DISCLAIMER: This is a birth story, so I hopefully left out anything that was too graphic but since I just had a baby, I am completely uncensored lately.
Madison is here!! In my last post I was hoping this would be the next and I was right! Yay! Labor started late on Tuesday evening (June 3rd). We had been over to Tiffany's house for a couple hours in the afternoon. Then we came home and made some pizza for dinner. After dinner we did the normal bedtime routine and got Mason off to bed. At 8:00, my friend Vindie came over and we walked for an hour hoping to get something going. Oh I forgot to mention that earlier that day I had an OB apt at 9:00am. She checked me, I was at a 3.5 and 70% effaced. She also striped my membranes. So after our walk I got ready for bed and felt like having some sour cream and onion potato chips (sick I know). I grabbed a small bowl, started munching on them and Terrill and I started watching Sherlock Holmes. We turned the show off and at 10:40 I had my first contraction. From that moment until Madison was born, I had regular contractions. For the first 4.5 hours, they were from every 5-10 minutes. They were so consistent that I decided to call my doctor. By 3:00 we were in the hospital. Laurie came over and watched Mason immediately. Unfortunately when they checked me when I came in, I was still at a 3.5 and 70% effaced. Needless to say I was so discouraged. I thought how is this possible when I am having regular painful contractions!!! We waited an hour at the hospital and Terrill and I decided that if nothing was progressing within the hour, we were going to go home and labor there. Or should I say Terrill would sleep while I labored! Lol. Nothing had changed and by 4:40 we were back at home again. I went straight to bed and let Terrill know I was down for the count in the morning as far as helping with Mason. These contractions were taking it out of me and I hadn't slept one wink the whole night!
As I laid in bed they continued to get harder and closer together, but only gradually. I would have a few really intense ones and then a few that weren't that bad. I managed to eat a handful of grapes because I was so starved and low on energy. By 7:30am they were starting to really get bad. I told Terrill it was time to go back to the hospital. It was really discouraging leaving the hospital the first time, but when I left I knew I would be back that day because my contractions weren't going away so that was keeping me going. Terrill's mom came back for the second time (poor women!) and we were off again, this time to have a baby girl! We arrived at the hospital around 8:30. They checked me in again and I told them I wanted an epidural. They said my doc was hoping I could wait a little longer, yet I still got the process started for getting it so that when I wanted to go through with it, everything would be ready! At 10:00 I got my epidural. The doctor had come in around 9:00 in the morning and I told her I wanted her to break my water so that things would progress more quickly. She mentioned she would only be back between 12:30 - 1:30 during her lunch break so I would have to wait until then. That was discouraging. After they administered the epidural it got a lot better and too my surprise at 10:30, my doctor was back! She had to com back for a delivery she wasn't planning on. I was so grateful!! She broke my water and I was at a 5 at 10:00. After that contractions were more frequent, even though I couldn't feel it...AMAZING. I have to mention that this epidural was so much better than with Mason. I could feel my feet and ankles and I could feel the pressure of when I needed to push which made all the difference for me. By 12:00pm I was dilated to a 10 and had no cervix. I could feel immense pressure and I really wanted to start pushing. My doctor wasn't there yet but they called her and by 12:35 she was there. She checked me and at 12:40 I started to push. At 12:44 Madison Ann Wolf was born. She was 8lbs 4ozs and 21 inches. Oh what joy! One funny thing was my doctor all along was telling me that I was measuring a few weeks behind and was pretty small. She also told me that the baby was probably 6lbs ish. When she pulled Madison out, she immediately said, she is HUGE! My tools were definitely wrong. I thought that was funny. The nurses also mentioned that she was pretty big too. I am just so grateful she was a healthy baby!!
Madison had the cord wrapped around her neck a couple of times so I didn't get to hold her as soon as I would have liked and Terrill didn't get to cut the cord, but she was fine. They gave her oxygen and she cried a ton. They weighed her and wiped her off and then handed her to me. It was such an amazing feeling to be holding my baby girl who seconds before was inside of me.
The overall delivery was so much better than Mason's. I was able to feel my legs just 2 hours after the birth and was able to get up and walk around. I felt so good. I was also starving and eating just felt amazing as well! We left the hospital a day early and recovery has really been so good.
She is 5 days old now and is such a joy. She is a great sleeper and a good eater for the most part. She only really cries when we change her diaper and when she is hungry. Both good reasons to be upset in my mind! We love our little Madison Ann.
Above: Madison; Below: Mason
This is the outfit we took her home in. The bow was so tight on her head that we only had it on for the pictures!
