From Womb to World: Madelyn Rose

On Thursday, July 22nd, Madelyn Rose will be 2 years old.

All moms love a good birth story, right?  So here’s the story of how our Maddie Moo went from Womb to World.

***************************************

My due date was July 31st.  And not that previous pregnancies dictate your current pregnancy, but Kate came just 2 days early.

Some other background information: We were again relocating across states, and under contract to sell our NH house, with a closing date of July 31st.

Yes, the closing date was also my due date.

Oh, and we were closing on our new house (in TN) the 6th of August.

And we had just finished up our whole house remodel in June.

And I was pregnant.

Apparently when Craig and I do something, we do it B.I.G.

Anyway…

The night of July 21, I started having contractions.  I had enough of them that I started to watch the clock, but they soon died down, then quit altogether.  I fell asleep and slept soundly until around 4 am, when I was awoken by another contraction.  This time a much stronger one.

Plus, I had to pee.

I clumsily found my way to the bathroom, and as soon as I pulled down my pants, I saw bright red blood.

I called to Craig to come with his phone and started to freak out a little.  I had placenta previa this pregnancy, and though my ultrasound at 36 weeks showed that I was in the clear for a vaginal delivery, bright red blood is still disconcerting.

We called the office, who then paged the doc on call.  He called a few minutes later and said to hang out til 6 am, and then come in.  I reiterated that the blood was bright red, and he said it could just be the “show,” and not to be too alarmed since the ultrasound showed that the previa wasn’t a concern anymore.

For some reason that I still don’t understand, Craig – who was standing in the bathroom with me and to whom I relayed all the information the doc gave – apparently didn’t get the memo that I was in labor and we were leaving at 6 am.

And decided to head back to bed.

{Ahem}

Soooooooooooooo, we got out the door about 6:30, after a brief exchange of words at 5:45 involving my disbelief that he was truly unaware of the game plan that day, and that he better get his butt in the shower.

Just before we left, Kate got up for the day.  My mom had flown in a couple weeks prior to this because Craig had been spending his weeks working back in TN.  She was worried I’d go into labor and be all alone, and I don’t blame her – I was worried about that, too!

As anyone who has felt contractions knows, they are worse and more intense when you are on your feet.  I didn’t want Kate to be frightened over her laboring mama, so I did my best to hide it and said my goodbyes in between rounds of pain.

We managed to get out the door with Kate none the wiser, and made the 5 minute drive to the hospital.

They hooked me up to monitor the contractions, checked me and determined that I was in active labor.  They gave me Nubain to “take the edge off,” and if I had known what it would be like, I would have said, “Thanks but NO thanks!”

That stuff made me feel beyond exhausted.  Like, it took everything I had to concentrate on what someone was telling me, and reply back in a coherent way.

I was progressing at a decent rate, and the nurse commented on my blood loss as she was changing my towels for the second time.

At some point the anesthesiologist came in and screwed up my epidural.  I’m not a very big person, so if a patient is telling you she has one completely numb leg and one leg that isn’t the least bit numb, don’t just decide to pump MORE meds into her in hopes that it would eventually numb the second leg.  PLEASE just go ahead and adjust the damn needle!!

Not only did the over-medication cause me to puke twice during labor, twice during delivery and once more – for good measure – during breastfeeding, I had no use of my heavily sedated right leg until the NEXT DAY!

Anyway, back to the rest of the labor and delivery story…

I had a couple more nurse comments, along with a comment from the OB, about the bleeding that was occurring.  They told me more blood was coming out of me than what’s normal.

It came time for pushing, and I was worthless.  I had sooo much anesthesia in me that I couldn’t feel pressure from baby’s head, and had to have Craig man my comatose right leg.

Also, my cervix wouldn’t fully efface.

Here’s your fair warning for TMI ahead…

My doc finished effacing me himself.

As in, he used his finger to “move” the remaining cervix so I’d be clear to push.

After my effacement was complete, I started pushing.  Forty-five minutes and no progress later, my doc told me we needed to change course.  He was watching the baby’s (we didn’t find out the gender) heart rate drop and drop.

That’s when he told me what I had been fearing ever since seeing bright red blood at 4 am:

“I’m concerned your placenta is pulling away.”

Um, not cool.

He told me we needed to get the baby out, and I burst into tears.  I turned to Craig and sobbed, “But I don’t want a C-section!”

The doc told me he didn’t want to do a C, but that I had a choice between a vacuum or forceps.  I inquired about the pros and cons of each, and he recommended using forceps.

With the next contraction, he had me push while he pulled, and out into the world came a little GIRL!

Like I said earlier, we purposely never found out the gender, even with all the ultrasounds I had.  But Craig and I both thought this baby was a boy.  So when we heard the doc say, “Here SHE is,” we couldn’t believe it!

Madelyn Rose arrived after 3 pm that afternoon.  She was 9 days early, and weighed in at 6 lbs 10 ozs.

She wasn’t given a name until our final day in the hospital, but that’s a story for another time.

Happy (almost) Birthday, my baby!

Related Posts:

• Because I was 27 when I became a mother
• Warning: Toddler Invasion Ahead!
• Just Me & My Girls
• Warning: Birthday Approaching
• Mommy Maneuvers