WILLIAMS: Family of Three: Madelyn is Here!!

So, at the end of the last post, it was the night before our scheduled induction. Even though it took me forever to get to sleep, I did end up getting to sleep before our alarm went off at 5:00AM! We had to call and confirm our arrival time at 6:15AM. I thought, "So this is it. I'm really going to do this!" I then finished packing up all my stuff, Dan loaded the car, and we headed to the hospital. Here's the L&D timeline.

6:15AM--Arrive at hospital, changed into a hospital gown, gave my medical history and filled out the necessary paperwork, the nurse took my vital signs and started my IV, and she hooked up the fetal monitor and the contraction monitor.

Headed to L&D!

7:00AM--Meet the nurses who will be with me until I deliver, assuming I don't go past 7:00PM.

8:15AM--Dr. Burkholder came in to check on me. He broke my water and put an internal monitor on Madelyn's little head. He told me I was 2.5cm dilated, 75% effaced and Madi hadn't dropped yet. My nurses told me that was really good because the hardest thing for a first time mom is effacement. They also started the pitocin, and went ahead and put me on the list for the epidural.

Eating a popsicle! Yummy!

8:45AM--Contractions started getting very strong. In retrospect, I wish that I had asked for the epidural as soon as I got checked-in! :) Dan was so great and encouraging while I waited though! He let me squeeze his hand, which is a really big deal. He thought I was going to break his fingers, but he never complained he just loved on me and told me that I was doing a great job.

10:15AM--Epidural time! Thank goodness. I didn't think I was going to be able to make it. The contractions had started getting extremely intense and I almost didn't think I was going to make it to the side of the bed to get in position for the epidural. I had a massive contraction just as I was attempting to sit up and I thought I was going to explode from the pain. The epidural was absolutely painless compared to the contractions. I never thought I'd want to get stabbed in the back.

10:45AM--The nurses checked my dilation. 5cm and 80% effaced, Madi at the -1 position. They laid me on my left side so that it could get nice and numb.

11:45AM--Dilation check. I was 7cm and 90%. I can't remember if Madelyn was at the 0 or +1 station.
12:30AM--The nurses came in to roll me on to my right side and let the epidural really saturate that side. I had progressed from 7cm to 8cm. This is when I started to think about the fact that I would be having a baby soon. I pictured the delivery and what I was really envisioning and that's when I realized that I WANT MY MOMMY! To be honest, I thought I about after she came out and was getting all taken care and I figured Dan would just go be with her. And I have to admit, I was scared! I didn't want to be alone after I gave birth. Really, I wanted my mom, my dad, my sister, my brothers, and my little chunky butt, Duncan, but I had to narrow it down to one, since we had been planning on it being just us. I talked it over with Dan, and he was so sweet and said that for sure, my mommy could be in there. Mom had said all along she didn't care what I decided, she would be wherever I wanted her to be when I wanted her to be there. However, I think she was pretty excited when the time came.

1:00PM--Finally, my sister showed up! She had been substituting for mom that morning, and had just made it to the hospital. It was so nice to get to see her. Of all the people I wanted, she is the one who had most recently experienced childbirth (actually, I delivered in the SAME room she delivered Duncan!) I was asking her all sorts of questions about "was it like this for you?" & "what about this?". Suddenly, I had an odd sensation. I just really felt a ton of pressure and I felt like if I could just push, it would feel as bad. I called one of my nurses in to tell her. She said that was normal, and explained that if that feeling stays, even in between contractions. That's when we'll be ready. As soon as she walked out the door, the internal monitor stopped working. So, my other nurse came in. I told her about the need to push and she said she'd check me out while she adjusted the monitor. Well, it was time to push!

So, the nurses spent the next few minutes getting everything in order. They adjusted the bed, set up the cart, got Madelyn's little bassinet ready, and we went to work...

And here we'll just skip to the part where my little angel baby was born!
At 2:35PM on May 12, 2011, I was given the greatest belated birthday gift anyone could receive. A perfectly pink, 7 pound 6 ounce miracle, who was 20 inches long and had all 10 fingers and all 10 toes and a full head of dark brown hair!

Take a look: