Miss Madelyn's Birth(a little late, I know)

I have put this off for way too long! Don't feel obligated to read, I just wanted to get this memory down for journaling purposes.

I had contractions off and on for weeks before Madelyn was born, so I knew that she would probably come pretty quickly when she came. Tuesday, April 27th, I had a check-up. It was 2 weeks before her due date, so they checked me. Dilated to a 3 and 50% effaced. That is what I was the day before I went into labor with Emma. I continued to have contraction throughout the day and into the evening, but I had so many contractions all the time that I wasn't sure these were any different. Jared and I both have meetings on Tuesday nights, so Emma was at my friend's house. I went to pick her up, wondering if I should just get checked since the contractions had been so consistent. When I got there, Emma was already asleep in her pack-n-play so I chatted with my friend for a while and decided to just go get checked since Emma was already being taken care.

Jared and I went into the hospital around 10 p.m., feeling a little silly. They checked me and I hadn't changed that much, maybe to a 3 1/2. But since we were already there and they could see how consistent the contractions were, they had us walk the halls for an hour. We called our mom's to tell them that we were walking the halls but that we were pretty sure we would be going home because it wasn't time yet.

After an hour, there was no change. We went and picked up Emma, grabbed some food and called our mom's to fill them in. Jared's mom and grandma were halfway to Twin because they were hoping something had changed in that hour. They decided to just come anyway and got there around 12:30. Jared went to bed, and I visited with them for a couple of hours, then they fell asleep on our couches and I went to take a bath, thinking my body would relax and the contractions would stop and I could get a good night's sleep. Then I went to bed, still feeling contractions, but nothing to painful. I woke up around 7 with some more painful ones, though. So I got up and made some blueberry bread for everyone. We decided to go into the Women's Health Clinic when they opened at 8:30 to get checked again since they felt a little more intense. When we got there, we decided it would probably be just as easy to go into the hospital instead.

They got me the last room and had me get in a nightgown and get situated. I was still feeling a little sheepish from the night before, so I was nervous they would send us away again. When the nurse checked me I was an 8! She asked me if I wanted an epidural/intrathecal and I said, "Of course!" So she said she would make it happen for me. She was seriously flying through everything. When we were waiting for the anesthesioligist to come, she said, "I'm not going to check you because I'm sure you are complete and I don't want to have to tell him you can't get your medicine." He came, got it in, and Dr. Coleman came to break my water and was going to come back in a bit to see how I was progressing at that point. He took one look, broke my water, and 4 pushes later, we had a new baby!

We didn't know what she was, so Dr. Coleman said, "Dad, you call it!" Her umbilical cord was in the way, so at first glance we were thrown off. She was beautiful. And perfect. And screaming. They got her cleaned off and wrapped up and then we got to cuddle.

It worked out really well that Jared's mom and grandma were already in town because they took care of Emma, brought her into the hospital to meet Madelyn and then took her to Pocatello for a few days. Emma loved her at first sight, and wanted to hold her right away. She kept touching her nose. She only wanted to hold her for about 10 seconds, but it was one of those perfect moments. We had to stay in the hospital for 2 days for Strep B observation. When we got home we didn't know what to do with ourselves without Emma! We were very happy to see her!

Madelyn was instantly a perfect fit for our family. Big blue eyes and red hair, 7 lbs. 4 oz, 21 inches long. Big feet and long fingers. Content and tolerant of her sister's mauling. Just perfect. And we love her as much as you can possibly imagine.