Madelynn's birth story (oh, and some pictures!)

My mother and sister Celeste have been begging for more pictures of Madelynn, specifically pictures of her without hats on and with her eyes open. I hope these pictures satisfy everyone for a little bit. It's taken me a while to blog since I'm a little tired these days! Madelynn is doing really well. She sleeps a lot still and some nights I wonder if she will ever fall asleep for me, but all together she is such a good baby. She only cries when she gets her diaper changed or if she is hungry and when she is awake she just stares around her and takes it all in. Olivia is my little helper and loves to hold Madelynn a lot. She held her the other day on her lap while watching Noggin for almost an hour! Jack is very attached to the baby too. The first thing he says when he wakes up is "Baby!" and then runs to give her a hug, and then comes back to give me a hug. I've obviously fell down a few pegs on his list. He is still learning how to be soft around the baby and loves to sit on her... I mean, next to her. We're adjusting to life with another baby in the house and, so far, we like Madelynn so we'll keep her for a while :) Madelynn at three days old. Isn't she adorable?!Madelynn met her cousin Aubrey on January 2. Aubrey is 2 1/2 months old here. Isn't it amazing how much they grow in such a short amount of time?She is one week old today! It really has flown by, but it feels like forever ago that I was at the hospital getting ready to deliver her! Here is the labor story (really for posterity, but you all are welcome to read it as well!):Adam and I went to the hospital as scheduled on December 29th at 6am (yeah, the clock in the picture above shows that it's 5:30am). They started my pitocin a little before 7am and I started to feel contractions within an hour. It was kind of nice being induced since I had never been induced before. It was nice to have it all scheduled so we knew when to fly my mother-in-law in, I was able to have plenty of groceries in the house, and Olivia knew where I was going and what was going on this time.

Anyway, at 9:30 my OB broke my water and I lasted a whole twenty minutes before I asked for my epidural. Ten minutes later I got it and it was heaven! I figured that I had felt contractions before, I knew that they weren't fun and didn't see why I needed to be in pain in order to feel justified to get an epidural. This epidural was a little different than ones in the past because I could still feel a lot of pressure, but not pain. It was annoying at first since I expected to not feel anything and maybe get some sleep, but it helped me know when I should be pushing and I was still able to push that awesome little button for a little "boost" of the epidural when I needed it.

My OB checked me at noon and I was at a 5cm. About 20 minutes later I knew something was up and the OB came back in and checked again. I was at a 10cm then, so they got everything set up. I started pushing a little after 12:30pm and pushed through 3 or 4 contractions and then Madelynn Rae was born. I had asked for a mirror to be set up so I could watch the progress and it was so amazing to watch her be born. It was a little harder for me to push this time because I could feel a lot of what was going on, as opposed to feeling nothing (and I mean nothing when I gave birth to Jack), but I think that it helped motivate me to push harder. Everything went well and we loved our nurses and our doctor. It was a great experience.

I don't know what it is about the hospital, but part of me really likes to be there. Well, I know what it is. It's the help you get from the nurses and the fact that I could sleep a lot of not have to cook my own food (even if hospital food isn't always the best). I loved all my nurses while I was there and they were all so nice to me and my issues. After countless hours of sitting in my uncomfortable bed watching television and eating hospital food, it was nice to come home. Thanks to everyone who has called or commented to see how we are all doing. We're surviving, although my mother-in-law leaves tomorrow and then I'm on my own so call me in a couple days to make sure I'm still sane!