Madeline's Birth Story

I don't think I ever posted Madeline's birth story here before.  So, once again, if you are not offended by dilation, effacement or cervixes, and you are ready to read a novel, then you may proceed.

Friday, November 30^th-  Madeline was due on Monday, December 3^rd.  So, I finished up my last day at school and went to a doctor’s appointment at 4:00pm.  I had already been dilated about 2 cm and halfway effaced for the past few weeks and feeling minor and unpainful contractions for the past few months.    But, nothing new was happening and I was not anticipating a baby any time soon.  The doctor gave me a date for an induction, December 11^th.  

            Andrew and I left the doctor’s office not expecting anything to happen.  But, Andrew went back to work to finish up some work just in case anything happened over the weekend.  After he was done with work, we went to Red Robin to eat dinner.  I wasn’t feeling too great for the rest of the evening.  We watched a little TV and eventually went to bed. 

Saturday, December 1^st-  I woke up around 7am to go the bathroom, which was not unusual for being so pregnant and having a baby pushing on my bladder all the time.  I finished using the bathroom and stood up and I felt like I was still going to the bathroom.  I thought that maybe my water had broke.  But, I wasn’t sure because it wasn’t a huge gush.  I let Andrew sleep for another hour because I knew he was very tired and I needed to do some laundry if we were going to be going to the hospital today.  During that hour, I started feeling some contractions.  They were slightly painful, but nothing too bad.  They were coming around every 2 minutes or so.  I finally woke up Andrew and told him that we were probably going to be having a baby today.  We decided to call the doctor and see what she said.  She said to definitely come on in.  I decided that I needed to take a shower for some reason.  I barely made it through the shower because the contractions started coming on very strong.  I had to stop every 2 minutes or so and just lean against the wall until the contraction passed.  Once I was out of the shower, the contractions were getting worse and worse.  I had to lean against the bed and have Andrew dig into my back with his knuckles.  I couldn’t dry my hair or put on makeup, so we got in the car and headed to the hospital. 

            We arrived at the hospital around 10am.  As soon as I got out of the car, a huge gush of water came out and it looked like I peed in my pant.  Oh well, I didn’t really care.  I was in a lot of pain.  Andrew got a wheel chair for me and we went up to the maternity floor.  We had to search around for someone to check us in.  I don’t know where the desk people were.  While Andrew was looking for someone, there were several people in the waiting room who were trying to talk to me.  They were asking if this was our first child and who knows what else.  I wasn’t in the best position to talk to them as I was in extreme pain.  All I could do was put my head down and say, “I can’t really talk right now.” 

            I was finally wheeled into our birthing suite.  I think it was like a party room or something.  It was gigantic.  Who would ever need a room that big? It would have been better as the recovery room.  But, oh well.  It was nice and new.  My nurse came in and helped me get hooked up to all the monitors.  It was a sweet sound to hear my baby’s heart beating.  She asked me if I wanted an epidural.  I felt that I had experienced enough labor, so I received my epidural around 11am.  I felt immediately better.  My mom arrived at the hospital shortly afterwards, followed by Andrew’s parents and then my dad.  Everyone came in to check on me and of course they were all so very excited. 

            Through out the afternoon, I was not making the progress that the doctor thought that I should be, so I was given some Pitocin to make the contractions harder.  Surprisingly, I was also given dinner.  It was all liquid food, but it was much appreciated.  I had some jello, apple juice, and beef broth.  I don’t think my doctor was too happy about it.  But, apparently it was a new hospital policy to give food if there were no complications with the delivery.  Unfortunately, that dinner came back up a little later before Madeline was born.  The epidural was also pretty weird feeling.  I could not pick up my legs at all.  By the end of the delivery, I was ready to have the feeling back in my legs.  

            By 5:30pm, I was fully dilated and the doctor said that I could start pushing soon.  I was very nervous.  But, the nurse and Andrew helped me through each contraction.  I started pushing around 6:00 and Madeline was born at 6:50pm.  It was an incredible feeling to feel so full and then so empty.  I got to hold Madeline on my chest for a few seconds.  She was beautiful and big!  They took her over to the warmer, which was way over on the other side of our gigantic room.  Andrew went with her while the doctor stayed with me.  Madeline weighed in at 9lbs. 3.2oz. 

            Andrew and I were getting a little worried because it was taking a long time for the doctor to finish up with me.  She kept asking for the nurse to bring her lots of gauze and other things.  The doctor never said anything to me, she just kept working.  The nurse finally gave me a shot in both legs to stop the bleeding.  And eventually I was able to hold Madeline again and nurse her.  And both of our families came in to meet Madeline for the first time.  This was the first time that the party room was nice.  Everyone was able to spread all out. 

            Several hours later, after the epidural had worn off enough for me to get into the wheel chair, we were moved to the recovery room.  Andrew was so wonderful that first night (not that he isn’t every night).  But, he took such good care of Madeline and me.  We weren’t anticipating it being such a rough night.  But, I had lost about 2 liters of blood and I was very weak.  I ended up passing out 4 times as I tried to get to the bathroom.  I would wake back up to Andrew and the nurse yelling at me and hitting my back.  I don’t remember much from that first night.  But, I know Andrew did most of the work.  He changed Madeline’s diaper about 12 times and he woke me up every 2 or 3 hours to feed Madeline.  He didn’t get any rest.  I am so happy he was there.  In fact, during the entire process, I kept thinking about people who deliver babies alone.  How do you get to the hospital?  How do you get through the pain?  Who do you celebrate with?  Who takes care of you while you are recovering?  It would be so difficult.  I felt so blessed to have Andrew there. 

           

Monday, December 3^rd- I was given the option of having a blood transfusion.  But, the thought of getting someone else’s blood scared me.  So, the other option was to just eat a lot of red meat and take iron supplements and I would be back to normal in about 6 weeks when my blood count was back to normal.  So, we were finally discharged from the hospital around rush hour with flurries flying around.  My parents followed us home.  Andrew carried Madeline up the 3 flights of stairs to our condo and my dad basically carried me.  We were finally home with our precious little girl.  She was perfect!