Madeline Taylor Is Here!

Because a lot happened, and I don't really want to make this post incredibly long, I'll just post what basically happened on the days leading up to and after Madeline was born.

Wednesday (11/9): Went to the doctor. Blood pressure was up again. Only dilated to a 1. Doctor scheduled an induction for Sunday evening/Monday morning. Had to get blood work done again and to go back into the OBGYN Friday for another blood pressure check (if all was okay- he would cancel the induction). Put on bedrest.

Friday (11/11): Nurse takes blood pressure and almost sends me to the hospital. Talks to doctor and says to just keep the Sunday induction.

Sunday (11/13): Waited around all day for the hospital to call to let us know when to go in for the induction. Finally got a call around 4 or 5 PM. Ate my last real meal for a few days before I went in at 6 PM. Went to the hospital and got all hooked up to an IV. Dilated only to a 1.5. The nurse gave me three doses of cytotec over the course of the night to help soften/ripen my uterus since it was no where near ready for labor. I got absolutely no sleep because I was sleeping in a labor/delivery bed (SO UNCOMFORTABLE!). I was having contractions as well, which probably is what made my back hurt so badly (with the combination of the bed).

Monday (11/14): Longest day ever. Ate a few crackers and juice as my "breakfast." Given pitocin around 7-8 AM to induce labor. Contractions started getting more painful. Got an epidural around 10-11 AM. No improvement in dilation. Nurse had to ease off of the pitocin because the baby's heart rate kept decelerating after each contraction. Eventually, I was off of it all together for a while. Around 1-2 PM, the doctor broke my water. Nurse eased me back into the pitocin slowly and baby was doing much better this time. Doctor inserted an intrauterine pressure catheter to better detect the contractions. Dilated to about a 2 at this point. Also, informed again that my pelvic arch may be too small for a vaginal delivery. The catheter eventually stopped accurately working, and they had to take it out. A few different nurses kept trying to put a new one in (like 3-4 different times). My epidural wasn't really working very well at some point in the evening. Had to get the anesthesiologist to come back in to give me a bigger dose of the epidural. Started to feel much better. After all the trying to get a new catheter put back in to measure the contractions, I was dilated to a 2+. But that wasn't much progress. Baby's heart rate began to decelerate again after the contractions. Found out just before 9 PM that I was going to get a C-Section since I wasn't progressing and the baby wasn't doing well with the pitocin.... And Madeline was born at 9:24 PM. She weighed in at a tiny 6 lbs. 11 oz. and measured 18 in. long.

As I was getting sewn/stapled back up, both of my doctors were telling me that next time, I will just have to tell my doctor I have to get a C-section because they both decided there was no way a baby was going to fit through my pelvic arch. I have not liked hearing this news at all because I seriously hated the C-section. While, I didn't feel any pain (at least not until they were sewing me back up), I could feel everything else- when they were cutting into me, all the tugging, etc. I've never had surgery, and I just don't do well with blood and cuts (I wouldn't look at my incision for days afterwards). I was freaking out the whole time they were doing the surgery, and Jon kept trying to help me get my mind off of it, but it was pretty hard!!! Jon was amazing and stayed with me the whole time. I know he wanted to be with Madeline, but I don't think I would have survived without him. I'm just thankful that I had one of my favorite doctors there to do the surgery and that the anesthesiologist was very helpful in keeping me calm and making sure I wasn't in any pain. When I started to feel some pain as they were putting me back together, the anesthesiologist started pumping a bunch of medicine into me, which is probably why I am still swollen to this day (although, it's much better!!!).


Anyways, since then Jon and I have been enjoying getting to know our little girl. But we've also been struggling with almost no sleep. I don't think Jon realized how hard a newborn baby could be, and I'm pretty sure she's an easy baby compared to many others.... I can't believe she will be two weeks old on Monday already!!! I can't wait until she is one month because, hopefully, she will be doing better with sleeping at night and with staying awake while eating (she falls asleep too quickly, thus why she is always wanting to eat/keeping us up at night). Also, we can't wait for her to be a bit more interactive and alert instead of sleeping, eating, and pooping all the time.