Monday, April 27, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Joy Unspeakable
Wow....*so* sorry that it has taken me so long to update the blog! Who knew that having a newborn would be so time consuming?? I also have felt overwhelmed about trying to describe the last 2 weeks in writing so have been procrastinating on getting this post completed. I'm going to try my best for a good update here but know in advance that words cannot do justice to the joy & love we have experienced the past 2 weeks!
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:
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
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
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Madison Claire McSwain
It is with great joy that we introduce you to our precious angel, Madison Claire McSwain! She was born at 2:49pm on Tuesday, March 31st. She weighed 8 lbs 8.5 oz. and was 20 inches long. So far she is a great baby with such a sweet disposition! We will post many more pictures & details of her birth later this week but for now wanted you all to have a picture of our sweetie! Praise the Lord for a healthy, beautiful baby!
Love,
Lauren & Ryan
Sunday, March 29, 2009
40 Weeks, 4 days and counting...
Well, my due date has come and gone! I had a doctors appointment on Thursday (picture above of me, Ryan, our nurse Lori & Dr. Macey) and there wasn't any progress so the plan is to induce at 6:30am on Tuesday morning, March 31st - only 2 more days!!! Dr. Macey said his prediction for the day would be as follows:
6:30am - start the pitocin
8:30am - break my water
10:00am - epidural - yes, I am planning to get one :)
3:00pm - BABY!!
We'll see how close he is come Tuesday! Mom, Dad, Sarah & Meredith are all driving up on Monday night to be here on Tuesday. The McSwains will come too so the hospital waiting room will be buzzing! Patrick & Ryan Fetz are planning to come up over the weekend to meet Madison Claire. We are *so* excited to meet her and can't wait for her to get here!!
The week went by fairly quickly considering I was hoping to go into labor each day! I had a surprise visit from the Robinson's on Tuesday which was great! I hadn't ever met Carter Caroline so it was sweet to be able to kiss her cheeks and Kate was just adorable...I can't believe how much she has grown since I last saw her!!!
We've got the bags all packed and everything ready to go so are enjoying our last 36 hours of just the 2 of us!! We definitely appreciate all of your prayers on Tuesday morning and we'll update you just as soon as we can!
Love,
Lauren & Ryan
Monday, March 23, 2009
False Alarm
Well...Ryan and I took our first trip to Baptist Hospital last night at around 10pm. I had been having contractions all weekend but they started getting more intense and consistent around 7pm last night and at about 10pm it seriously felt like the baby was COMING OUT! I was afraid to stand up from the couch because it felt like she was going to reach out – crazy, I know!! My contractions were like 7-8 minutes apart and I knew I wasn’t supposed to go to the hospital until they were 3-5 minutes apart but none of our preparation (books, classes, etc.) mentioned anything about it feeling like the baby was coming out so we decided it would be better to be safe than sorry!
We finished packing our bag, grabbed the pillows and got in the car around 10:30pm. We were excited but in a very tempered way - we knew there was a very big chance that they would just send us home. When we got there to check in, the admitting lady (who I loved) said "You look a little too happy to be in labor" because I was smiling and being nice to her. Ryan and I laughed and said she just didn't know me well enough! Ryan could definitely tell it was intense because he knows my normal disposition and how talkative I usually am! We had to wait about 15 minutes for a bed in the triage area to open up and I continued to have contractions during that time.
They took us back to the room, hooked me up to monitor my contractions & the baby and checked me for progress. I had made some progress from Thursday – I’m now at around 3cm dilated – but my contractions weren’t close enough together for it to continue to progress last night. It was fun to be able to watch my contractions build on the monitor. I will say that I didn't particularly care for our nurse. When I was explaining what I was feeling I told her that I really didn't want to be the high maintenance mom who came in thinking she was in labor when she wasn't even close but that I had felt pressure before but not like the baby was coming out so got nervous. Her response = "All first time moms are high maintenance". Who says that? She did grow on me a little bit, but let's pray for a great nurse when I actually do go in for labor!!
After about an hour and a half or so she checked me again and I was still at around 3cm so she said I could either stay for another hour, walk around, and get checked again or go home and come back when the contractions got to 3-5 minutes apart. It was 2am and we were both really tired so we decided to go home.
This morning I've only been having about 4 an hour or so and they haven't felt quite as intense so I don’t think I’ll be going back today. I have had some other symptoms of early labor that are too gross to comment on here so things are definitely moving. Hopefully we'll meet the sweet little one soon!
Love,
Lauren & Ryan
We finished packing our bag, grabbed the pillows and got in the car around 10:30pm. We were excited but in a very tempered way - we knew there was a very big chance that they would just send us home. When we got there to check in, the admitting lady (who I loved) said "You look a little too happy to be in labor" because I was smiling and being nice to her. Ryan and I laughed and said she just didn't know me well enough! Ryan could definitely tell it was intense because he knows my normal disposition and how talkative I usually am! We had to wait about 15 minutes for a bed in the triage area to open up and I continued to have contractions during that time.
They took us back to the room, hooked me up to monitor my contractions & the baby and checked me for progress. I had made some progress from Thursday – I’m now at around 3cm dilated – but my contractions weren’t close enough together for it to continue to progress last night. It was fun to be able to watch my contractions build on the monitor. I will say that I didn't particularly care for our nurse. When I was explaining what I was feeling I told her that I really didn't want to be the high maintenance mom who came in thinking she was in labor when she wasn't even close but that I had felt pressure before but not like the baby was coming out so got nervous. Her response = "All first time moms are high maintenance". Who says that? She did grow on me a little bit, but let's pray for a great nurse when I actually do go in for labor!!
After about an hour and a half or so she checked me again and I was still at around 3cm so she said I could either stay for another hour, walk around, and get checked again or go home and come back when the contractions got to 3-5 minutes apart. It was 2am and we were both really tired so we decided to go home.
This morning I've only been having about 4 an hour or so and they haven't felt quite as intense so I don’t think I’ll be going back today. I have had some other symptoms of early labor that are too gross to comment on here so things are definitely moving. Hopefully we'll meet the sweet little one soon!
Love,
Lauren & Ryan
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
39 Weeks
So...I know I just posted yesterday but I got nervous today thinking what if Madison Claire comes and I don't have any belly shots of my last days so I had Ryan pull out the camera tonight so we could get a picture of my belly at 39 weeks! I also put some clothed ones in here in case you're wondering what it looks like clothed :). PS - I also included the one pic we have from the night we bought the car - you can kind of see it in the background.
One quick funny story for you - I woke up early this morning and took a shower. I walked out of the bathroom around 8am fully dressed, with makeup, and curled hair! Keep in mind that most of my work at home days consist of Ryan coming home at 6pm with me still in his sweat pants, no makeup, and hair in a pony-tail! He immediately said - well don't you look cute! Assuming that I had somewhere to go today, he asked what I was doing and I told him just working from home. I then proceeded to explain that I wanted to look cute in case I went into labor today! I'm convinced that my hair looks better in a ponytail when it is curled and I know that when I go into labor I'll have my hair pulled back and probably feel gross so I want to at least start out feeling good! So - here is to showering every morning, putting on makeup, and curling my hair every day for the next 2 weeks!
Love you guys!!!
Monday, March 16, 2009
It's Almost Time!!!
Well...she is ALMOST here! These pictures are from 2 weeks ago so I'm much larger now - believe it or not!! My official due date is next Wednesday, March 25th but we've been hoping that she will come sometime this week. It's Ryan's spring break so he is home all week and Sarah, Meredith & Patrick are all on spring break also so they are all coming up with my parents on Wednesday night. Of course they are all praying that the baby will come while they are here!
I had a doctors appointment on Thursday of last week and I was 2cm dilated and 60% effaced so she really could come any day! We've been trying all of the old wives tales - eating spicy food, walking up hills, etc. My favorite spicy food of choice is the Chicken Pad Thai from Pei Wei - with about 5 scoops of the red chili sauce in it! I almost passed out on Saturday it was so hot!! I've also been going crazy the past 2 days - everytime I feel a contraction that is intense, I start talking out loud to myself saying "Come on out, baby girl. We are ready to meet you."!! It's pretty funny!
This weekend we got most of our final items accomplished - the nursery is pretty much ready, our hospital bag is packed, all baby clothes are washed and put away and we finally got the NEW CAR!!! We went with a 2009 Honda Pilot and it is awesome! Gary was able to help us out with a connection at Crest Honda so we got a great deal and are so very excited! I'll try to get a picture up sometime soon! So...we are officially ready and as the last days approach, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on pregnancy for anyone who is interested:
*Pregnancy is truly an amazing experience and a blessing from God. To think about how a baby grows from nothing to a little person inside of you is such a miracle. I can't imagine how anyone can experience being pregnant and not believe in our awesome God!! I am truly humbled and in awe each and every day as I think about the miracle of life - inside of me!
*I have loved being pregnant!! A quote from one of my books called "The Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy" says...."I believe that any woman who tells you that her pregnancy is, without exception, the most pleasant and fulfilling time of her life is either lying or has a personality disorder." I'm here to say that this is not true! I don't know if it is because Ryan and I weren't sure if we would ever be able to get pregnant or because I have been extremely blessed - I think it is likely a combination of both - but my pregnancy has been an amazing experience and I am going to miss being pregnant!
*I have the best husband in the whole world. He has been so supportive and involved throughout the pregnancy - reading my pregnancy books, rubbing my back, cooking our dinners, participating in all of our preparation classes, even doing things he hates - like painting the nursery, hanging curtains and shades, installing the car seat, etc. - just because he loves me. He is going to be an amazing dad!!
*I continue to be overwhelmed with gratitude by the outpouring of love and support from all of you. We are truly blessed beyond measure with the most amazing friends and family! Our little Madison Claire is going to be SPOILED rotten, just as we have been from all of you. From the bottom of our hearts - THANK YOU!
Hopefully the next time I post it will be with the news that we are in labor or better yet that Madison Claire is here! We can't wait to meet her!!
Love you all,
Lauren & Ryan
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