First - the hospital stay! We left the house around 5:45am on Tuesday morning to head to Baptist Hospital. Notice the curly hair (see post from March 17th titled "39 weeks" if you are confused :))! We met our delivery nurse, Bonnie and she was FANTASTIC!!! Such an answered prayer...it was also hilarious because she looked like she could be Ryan's moms sister!! They started my Pitocin around 7:30am and Dr. Macey came in and broke my water around 8:45am. The contractions started getting more intense so I got my epidural around 10am. The epidural was AMAZING!!!! I highly recommend it!! I felt no pain at all from that point forward...in fact, it almost felt like a party in my delivery room. Mom, Dad, Sarah, Meredith, Cheryl & Gary were all in and out for most of the day. Whenever they would come to check my progress, everyone would leave except for Ryan. Every time they checked my progress I had progressed at least one centimeter if not more! It went by so quickly and the nurse kept saying that I was progressing amazingly fast. By about 2pm I was ready to start pushing. Because of the epidural, I couldn't really feel an urge to push so I was super paranoid that I wasn't going to be a good pusher! So I tried to envision doing the tightest stomach crunch that I could think of and pushed and pushed! Bonnie said that it was the best push she had seen in 6 months! Maybe she tells everyone that - but it made me feel good nonetheless! Ryan was the only one in the room at that time and he was helping me by counting and being encouraging - he was GREAT!!! I had to push for 39 minutes and Madison Claire came at 2:49pm on March 31st. For those of you wondering about my doctors prediction - see the post from Sunday, March 29th - he NAILED it!!! Almost exactly right!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!
When she first came out I remember it felt like forever until she started crying. Once she did I felt such relief that she was okay!! Dr. Macey asked Ryan if he wanted to cut the cord but of course he said no. Once Dr. Macey cut the cord, he asked Ryan if he was wearing a golf shirt...I thought to myself during this exchange "this is the oddest conversation to be happening right now" and the next thing I know, Dr. Macey is literally tossing Madison Claire to Ryan...still covered in blood (see the picture below for proof). It then took a really long time for them to "fix" me. I had 2 really bad tears - one internally and one externally - and ended up losing a lot of blood during the process. I'm very thankful for hospitals and skilled physicians...if I had delivered Madison Claire in the old days, I probably would have bled to death...scary thought!!
Ryan and I were immediately smitten although we didn't think that she resembled either of us in anyway! Her sweet little face was so swollen but she was still precious! She took right to breastfeeding like a champ and then got to meet her grandparents and aunts! They were of course thrilled and I think they love her *almost* as much as we do! On a scale of 1 - 10 with 10 being the worst, the labor & delivery process was a 2 in terms of pain and discomfort...such an ANSWERED PRAYER!! The recovery was really difficult for me and much more difficult than I had anticipated. That aside, the rest of our hospital stay was wonderful - a big THANK YOU to all of the nursing staff at Baptist...we had a great experience and would highly recommend it to any of our friends!! Also a big THANK YOU to the Morrows, Mathews, Lance & Jessica for coming to visit us in the hospital!
We left the hospital on Thursday and were excited to get home but knew we would miss the great staff at Baptist - it was so nice when the nursery would come take Madison Claire and just knowing that there were people there who could help if there was an emergency! Mom had saved the outfit that I wore when I left the hospital when I was born so that is what Madison Claire wore home - so special!
Hospital pics:
Mom stayed in town until Easter Sunday and was SUCH a HUGE help...I cannot say THANK YOU enough!!! Our first night home was tough - she was up most of the night and we couldn't get her to sleep. 2 funny stories from that night - first, I had just gotten the baby to sleep (finally) around 3am and I woke up around 3:20pm with my boobs on fire!! It turns out that my milk had come in and I freaked out - I did NOT want to wake up the baby to feed her but we hadn't opened the pump yet and when Ryan went to get it, we realized that we had to go through this long sterilization process that was just not going to happen at 3:30am! So...I ended up waking up the baby and thankfully she provided me some relief :). Next story - after getting little to no sleep that night, I fed Madison Claire at 7:00am and as soon as I was finished I marched myself and Madison Claire upstairs to where mom was sleeping and opened the door. Right about then, Madison Claire made a little grunt and mom threw back the covers like it was Christmas morning! I threw the Boppy on the bed and said "here is the baby, she has a dirty diaper, won't need me until 10am, I'm going to sleep"!! PRAISE THE LORD FOR MOTHERS!!!
Luckily, it got better and she has been a good little sleeper for us! She is giving us stretches of 3, 4, and even a few nights at 5 hours. She is sleeping in our bedroom in a moses basket (THANK YOU STIERNAGLES & BRADSHAWS) and is doing pretty well. Her favorite sleeping position is on her stomach on your chest so she doesn't really like being put down and on her back...pray for us on that one!
A few other random updates you might be interested in:
- She is still breastfeeding like a champ - I call her my little birdie because she reminds me of a little bird when she is hungry. In fact - when we left the hospital she was down to 8lbs but at her first doctors appointment she was already up to 8.4 and this week the little chunky monkey was up to 8.12!! The doctor even called me a cow! Seriously...he said, "you are a cow". I'm pretty sure in any other time in my life I would be horribly insulted but I just laughed because I feel like I could feed triplets these days!
- We love our pediatrician Dr. Heil (cow comment and all!). Ryan coaches his son at CPA and he has been such a blessing. He prayed over Madison Claire in the hospital and we just pray that God would continue to bless him as he provides care for Madison.
- Ryan and I went on our first date post baby when she was 3 days old! I fed her and then we left her with mom while we went out to our favorite Sushi place....the owner even gave us free sushi!
- Mama & Papa Howard were able to make a trip up to Nashville to meet Madison Claire when she was 5 days old and it was such a treat - for everyone!
- The grandparents are absolutely adorable with her! My mom is Grandma or Mama (she goes back and forth), my dad is Papa Steve, Cheryl is Nana, and Gary is Papa. Mom is already trying to teach Madison Claire how to say "I want to go with Grandma"!
- My family came in town for Easter weekend and it was such a treat...I don't think Madison Claire went one minute without being held by someone but they say you can't spoil them at this age...I'm not so sure :)
- I love watching my sweet angel sleep - I really do think she is the absolute cutest thing in the world when she is sleeping...there is nothing better
- Ryan says he has never seen me so happy
- Ryan is AMAZING with her - you would think he had worked in a nursery his whole life he is so sweet with her! He is going to be such a great dad and I am so excited for Madison Claire to be blessed with his leadership & love.
- Some of our favorite pictures from the last 2 weeks:
My heart has never been so full! God has truly fulfilled our dreams for a baby and given us an angel. I'm convinced our next one will be a terror because she is too good to be true! God has answered so many of our prayers related to the labor, delivery, recovery, parenting, breastfeeding, and so many more...we are overwhelmed by His incredible love and faithfulness to us. Another of those blessings is being surrounded by family and friends like you...so THANK YOU once again for your love, support and prayers - for me, Ryan, and our sweet Madison Claire! We will need them and covet them in the days, weeks, and months ahead! Thank you for caring about us enough to read this update...I will try my best to update more real time moving forward!
With much love,
Lauren & Ryan
No comments:
Post a Comment