Having Madelyn

Having Madelyn

(Everyone already knows this story to nauseating detail but here goes anyway) 

                     Our sweetie little baby is a miracle, seriously.  When our little Bean was born to her physical cells, James and I never saw each other.  We were both working 12 hr shifts at the hospital.  I worked at night, he worked during the day, we NEVER spent time together, but when Bean was 5 weeks old I went to my Dr. for medicine because of my sour stomach and something told me to get a pregnancy test.  Two hours later I walked in the kitchen door to a blinking answering machine and found out I was pregnant!  ABOUT TIME, since we had been trying to have a baby since 2001 and had just quit trying in early 2004... And thus started my the worst experience of my life that produced the most wonderful blessing of my life. 

                    By the time I was 7 weeks along I was throwing up every 15 minutes or less.  I couldn’t keep anything down and was losing weight fast.  I had my first doctors appointment at 8 weeks because I was so sick and we got to see our little one moving around on screen, we were having a kidney “bean”.  Bean became her name for the next few months until we found out we were having a precious little girl.

                    During my pregnancy I was extremely sick, hormonal, and lonely as James was working from 70-80 hours a week.  I was in tears every single day and finally, around my birthday I was saved.  Mom flew me home for several weeks for some much needed attention and pampering.  I even got my first of two baby showers, fun!  Although I was still really sick and tired, I had the best time; I had my family, great food, a comfy bed, and a SWIMMING POOL, plus I didn’t throw up the whole time!  Finally I headed back to Texas eight pounds heavier.

                    Madelyn had hiccups an average of 3 times a day because she was an amniotic fluid lush.  The only thing she did more than drink was kick.  That girl liked to stretch out right under my ribs.  In fact, that’s why my belly was so small, she liked to tuck herself safely up inside my ribs and press against my diaphragm and some nerve that went all the way up my back, OUCH!

                    By the time I went into labor, I had lost 30 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight and then gained 36.  Talk about a lot of force feeding.  I started labor at 6 am on the 12th of October, the day James was supposed to drive to Oklahoma to settle a ticket, good timing baby girl.  My contractions started out at every 6 minutes on up to every

3 minutes and then they hit a plateau at every 30 minutes until we took a long hard walk and they went back up to every 15 minutes until 4:30 am. on the 13th.  I tried to tough it out at home but the contractions hurt too much even thought they were only 4 minutes apart.  We left for the hospital at 05:00 and got to sit in the triage room until a room was available.  I finally got a room at 08:00 which was a good thing because James said I was scaring the other moms.  Well, IT HURT!  All the anesthesiologists were busy so I didn’t get an epidural until 09:30.  I was 0so mad...and crying.  I probably would have been more tough if I had planned on being in pain but I wanted an epidural so I didn’t have to feel any of this.

                    I, of course, was still nauseated so they gave me a

phenergan and James and I got a few hours sleep before it was “go time”.  As soon as I started pushing, I started throwing up, my oxygen levels dropped and so did Madelyn’s heart rate, severely.  Finally after over 3 hours of pushing and vomiting, I was wheeled into the delivery room and finally some adrenaline kicked in and the Dr. said he barely used the vacuum extractor as evidenced by Madelyn’s perfect little round head.  After 48 hours of labor, our baby girl was here.  The pediatricians took Madelyn right away because our pooper let some meconium slip before she was born.  She ended up peeing 3 times and pooping at least twice before she was measured at 6 1/2 pounds and 19 1/2 inches long.  She never cried.  Even when she was being suctioned, given shots, and bathed.  All she did was make little squeaks.  I guess she was too tired to cry because we could never wake her up.  The nurses did all their terrible stuff to her and she just slept right through it.  She found her screamer when we got home though.  She finally figured out that she was hungry. 

Once we got feeding down she smiled and smiled showing all her precious gums at only a few days old.  After jaundice, losing too much weight, and getting breast feeding down, Madelyn got up to a chubby 90th percentile.  Our sweet baby is still smiling and laughing all of the time.