Madison's Birth Story

Friday, October 3, we went into the hospital at 7:30pm to start the Cervadil for the induction the next day. My mom, brother, and Tony's mom all came to see us that night, and everyone was gone by 11pm. I wasn't in any pain yet, but was just so excited I couldn't sleep. I finally fell asleep around 1am. At 2:30am I woke up with moderate contractions. I was already having to pee every 10 minutes it seemed, and with the contractions, it was making it very hard to sleep. I finally decided to give in and ask the nurse for some pain medication so I could get some sleep since I knew Saturday was going to be a long day (if only I had known how long!). Just as I was getting ready to call her, she came in to tell me I needed to roll over because the baby had been sleeping for a while, and they just wanted to make sure she was ok...which also meant I couldn't have any medicine for at least 20 minutes while they monitored her to make sure she was ok. 25 minutes later, the nurse was back with the medicine! YEA!! She told me it would take about 2-3 minutes to take effect, and I would start to feel like I'd had a couple drinks. 2-3 minutes, yeah right! About 30 seconds after she put the IV in, I was light headed, and ready to sleep! I slept so soundly for the next 2 hours, it was heaven!

I was kind of in and out of sleep until about 8:30 am when I decided to get up and brush my teeth. The nurse came to remove the cervadil, and told me to take my shower, and then we would start the pitocin. Well finally at around 10:30 am, my doctor came in to break my water and start the pitocin. When she broke my water, she saw that Madison had had a bowel movement, and there was meconium in the amniotic fluid. She let me know that NICU would have to be present for the birth, and would take her right away to get her all suctioned out. I was a little disappointed because I figured then I wouldn't get her on my belly right away, but figured I could deal! So at 10:45 am, the induction "officially started!" By noon, I was dying from the contractions! I'm sure they weren't really THAT bad, but I. DO. NOT. DO. PAIN! so I asked when I was allowed to have my epidural. The nurse told me my doctor likes for you to get to a 4 before getting one, so at least I had something to aim for! Around 1:30 pm they checked me and I was a 3, so I started getting myself excited for the epidural...I didn't have to wait long! At 2, my nurse came in and asked "Do you want your epidural?" Uh, yeah!!! She said the anesthesiologist was getting ready to go into a c-section, so they wanted to make sure I got it before he went in...THANK YOU JESUS!! I was a little nervous for the the actual insertion because I had heard that it hurt pretty bad. I was happy to feel that it wasn't bad at all!! Within a half hour, I couldn't feel a thing, and I was back in good spirits!

They kept coming in to check me every 2 hours or so, and I was making pretty good progress. But then 9 pm came...I was still the 6 I was at 7 pm. And at 11 pm, I was still a 6. The nurse had my doctor come in to check me, just to make sure, and she reluctantly told me that I was only a 7, and that I had stalled. I had been at the same measurement for four hours, and that it wasn't looking good for a vaginal delivery. She told me that she could let me go one more hour, turn the pitocin up, and check me again, or we could just go ahead with the c-section. She said she'd give us a couple minutes to talk it over, and then she'd be back to see what we'd decided. I held it together pretty well until she was out of the room, but then I lost it. A c-section was something I really didn't want. I just really wanted to deliver her, and have her on my belly and see her right away. Everything I've been dreaming about since I got pregnant. Tony was my rock through it all, and let me know that it was fine either way. If I wanted to have the c-section, at least she would be here soon, and I wouldn't have to wait anymore. But if I wanted to wait, he was fine with that too. I couldn't make a decision to save my life, so he just decided we were going to wait. His feeling was, "What's one more hour?" How happy I am that he made me wait that extra hour! The nurse came back after an hour, and said I was a 6-7, which wasn't a lot of progress, but it was more progress than I had made the last 4 hours!! She went to call the doctor, and I told her whatever the doctor said, that's what I wanted to do...no matter what. When she came back in, she said we were going to continue the Pitocin, and see if we could get this baby the way I wanted! I continued to progress, and at around 6:00 Sunday morning, I was finally a 10. I finally started pushing at 6:30 am. At 7, my nurse from the day before was back on, so she came in to help with the delivery. My next contraction, the doctor told me we were going to have a baby! No such luck...but she knew with the next one she would be here. She let me know that once the head was out, I needed to push even harder so they could get her shoulders out. So when the next contraction came, I pushed as hard as I could, and when I felt the head come out, I started pushing harder; only my doctor was saying "Slow down! Slow down!" I wasn't sure if she meant stop pushing completely, or just don't push as hard. It didn't matter because about 2 seconds later, she said "Never mind!" And I heard my mom say "Oh, Madison!" So I knew she was here. Apparently it was a good thing my doctor was ready, because Madison just kinda came "shooting" out! At 7:16am, Sunday October 5, 2008, my beautiful daughter was placed on my tummy, and I have never seen such a beautiful baby in my life! After I got to hold her for about a minute, the NICU whisked her away to suction out her mouth, nose, and lungs. I could handle the sound of them suctioning her mouth and nose, but the sound of the tube being down her throat while her lungs were being suctioned was almost more than I could handle. Luckily my doctor recognized this, and tried to keep my attention and just talked to me.

I finally got to hold her again about 15 minutes after she was born. It's such an amazing feeling holding your child. It sounds cliche, but it's so true that you never understand a mother's love until you are one. Tony described the love perfectly when he said it's a "pure love." I can't believe the amount of love I felt for her as soon as she was born, and it just continues to grow every time I lay eyes on her!