Madeline Belle was born on Oct. 14 at 0424 at UW hospital in Seattle. But let me back up and tell the whole story....we went to UW for a routine appt. on Oct. 12. During my non stress test, Madeline wasn't moving much and they couldn't really get her heart rate to increase. I explained to the nurse that her fetal movement had really decreased the past couple of days, and the night before I had almost gone to St. Joe's for an ultrasound to check on her because I could not wake her up and get her to move. Instead of going to St. Joe's, I used a doppler we have at work to find her heartbeat, which made me feel a tiny bit better. The nurse then took the results of my NST to the doctors to look over, they weren't very happy with the results, so they hooked me back up for another NST that ended up having the same results. I was nervous and I didn't want to wait another week and risk something happening to Madeline or risk going in to labor in Bellingham.
So we met with a doctor that we hadn't met before and she totally understood how I was feeling and agreed that Madeline was not behaving in a way that she had before, but I was still surprised when she turned to us and said "So are you ready to get checked in today?" Heck yes we were, well kinda! I had told Jeff the night before that I was going to bring my bag to the appt. just in case, so he packed a bag as well...thankfully, he thought to pack the important stuff like the cameras, chargers, and computer. I had packed a bag, but I had packed it like 3 weeks prior and couldn't even remember what was in it.
We excitedly called our families to tell them the news. Thankfully, Hailey had spent the previous night with my parents because Jeff and I both worked graveyard shifts, so we knew she was good to stay there with them. We just needed to coordinate pick up of our dogs, which was easy to do because we have great families :-)
So at about 4pm, instead of touring labor and delivery like we were going too, we got admitted. We were excited and nervous and had no idea that it would take as long as it did t meet our little pumpkin. They started the induction process (foley bulb) at about 8pm that night. My friend Candice came up to visit us at about 9pm just to help kill some time.
The next morning at about 0730 they took the foley bulb out and in went something called Cervidel which is supposed to thin the cervix. My parents came down with Hailey and got a hotel room near the hospital so they could be close by. It was so great to see Hailey, and it made me so emotional when I saw her. By 6pm, I was only dilated to 3cm, but having regular painful contractions. Jeff's dad came down after work and Candice was visiting as well. At 10pm, I was ready for an epidural, woohoo! They started pitocin at 1130pm and increased dose amounts every 30 minutes.
By 0315 on the 14th, I was dilated to 8cm and the doctors said my water bag was bulging. Jeff was asleep in the room, Candice was awake from the commotion, Gary was asleep in the waiting room and my parents were at the hotel with Hailey. So I texted my mom, text Gary, and let Jeff sleep for a couple more minutes. When I finally woke him up, he was so confused and totally thought that I was joking about being so dilated. My mom never responded to my text, so I called my dad and woke them up and she headed over via taxi to the hospital.
The doctors originally said they were going to break my water, but decided against it right away because of my history of FAST delivery with Hailey. At 0400 Jeff got dressed up in his blue suit and they moved us to the operating room, so we could be close to where the pediatric team would be standing by to get Madeline after she was born. Originally I wanted to have my mom and Candice in the room with us to take LOTS of pictures and to give me some support after Jeff left with Madeline, however the OR was so small they said that no one but Jeff could come in. So Jeff had to pull double duty: support me and take lots of pictures and he did amazing.
At about 0415, our doctor decided to puncture my water to create a slow leak. My body had other plans. My water burst ALL over the doctor, it was like a flood. they had to throw down towels so no one would slip and almost immediately I felt the urge to push. However the pediatric team wasn't quite dressed yet, so I had to wait a few minutes breathing through the contractions. Finally we got the thumbs up from the peds team, and I pushed a total of 4 times and out she came. It happened in under 2 minutes, probably less. I briefly saw the doctor hold her up, she wasn't crying. I was able to ask if she was ok and then she was gone in another room to be checked out and taken care of. Jeff went with her to get pictures and make sure she was ok. I was an emotional wreck, but I had some awesome nurses who checked on Madeline and gave me updates and helped comfort me.
Soon I was wheeled back in my room, and got to see my mom and Candice who showed me lots of pictures of Madeline that Jeff had sent out on his phone. He stayed in the ICU with her waiting for children's to come and transport her. Finally at about 0630, Jeff came back to my room and he told me all about Madeline. Shortly after, Children's transport team brought Madeline in to my room so I could see her before she was transported. It was bittersweet. She was in an isolette, covered with tubes and wires and I had 3 strangers standing around watch me interact with my daughter for the first time, and I had to sign a bunch of paperwork saying that she could be transported. It was not ideal, and I was super emotional. Jeff was able to ride in the ambulance with her over to Children's and did an awesome job keeping me updated as to what was going on. Gary followed Jeff over to Children's, and my mom and Candice stayed with me.
I was taken to a recovery room at about 0730, and at about 9am, Jeff called to say that Madeline was going in to surgery at 0915. There went any chance of going to sleep. It was awful knowing that I wasn't in the same place at my baby as she was about to go in to surgery, and I didn't even have Jeff to lean on because he was with her. He was able to walk with her down to surgery. At about 1130, I got word that the surgery was a success. They were able to fit all of her intestines back in her body, however, she was having trouble breathing, so they had to take some of the organs back out and fit them in a silo bag. I spent the day dozing off and on, and visiting with my dad and Hailey.
That's enough for now...here are LOTS of pictures!
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| Getting ready for Madeline |
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| It's time! |
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| Before going in to the operating room...no that's not coffee...its water, I promise. |
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| Seeing and touching her after the peds team checked her out. |
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| While she was getting worked on |
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| Madeline ready to be transported to Children's hospital |
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| Our sweet girl |
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| Hair! We can't believe all the hair she has..Hailey was bald for a year! |
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| In the NICU |
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| Madeline's cool ride to Children's |
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| The license plate of the ambulance |
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| After her first surgery |
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| Grandma sitting with Madeline so Jeff could get some sleep |
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| Tiny foot that was poked too many times :-( |
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| Daddy and Maddy |
