MADISON KAYE LINDELL
12:42pm 8 lbs 9 oz 20 inches
Thought I would do a little documentation on Madison's birth and how the first 4 weeks have gone!
I was home with my sister Jamaica on Thursday night the 15th, sitting on the couch and I felt a little peeing my pants action so I jumped off the couch and ran to the bathroom. I had been on bed rest and not moving around so good or fast so when I jolted for the bathroom Jamaica asked what happened! I told her something happened and I didn't do it! I knew it was my water etc or whatever but I had not peed my pants. Contractions started right away and then a little more evidence that it was my water that had sprung a leak. That was 6pm and Jimmy got home and went off again to the caucus meeting. I text him and told him to come home around 8pm and that we needed to go get checked out.
We got to the hospital around 8:45pm and was under the RN care of my good friend Ashley Lundquist who used to be in our ward. They kept me there for a few hours and checked the fluid, they couldn't tell if it was amniotic fluid or not so they couldn't confirm if my water had actually broken. My contractions were all over the place (but painful) and not consistant. I was only at a 1 and not progressiing so they sent us home around 11:30pm. We were a little bummed and I was totally nervous cause if I was going to be feeling like I was for days I didn't know how I was going to make it! The kids were coming into town on Friday and I knew it was going to be miserable to feel like I was all weekend with them here too.
Jimmy went to bed around midnight after he made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I ate that and contracted on the couch for 2 hours. Still leaking fluid and gripping the couch through the contractions that were coming every 3-4 minutes. After one of my MANY trips to the bathroom I went to sit back on the couch about 2am and there was a GUSH! I ran into the bathroom and my water had DEFINETLY broke. It was crazy cause I couldn't control it AT ALL and it felt really good to have some pressure released! I was surprised cause all the reading I had done said that only 10% of women actually have their water break on their own. I got a load of excitement and energy knowing that we were going to have a baby SOON! I yelled for Jimmy about 10 times to wake him up and he stumbled down the stairs half asleep and said, "What?" Standing in a puddle and soaked from the hips down I told him there was NO DOUBT my water had broken this time! He was so not excited to be up again so soon :)
We got in the car and every bump on the road added to my experience! We got to the hospital around 2:30am and Ashley was still there. She admitted me immediately and checked me and I was at a 3! My blood pressure was pretty high and she asked me if I planned on going natural and I confirmed that no, medication was on top of my list. She said that getting the epidural soon would help with my blood pressure and help me calm down a bit so she ordered that. While we waited she put my IV in. The first try my vein ruptured and that hurt!!! I got all hot and light headed and felt like I was going to pass out. She got it the next time but the IV was maybe one of the worst parts of the process! This was also the first time I threw up during the delivery which wasn't too bad considering that peanut butter and jelly sandwich Jimmy had made me.
We didn't have to wait long at all for the epidural. I was REALLY tense while he was administering it but I think I did pretty good. I'm glad I didn't wait for my contractions to get any worse because it was pretty painful. I laid down after the epidural and got really light headed again. I asked Ashley if I could pass out if I was already laying down :) She said no don't pass out (like I could help it) but she gave me some cold wash rags and I tried to relax. I don't think I actually passed out but she was worried about me. My blood pressure crashed and she was giving me epinepherine every 2 minutes it seemed. By 6pm when she was ready to go home Ashley had regulated my blood pressure and I was feeling pretty good and was able to relax and doze off.
We had been texting Jamaica all night letting her know where we were and what was happening. My parents, Jimmy's parents, and my sister Julie were all gone vacationing on cruises so we couldn't get ahold of them. Jamaica came to the hospital around 3am just after I threw up with the IV and before the epidural. She tried to sleep and talked to me through the night as we waited. Jimmy slept the whole night it seemed :) Around 7am she left and went home to feed Jaida and check in. I was at a 6 when they checked me which got me excited that I had progressed and that it shouldn't be too much longer. They kept checking my blood pressure every 5 minutes or so, and after I was released from the hospital my biceps were SO SORE from the cuff squeezing them that much. There weren't any other issues with my blood pressure after that. I was NUMB NUMB NUMB from the belly down from the epidural. It was awesome! I was glad I didn't feel the pain cause I did feel some of the pressure. My legs felt like they weighed a million pounds and I did not like that feeling at all. Better than the pain but it was also nauseating! The nurses kept rotating me and moving me a lot and it made me sea sick!
Jamaica got back and around 9am I texted Colleen to see if she would come to the hospital and be with us. She came down and was happy to be there. She is really calming and it helped to have her there. She helped take pictures and made the time go by. Around 11am they checked me and I was fully dilated and complete. I could tell my contractions weren't coming fast enough or hard enough from the pressure. I decided to wait an hour and then start pushing.
After that hour I was definetly ready to push, I could feel quite a bit of pressure and knew it was almost time! I was pretty tired from all the random excitement with my blood pressure and the epidural. The nurses all got ready and Katie, my midwife came in to deliver. They gave me some pointers on pushing but the best help I had was visualizing Jamaica's births that I got to be a part of the delivery. It totally helped me know how I was progressing and what things looked and felt like. We had determined that Jimmy and I didn't want to cut the cord and Jimmy said that he didn't want to hold my leg, that he would stay up by my head. I agreed with him that if he wasn't comfortable I didn't need him passing out down there! The nurse though told him to go ahead and grab a leg though and he just shook his head. I told her that he wasn't going to do it so Jamaica took my leg. It was funny to me. Two nurses that were present during Jaida's birth were in my delivery as well that was fun to reconnect with them. Especially since my main nurse was relatively abrassive and I didn't care for her much.
I started to push at 12:25pm or so. Not sure how many pushes I did but Katie had me take it pretty easy to make sure I didn't tear. It wasn't that bad to push, work yes but not painful. It was uncomfortable for my upper abdomen muscles cause I hadn't used them for 9 months and so that made it more strenuous. It took maybe 15 minutes of pushing before her head was out. The girls kept saying I was doing great and they were saying oh my goodness look at all that black hair! It weirded me out cause I couldn't see it but also because on the 3D ultrasound picture from Monday that week it didn't look like she had one hair on her head!
A couple more pushes and out popped one of her shoulders. Katie got a little nervous and told the nurses to get Dr Dickson. It had me worried and I pushed a little harder the next time. Her other shoulder came out and I could tell it was difficult for her. Katie joked and said "All I had to do is threaten her a little" :) Born at 12:42pm and she weighed 8 pounds 9 ounces. I do remember the nurses reading the weight at 10 pounds something the first time and everyone freaking out a little. They corrected themselves but she is still a big baby for being 2 weeks early! She was 20 inches long! They put her up on my tummy and she slid around a little. They sucked her out but couldn't get her to cry. Katie continued to seem concerned and since we had discussed her just cutting the cord she just quickly did it and they took the baby over to the doctors. There was a respiratory doctor waiting to do some tests, and he quickly ruled out any respiratory issues. She was breathing fine and so they gave her the Hep B shot and pricked her heels a couple times for all those tests and she still didn't cry. Jimmy was over watching what they were doing and I was rather calm. Jamaica came over to the side of my bed cause she was getting really nervous for me. I felt at peace though and knew that she was going to be ok and that they were doing everything they could.
After they determined it was her glucose levels and that she was ok for now they wrapped her up and passed her off to Jimmy. It was probably 10-15 minutes they had her. Jimmy brought her to me and layed her on my chest and that was the most amazing feeling ever. I was totally in for a good cuddle with her. We snuggled up and I remember just thinking that we had both worked hard together to make her body, to make it through the delivery and were excited to just relax with one another. I was so relieved that she was finally in my arms!
I was so hungry and thirsty that I almost demanded I had some grape juice. I drank two full tall glasses of it and then barfed it all up. I took it easy on the next glass of Sprite and crackers. That was the third and last time I threw up thank goodness.
They did end up taking Madison to the NICU to continue to test her glucose levels. Her sugar levels were pretty low they said probably from the delivery and the epinephrine they had to give me must have stressed her out a little. She just didn't have the back up energy to cry. Poor thing, I felt so bad. I was EXHAUSTED and hungry when I got up to my room. I ordered a sandwich and tried to just relax and take it easy. Jimmy had gone to the NICU with Madison to keep an eye on her. They never admitted her to the NICU but that is where they have all the equipment. Jimmy said the nurses in the NICU didn't want to let her go because she was such a big baby and they don't get big babies. They always get the premie babies that are sick and under weight and they have to be so gentle with them.
They kept her for about 4 hours! I didn't get to see her again for 4 hours and Matt and Elizabeth and the kids almost missed seeing her. Matt had gone and gotten the kids for Jimmy and so they all came to see the baby. Emma got a little roudy so Matt and Elizabeth ended up leaving before they could see her. Jimmy and the kids went and got some food and by the time they came back Madison still hadn't been brought down. I did have two visitors while they were gone getting food, Colleen and Connie. I was so glad too cause they made me smile!! They didn't get to see Madison either! :(
Finally the nurses brought her in and the kids got to see her for the first time. It was awesome! The Hansen's were there too and they all just loved starring at her. Carter was a little intimidated I think from the hospital etc and wouldn't really go around her too much. By the time we got home though he wasn't shy with her at all! Jimmy was exhausted and took the kids home for bed. I felt awesome so I ate the rest of my food and got up and went to the bathroom and watched some tv.
I stayed at the hospital by myself that night and it was a long night but it was fun. The nurse I had throughout the night was great, her name was Jen. She helped me get the nursing down. Madison had nursed really good when she was first born. When they took her to the NICU they had to give her some formula so she got used to the bottle and the creamy formula. We ended up having to use a little tube and feed her formula through that and expressing from my breast too. It was a little annoying but I knew from a lot of reading not to get frustrated and to just keep trying. The nurse was so patient and loving towards both of us I owe her!
Thanks to the slow pushing I didn't tear, just a lateral skid mark probably from her shoulder issues. Katie put a couple stitches in just in case. Everything else went good on my end. The feeling in my legs came back pretty quick. They had us in the delivery room for over 2 hours trying to decide if the baby was going to go up with me or over to the NICU for some screening. While we were waiting and right before they took me upstairs we decided to name her Madison (instead of the other choices Ava or Adalyn) Kaye (my mom's middle name). It was never weird to call her Madison either it seemed like it was her name all along. Jimmy thinks it's fun cause she fits in with the other kids and their names, coincidently the last names of US Presidents, Taylor, Carter and now Madison. :)
Katie was amazing and I'm so glad that I used a midwife and not a doctor. Totally worth it and she was so supportive and excited for us!
TO BE CONTINUED...
