Our sweet Madeline Grace was born on Monday, September 16th. Its crazy to think she is already ten days old - I'm not quite sure where those 10 days went. The days seem to already be flying by and I can only pray that the next two years slow down a bit, but I know I'm only kidding myself if I think they will.
My birth story with Madeline is pretty simple. My blood pressure started to rise on Friday, September 13th. I called and talked with my doctor's office about it and we agreed the best option was for me to take it easy (or, as easy as possible with a 2 year old at home) for the weekend and monitor my blood pressure every few hours. I would have spikes in my blood pressure where it would be really high, then it would drop back down to normal just as fast as it spiked. On Sunday, we went to triage because my BP spiked and I started feeling pretty sick. By the time we got to the hospital and they checked my BP, it was back down to normal. After a few hours of monitoring, they sent us home.
Monday morning, I had my weekly appointment. When I arrived, my blood pressure was 150/90. They decided to check it again about 10 minutes later, and this time it had spiked to 160/100. So the doctor came into the room and informed us that we would be having a baby that day. We were instructed to home, get my bag, and head straight to the hospital.
When we arrived at the hospital, we were directed to a Labor and Delivery room, and within an hour I had my Pitocin IV. The drip started about 12:15 and contractions started occuring pretty regularly within 30 minutes. Around 3:30 I was ready for my epidural, and my water was broken shortly after around 4:30. Contractions really started to pick up after that! I did feel quite a bit of pain on one side, but my wonderful nurse and anesthesiologist came in and helped get it under control. Around 6:30, the nurse checked and I was complete, so she called the doctor and told him to head up to my room, and quickly! After 3 very small pushes, Madeline Grace was born at 6:48pm. It was such a great feeling seeing my sweet daughter for the first time.
I have to give all the credit of an easy delivery to my L&D nurse, Monica. She was amazing. Because my delivery was pretty easy, so was my recovery. We stayed in the hospital just over 24 hours then got to come home. Madeline's billy ruben was slightly high, but we were just instructed to go see our pediatrician within 48 hours.
We are so thankful to be home and resting well. Emmalee is adjusting alright. She has shown a little more defiance toward mommy and daddy, but she absolutely LOVES her little sister. I'm sure that things are going to be great as soon as this adjustment period passes.
I am so thankful for my little family of 4!
