Madelyn Nicole's Birth Story

Madelyn Nicole was born on November 7th at 4:35pm, weighing 8lbs / 5oz, and is 20 inches long.

Dave and I arrived at the Misericordia Hospital at about 7:40am for our scheduled induction (I was 8 days overdue). After joking with the admitting clerk that I was there to have my appendix removed (Dave gave her permission to come upstairs later when I was having a painful contraction, and ask me if I still thought I was funny), we went upstairs to get settled in our labour & delivery room. As our nurse was showing me to our room, I put in my request for an epidural (before anything had even started) :) She told me that that was fine, once I got uncomfortable, I could have it. I reminded her that I was 8 days overdue, and very uncomfortable. By 9am, I was in bed and hooked up to the monitors and IV with Oxytocin to get my labour started. I started with extremely mild contractions and they were infrequent. The nurse came in every half an hour to increase my dose, but the contractions stayed pretty mild. I reminded my nurse, and doctor with each visit that I wanted the epidural and my doctor even said she would wait until I got it to break my water. By 2pm, my contractions were pretty frequent and more intense. I was definitely uncomfortable and the anesthetist was nowhere to be found. My doctor came in and broke my water (it had broke a little on its own, but she did complete rupture) and was 4cm dilated at this point. By about 4:15pm, I was trying not to push, but had the feeling my window for the epidural was being slammed shut with every contraction :) and I was right. The doctor came in to tell me that my anesthetist was finally on his way, but wanted to check and see how dilated I was ... 10cm. Too late, it was time to push ... drug free.

Less than 15 minutes of pushing later (and a whole bunch of panicking I might add - this was not the delivery I had imagined), Madelyn was born. Dave cut her cord, and they put her on my stomach right away - something that I didn't get to experience with Logan as he had the cord around his neck and was having some minor problems getting started breathing. They cleaned us both up and moved us into my room. I had requested a private room when I got there that morning, and didn't get one of those either (had to share a room with 2 other moms). If we didn't get such a beautiful daughter out of the deal, I think I would of been a lot more mad that things didn't work out to my favour lol.

Madelyn is such a quiet, content baby so far. She's happy in our arms, or laying in her bassinette. We are having a much easier go with feeding this time, and she has even let me get a fair bit of sleep (6 hours in a row the first night, and the same again last night). If she stays this way (which I'm hoping, but am not expecting), she will be the polar opposite of Logan. He didn't let me get much sleep, and was always wanting to be held. I actually feel like a human right now, and not a zombie lol.

Logan is in LOVE. He no longer refers to her as baby sister, like he did when I was pregnant ... she is just Madelyn now (and corrects us if we call her baby sister). He picked out a couple of blankets and a stuffed pig to give her as a present, and she bought him a skateboard (lol - you have to understand the obsession he has had with skateboards lately to know how much he loved that gift). Right after he got it he walked over and thanked her. He loves to hold, kiss and cuddle her, and is being such a big helper. So far, we haven't had any trouble with him adjusting, and he is pretty happy to play while I'm holding or feeding her. Hopefully this will continue, but I know that there will probably be some sort of adjustment issues to come.

Dave is off work for a little while, we're just spending some quiet time at home enjoying each other before we all have to continue on with our "regular" lives. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts, and congratulatory messages so far. I can't wait for you all to meet her, she is such an amazing addition to our family :)