Mady's Birth Story Part 2

First family picture (a little blurry, but whatever)

Here is the second part of Madelyn's arrival details. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I thought posting her story leading up to her actual birthday would be a good way to get her story onto my blog. So here is the second half as written by me 3 years ago.

Madelyn Sarah

Sunday, 15 June 2008 at 07:10

Well to sum her up. she's beautiful and perfect all in one. But I'm slightly biased!
I'll save you the "gory" details and give the coles notes. Pictures to come soon, but I'm on the laptop and the pictures are on the other computer downstairs. Once Mark is awake, we'll post them.

On thursday night we were JUST about to eat supper (of course) when I noticed I was bleeding (not good), we went to the hospital and they checked me out. They couldn't figure out where I was bleeding from and were concerned that it was the placenta pulling away and that I might need an emergency c-section (which meant I couldn't eat - REALLY NOT COOL!), they admitted and induced me. I slept all night (well as much as you can sleep with a nurse checking your vitals every half hour) and in the morning I really wasn't feeling more than tightenings. Well who knew they had so many tricks to bring on labour? Though I don't really recommend most of them...

After 6 hours of being on the highest does of pitocin they can give, and one of their other tricks, 10am the contractions started, and continued... At 2:30 I was 4cm, they broke my water (yes it broke 2 weeks ago, but not fully) and then the contractions REALLY started, and continued...

Around 6 (I think) they were getting so intense that I asked for laughing gas to take off the edge, but when they have triple peaks (thank you pitocin- my new biggest enemy) I couldn't take it anymore. They checked me again, we were sure that I must be getting close (my mom said I was getting snarky so that must mean I was close to transition - or simply because I had a nurse that names can't describe because I'm trying to keep this pretty G-rated...), and alas, I was still 4cm. I was not impressed and knew there was no way with contractions that intense I could go so many more hours. I wasn't at all relaxed (which is what helps you dialate) and was literally dancing from the pain, while simultaneously squeezing and hitting Mark (he tells me it didn't hurt - good thing). So I asked for the epidural. Michael, the anesthesiologist and my new best friend, came and gave it to me (and while sitting on the bed and having a contraction I got to kick the nurse - to take away the pain of course - so that felt good). I managed to sleep for the next hour or so, just in time to get my nice nurse, Julie, back. Yea! They checked me again and I was 6cm. But then the baby's heartrate started dropping so they had to put in the internal fetal monitor (it goes on the baby's head). While doing that they realized I was at 7cm during contractions. 10 minutes later I was ready to push. Too numb to feel anything, but hey, at that point, I was so tired I think that was my saving grace.

4 pushes later, and after taking the cord from around her neck (hence the dropping heart rates) Madelyn came into the world at 8:19pm.
She weighed 4 pounds and half an ounce, and was 17 inches long. She looks a lot like Mark (baby picture to baby picture they look almost identical in my opinion, but we already know she's stubborn like me!) and has dark hair - yes you heard me, hair(!) and it might even be curly, it looks kind of wavey right now. Thank you Heebner genes!

Madelyn is in the NICU right now (sorry, no viistors). They told us she's really good at breathing and because she was less than 2 days short of 34 weeks, she probably won't have a problem with apnea.
She is keeping her body heat well, so after less than a day of living she was moved out from under the warmers and into a real bed, which is good. She does have a little bit of jaundice, which could get worse. So far she hasn't needed the lights, but they'll reasses her today about that.

When I first met her in the NICU. She was not impressed. But look, she had hair and it was curly!

She's super sleepy (I don't blame her, we went through a lot), but that means she's not interested in eating. They were trying to feed her with a dropper, but she wasn't really awake enough to, so last night they were going to put a tube in her nose to feed her. But that's okay because it will mean she's actually getting mommy's milk and hopefully that will help her progress faster. They want to wean her off the IV (I'm all for less things attached to her!). And then the biggest battle will be figuring out how to coordinate sucking, swallowing and breathing! Once she can do that, she can come home. They said at her age, they usually make it home between what would have been 37 and 40 weeks gestation (that's how they count her age right now, so she's 34 weeks today).

Once she's home, she's looking forward to meeting all of you who have been so wonderful to pray fo her. Thank you, thank you, thank you! What a blessing it is to have such wonderful friends!

And for those of you wondering...Mark's super in love. :) He's going to be such a great Daddy! And today he gets to celebrate Father's day holding his baby. :)

I've never shared this picture, because it kind of freaked me out at first. This was when they were resuscitating her right after birth. Her little lungs had to work hard!

Some side notes: I think it's funny how much I didn't go into details in this post. "One of their other tricks" for bringing on labour that I mentioned involved blowing up a catheter into a bubble in my cervix. I'm not joking. Now do you see why I have some issues with doctors and hospitals and such? Ya.


Mady stayed in the NICU for 13 days. The day after this note was written we transferred hospitals (this sucked because it was to the one farthest from our house) to a lower level Primary Care unit (the original one we were at was the highest level and housed the sickest babies. As your baby gets better/stronger/closer to going home they move you to the lower level NICU's to make room for the sicker babies). We took this as a good sign that she would be home soon-well it was 9 days later, but who was counting?).

Jaundice glasses outline. Here you can see how yellow she actually was. And notice the terrible NICU haircut which we are STILL, 3 years later, trying to even out.

Another picture I've never shared. We took it to record WHY she had such a bad hair cut. Her little antenna  IV. I was very happy when they put a pick line in her arm instead.

She did have jaundice, which was part of the reason for the longer stay. And though stubborn, she tired out trying to learn to eat on the bottle and failed that test a few times and we had to start over. 

So, you know how I was worried about not having pregnant pictures with her? No one told me you can take them for a few days after and still look authentic!


My mom and Mady. This picture shows just how teeny tiny she was!

It was a very happy day when we got to bring her home. Funny story: I always heard of people having their 4 month old grow out of the infant car seat (and you can't turn them around until they're a year which means you have to get another car seat for in between, blah, blah, blah). So I went and found the car seat that went to the highest weight possible (at the time), 30 lbs. When Mady came home she wasn't back to birth weight and was just under 4 pounds (technically too small for the seat which started at 5 pounds, we just didn't go anywhere for a few days) which meant she looked even more miniature in the seat!

At home in her bed. Right where she should be.

Mady, as much as getting you here was an adventure, I'm so glad you're here and part of our family. I can't imagine life without you!