Miss Madison Grace

Mother's Day this year is one I will definitely remember for years to come.  I woke up early Sunday morning feeling uncomfortable, achy, and huge- much like any woman 2 days away from her due date would.  It was rainy out and I wondered if I was getting up early and sacrificing my sleep for no reason, since I wasn't sure a photo-shoot in the rain was going to work out.  About 5 days earlier, a mom of one of Katie's pre-school classmates had contacted me and asked if I'd be willing to be a maternity model for her.  Apparently, she had an established photography business but wanted to expand her maternity profile.  My immediate reaction was to say no.  I had never done a maternity photo-shoot before, despite nearing the end of my fourth pregnancy.  I don't feel like a very photogenic person in general and I don't like posing.  I won't even let my husband take my weekly pregnancy progression pictures for me because I feel too dumb and ridiculous.  When I mentioned the opportunity to Jon, however, he convinced me that I had nothing to lose and I might as well do it.  Who knows, I might like having them, and there was a good chance this would be my last pregnancy.  Plus, they were free!  Seeing as my due date was just around the corner, there weren't a lot of time slots available that we could take the pictures so we decided that Sunday morning would work best.  Just before time to leave for the photo-shoot, the photographer called and asked if we should post-pone since it was rainy.  I felt like if we didn't just do it then, it would never happen so we went ahead and kept the appointment.

By the time I reached the location, the rain had mostly cleared up, thankfully.  The photographer had a dress she wanted me to wear as well as some flowers for my hair.  Sure enough, I felt pretty ridiculous taking the pictures.  The photographer kept telling me to try and look more natural.  I've only seen a couple of the pictures she took, but I have to say- I think they turned out pretty well considering.  And I will admit, I suppose it is kinda nice to have them, especially since I ended up going into labor that same night!  Now I have some nice pictures of Madison in my belly less than 24 hours before she decided to arrive.

Church was nice that afternoon.  The relief society had a buffet of treats for the sisters the last 15 minutes, and some nice Tongan sisters in our ward made candy lei's for all the moms.  After church, Jon cooked us (Jon's mom had arrived Friday afternoon in preparation to help with the new baby) some meat on the grill and we made some corn on the cob, cucumbers and vinegar, and I made a chocolate peanut butter pie for dessert.  The kids both gave me cute little things they'd made at school.  Colton gave me a plant and a bracelet he made that had letters saying, 'Mom is 30' and Katie had made a cute little card.

I went to bed around 10:45 and was just on the verge of sleep about 20 minutes later when all of a sudden I started feeling wet.  I was pretty sure my water had broken, but I was still hesitant to be positive.  I really didn't think the baby was going to come early, and I had thought that my water was leaking the previous weekend and gone into the hospital only to find out that it was not and I had an infection instead.  I was also a bit stressed out because I didn't quite feel ready for the baby and Jon had been very busy at work the last couple of weeks and had told me several times that he really hoped the baby didn't come until at least Wednesday so he could finish up some work projects.  Despite that, he was very calm and helped me to de-stress a little bit on the way to the hospital- even being obnoxious and cracking labor jokes.

In triage, they confirmed my water had broken and monitored the baby while getting me checked in and then moving me to the delivery room.  In the delivery room they had a million more questions to ask and things they needed to do before I could get the epidural.  By this point, my contractions had gotten pretty strong and I kept thinking, 'Why on earth does this check-in process take so long?!?  Just hurry up already and give me the epidural so I can get a little rest!'  Little did I know that, this time, the epidural would be the worst part!

They finally got the IV in and the necessary fluids that were required before I could get the epidural.  (Sidenote: I HATE IVs!  They are seriously the worst!)  Then one of the nurses noticed my arm bulging just above the IV needle and realized the vein had been blown.  They had to take the IV out and re-do it in the other arm.  Again, I hate IV's.  It was rotten getting it put in twice.  Finally, though, I was ready for some sweet epidural medicine and relief from the contractions!

I have had epidurals with all of my kids.  All three times previously it's been about the same.  Sit on the edge of the bed, hunch over, sit very still, sharp prick and a burning, then all done.  All of this taking about 5 minutes.  This time, I don't know what was going on with the anesthesiologist, but it took him 40 minutes to get it in and, I swear, he stabbed me with the needle about 20 times!  It was awful.  My neck, shoulders, and back ached from hunching over and staying still for so long.  I could hardly breath in the position.  My spine killed from all the needle pricks.  After about 15 minutes, I couldn't hold back the tears anymore and they were spilling all over.  The anesthesiologist kept poking me and saying, "What side of the spine is my needle on?"  and I kept thinking, 'Do you even know what you are doing?'  Jon heard him say, "Sometimes you need to hit the bone to know where to put it in.  I honestly don't know what the deal was, but it was terrible.  Afterwards, the nurses were all very kind and apologetic and, in the morning, the doctor told me that my experience had been completely unacceptable and the anesthesiologist had been reported.  I felt kinda bad, but also not really.

Once the epidural was FINALLY in and flowing I started to get some relief from the contractions.  Then something weird started happening.  My chest started feeling all tingly and it was getting hard to breathe.  I told the nurses and they determined that the epidural must be getting into my chest so they turned it off and put me on oxygen to help my breathing.  I had to be on oxygen for the next few hours to help my breathing.  Meanwhile, the epidural was wearing off and the contraction pain was back, as well as an awful pain and discomfort around where they had inserted the catheter.  Needless to say, I got very little rest throughout the night.  Finally, I was able to breathe ok again and they were able to turn the epidural back on at a lower dose.  Thankfully, this time it didn't go into my chest, and I was able to-once again- get some relief from the contractions.

The OBGYN I go to is a practice of 4 female OBs and whoever is on call the day you go into labor is who will deliver you.  I really like all of the doctors, but one of them- Dr. Brenot- happens to have a daughter Katie's age.  Over the last couple of months her daughter and Katie had randomly been in the same dance class and were on the same soccer team.  I had joked to Jon that I really hoped one of the other doctors would be on call because it would be awkward with her since I saw her outside of office.  But, of course, Dr. Brenot was the one on call that night/morning.  Haha, oh well.  It ended up being ok because she was very nice and professional and she is a great doctor so I trusted her to do a good job.

When Dr. Brenot made her rounds in the morning about 7am she expressed concern to me that, because of the poor insertion of the epidural, it wouldn't work very well for me once it actually came time to deliver the baby.  She offered to call in a favor and get the best anesthesiologist she knew to come in and re-do the epidural.  It was very kind of her, but at this point, the idea of having even one more needle stabbed into my spine sounded terrible, and I told her that if it didn't work I'd just have to do it naturally.   The doctor checked me and I was only at a 3-4 so they started me on some pitocin to strengthen the contractions.  About an hour later they checked me again and I was at a 5.  At this point one of the nurses brought in a peanut ball for me.  I don't know what it is about those things but, for me, they are like magic!  About 1/2 hour later I was feeling a lot of pressure and they checked and I was fully dilated!

They called in the doctor and 2 contractions and 6 pushes later, little Madison Grace was born.  She was born at 8:44am and was 7 lbs 14.6 ounces, and 19" long.  She had a lot of auburn hair and a cute, red, chubby face.  My first thought after she was born was that this didn't feel real.  When on earth did I grow up and have 4 kids??   Had I really given birth 4 times now??

Madison was very sweet and precious, but she was also very mad!  It took awhile to get her to calm down and stop crying and the doctor and nurses all commented on how mad she seemed.  Jon even told our kids that the reason we named we named her Madison was because she was so mad when she was born.  For the record, that is not true.  We liked the name Madison long before she was born.  It took us all day to pin down a name for her though.  The runners up were Sydney and Summer.  We really liked Summer and almost went with it but, in the end, we were defeated by the cheesiness of the potential Summer Day.

Madison bruised her right eyeball during delivery, making it very red and bloodshot.  Poor Girl!  The doctor said it will be fine and will heal in a couple of weeks.  Madi was also very shaky/shivery for awhile after she was born.  At first, they kept thinking she was cold and kept checking her temperature, but then they were worried her blood sugar might be low so they did a couple of pricks to test her blood.  Everything came back normal though and her shivering finally settled down over the next day or two.

One night while we were in the hospital, they came back after checking on Madison and said she had already lost 8% of her body weight and they were a bit worried about her.  Another night they thought her respiration was too high and they had to come in and monitor her several times throughout the night.  In the end, it turned out that everything was ok, thankfully.  I guess Madi just really likes to stress me out!

Grandma and the kids all came to visit in the hospital.  They were all very excited to see their new baby sister!

We are a family of 6!  Holy Smokes!!

Ready to go home!!

Madi has been a pretty calm baby so far.  She loves being held and snuggling and looking around at everything when she is awake.  She has struggled with sleeping at night-time- both because she doesn't seem as tired at night, and she doesn't seem to like sleeping in her bed as much as being held.  She also seems to be extra hungry at nighttime.  The first few nights she wanted to eat every hour or so, leaving mom very exhausted.  Still, even when I've felt at my worst, a few snuggles from my sweet girl help me feel much better.

We are so grateful that our little Madison is here and safe.  She is the perfect little addition to our family and, even though it feels like I will never get a handle on four kids, I wouldn't change a thing.  I love all my babies with all my heart!  Madi's siblings all adore her and are always eager to hold her as much as we will let them.