The Birth Story - The Long Edition :)

**I have to start this post with a disclaimer - this blog is also a journal or baby book for our family. I use this to remember and cherish events that happen in our life. Some of these details may be too much for some people but I wanted to make sure I got it all down. I also have to say that some details are a bit fuzzy but I will tell it like I remember it :)

On this day last year, I was checked into the hospital to start induction...Here are the events of that day and the next!

I have to start this story a few weeks before Madelyn was born. I was at a routine doctor's appointment thinking everything was going great. They started asking me all these strange questions about headaches and being tired (I remember thinking at the time, of course I am tired, I am HUGE and it is 100 degrees outside!!!) Apparently my blood pressure was high and I was fairly swollen (I thought I was just fat!) so Dr. Patton decided to send me to L&D so that they could monitor Madelyn and I for a while. We were down there for a few hours just wasting time. I remember being so nervous thinking I might have the baby soon. After laying there being monitored for a while, the doctor told me that I could go home but that I was on modified bed rest...As long as I was still and laying down my blood pressure was fine. (I did not really take this to heart - it was so hard to stay in bed all day but I did relax most of the time).

Another week went by and I had another doctor's appointment and the same thing happened and this time they admitted me to the hospital because I was also having contractions. After a LONG night of not sleeping much, worrying about the baby and being scared out of my mind, the doctor came back in the morning to release me. My contractions had subsided and I needed to go home to more bed rest. I remember being SO disappointed...I thought for sure that I was having that baby! Little did I know I still have a little over a week to go!

After all that, I was going to see the doctor every few days. I was allowed to get off bed rest to go to Target once a day to take my blood pressure. Everything was going fine.

My last doctor's appointment was Thursday, June 21 in the early morning. Since I was not dilated at all at this point and my blood pressure was still an issue we made an appointment for induction for the next Monday, June 25. The last thing Dr. Patton said to me was not to have the baby that weekend because she was not on call! Derek and I had tickets to see the Cubs play the Rangers that afternoon in the boiling heat. I was not feeling very well but I thought it was because I was huge and it was super hot outside.

The next day was a Friday and we were super busy making sure everything was ready to have the baby on Monday...Through out the whole day I was not feeling very well at all. I have a bad headache and was sick to my stomach all day. In the late afternoon we went to Target and I took my blood pressure. It is 150/105 (normal is 120/80). I was freaked!! We went home and I started to feel even worse, I was even throwing up. So I called the answering service and they told me to go to the hospital. I left Derek at home to finish up things that we were getting done and my mom and I made the trek to downtown Dallas. I was sure they were going to just send me home again and I did not even want to go down there! They put me in the monitor area so that they could watch my blood pressure and contractions...I was feeling very sick to my stomach so they gave me phenegren for it. I have had this medicine before but this time I had a scary reaction to it. All of the sudden I felt as if my whole body could not be still. I was very agitated and could not stop moving around. It was the strangest feeling I have ever had!! To curb that reaction they gave me a large dose of Benadryl...By this time I was pretty out of it and they released me to go home, stay on strict bed rest and come back Monday morning. The rest of the weekend was pretty low key...

Now onto the big day. The night before my induction, Dr. Patton wanted me to take Castor Oil at midnight to see if it would start any contractions and make this thing go faster...That stuff is NASTY!! But it did the trick and I was contracting on my own (very lightly and not regular) by the time we made it to the hospital around 7:00 AM. I finally got into a room around 9:00 AM and this is when the doctor came to talk to us about the plan. The initial idea was to give me a pill that would induce (this is different from pitocin - works a lot faster and less painful) but since I was contracting already and this form was not controllable, we did a slow drip of pitocin...(**I have to stop here and explain why we are taking things slow and I was in and out of the hospital so many times...I did not want a C-section. I had talked to Dr. Patton and we agreed that we would do all we could to not have a C-section. I really admire her for going with me on that as most doctors would have done one a few weeks ago just to get it done. She is a wonderful doctor that will work with you!!)

Nothing really happened most of the day. Since Derek's office was in the same hospital and nothing was going on with me, he went down to get a little work done while my mom stayed with me. I was not dilating very fast and I was not really in much pain. It was a very anxious and boring day. Around 9:00 PM the contractions started to hit fast and furious. All I remember is staring at the ceiling as they came through with tears in my eyes. All of the sudden my water broke and then things really got ugly. This is a pain that cannot be described and frankly is hard to remember. I was in a lot of pain and only dilated to around a 2 or 3 when the doctor finally ordered an epidural. She thought that I was too tense and would not relax enough for my body to do its job and she thought this might help!! And it did! I got the epidural around 10:30 or 11:00 and actually got some sleep.

I don't really remember anything until around 3 AM when they checked me again and I was dilated to an 8. At around 5:30 AM I had a strange feeling that I can only describe as the urge to push. I could not think of anything else...I wanted to push and get that baby out!! Dr. Patton was on her way back to the hospital so around 6 AM we started pushing. This was so very hard...again very hard to describe but really hard work!! Things were going well and Dr. Patton arrived. Things then got very serious! Madelyn's head and one shoulder were out and suddenly her heart rate dropped dangerously low. Dr. Patton told Derek to push the call button on the wall and when they answered she said they needed someone from NICU down there - that's when I got scared. The next few seconds went by so fast I will try to remember everything...

All of a sudden Derek was no longer by my side and a nurse had climbed onto my bed and pushed on my belly until Madelyn came out. When I heard her cry I was so relieved. I got to see her for a few minutes and then they had to send her to NICU. She went to NICU for 2 reasons. One, her heart rate dropped so fast they had to send her as a precaution and two, when she was stuck Dr. Patton had to do an emergency episomity (not sure how to spell that!) and accidentally nicked Madelyn's shoulder in the process (she still has a little scar from it). She was born at 6:48 AM. She weighed 8 pounds 11 ounces and was 21.5 inches long! She was perfect!

Madelyn was in the NICU nursery until around noon when she was brought back to us. I was so happy to have her back in our room and out of that scary place! She has no lasting effects (besides the scar) from her scary entrance into the world!! We feel so blessed to have such a wonderfully perfect family! :)

PS-Madelyn turns one TOMORROW!!