply priceless!