It's TIME!!

At my last appointment I was told to be at the hospital on Thursday April 24th to begin the induction process. Little did we know what was in store for us.

Here we go…

We get to the hospital and get all checked into our private room.  So far so good. I was started on Pitocin in order to increase contractions and help me dilate. After hours and hours not much progress was made. The idea was I’d have Ms. Madison Mae in my arms on the 25th (my actual due date). She had other plans.

Friday morning comes and goes with still not much of a change. I still wasn’t dilating and all I had to show were harder, stronger contractions. I was pretty tired and not to mention starving. Toward the end of the day they decided to take me off Pitocin. I was able to finally eat something and was told we’d try a different method to help move things along. They inserted Cervidil and we waited some more. Hours came and went and I had dialted to 3. The nurses weren’t impressed and my midwife thought it a good idea to put be BACK on Pitocin. While little was happening as far as dilating was concerned, my contractions were making their presence very well known. I was exhausted.

Shouldn’t I have a baby now? It’s SATURDAY!

My midwife came in to check me out and decided it was time to break my water. She did so and found Meconium in the fluid. They hooked me up to another IV in an attempt to flush out all the Meconium to make sure baby was safe upon arrival. Being that my contractions were so intense and I was not advancing like they would have preferred she mentioned the “E” word. Epidural. As tired as I was, I still wanted to try and avoid going that route. She mentioned another pain reducing method that would alleviate some of the discomfort, for a few hours at least. I opted to try it. It seemed to help, but the contractions were still pretty bad. I think the intent was to allow me to get some rest if I was really going to have to push a baby out in the next few hours.

2 o’clock. 3 o’clock…Then some action. I jumped to 6 centimeters. We were finally getting somewhere and I‘m too exhausted to think straight. On that note, so much for my epidural-less delivery. As much as I wanted to make it happen without the epidural, once I got it all I could think was “Why did I wait this long?!?!” It was just about instant relief. I am officially ready to have a baby.

2 Whole Years of Wedded Bliss

To celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary we decided to rent a cabin a couple hours North of where we live. The town was called Leggett and we had a great time.

I was 37 weeks and 4 days pregnant. We managed to take a short walk down to the Eel River which to me felt like an eternity. I made it back in one piece and spared Chris the agony of having to carry me on his back. I so desperately could have used a "piggy back" ride, but now that I think about it I'm not too sure that would have worked out anyhow with my big belly and all.

We had our own cabin fully equipped with a private fire pit. Chris made a fire and we had strawberry s'mores. It was my first s'more experience and my hubby did a fantastic job. They were delicious.

I can't wait to see what year number 3 has in store for us.

Our trip to labor and delivery...

was, to say the least, INTERESTING.

We signed up for a tour of the maternity ward so that we would have an idea of what to expect and where to go when Madison decides to make her grand entrance into the world.

I think we got a little more than we bargained for in this "free tour".

My plan up until about 42 minutes ago was to deliver Maddi au naturel... Well the lady screaming bloody murder down the hall made that thought a little hard to keep sight of. It REALLY freaked me out. I had no doubts about avoiding the epidural, but this freakin' lady, according to Chris, sounded like she was in a torture chamber. I'd consider that a pretty accurate analogy. I don't think I've ever seen his eyes widen that much.

We were in one of the delivery rooms w/ the door shut, she was down the hall with her door shut and her blood curdling screams penetrated the walls without difficulty. I've watched plenty of episodes of "A Baby Story" on TLC and in many of them I've seen the women scream in agonizing pain, but when you hear it in real life there's just no comparison.

The nurses assured our group that it doesn't happen that way often at all and she was having what they call a "rocket baby". I guess that means she just progressed really quickly.

I'm still going to try to do things naturally, but man was that an eye opening experience. I know there's no trophy or certificate for having a natural delivery, but it's just something that I've felt strongly about this entire pregnancy. We'll leave it in God's hands and see how things progress.

I'M HAVING A BABY...SOON!

Please tell me it will all be okay and I won't feel a thing...okay at least tell me it will all be okay!

I want my Mommy!

-Marlene-

.MaddiShower.

When talk of a baby shower started floating around, March 8th seemed ages away. I'm not sure where the time went and before we knew it, it was the 8th.

It was a great day. My parents did such an amazing job and they were great hosts. They definitely outdid themselves. The food was delicious and the games were hilarious. I don't think I could have planned a better shower.

We got SO many gifts. I definitely don't think there's too much Maddi will need that she doesn't already have. Everyone was beyond generous.

We appreciate everyone for celebrating our soon-to-be new arrival with us.

We love you all!

33 Weeks and counting...

I wanted to wait for my belly to have a significant growth spurt before we took more pictures. I'd say I waited long enough. Little Maddi is definitely growing by leaps and bounds.

We are lucky enough to have a friend in the "field" and paid her a visit to Sears Portrait Studio. We think she did such a great job with this shoot and couldn't wait to show everyone. We decided to have a picture blown up to an 8x10 and have it framed for our baby shower guests to sign. It'll make a great keepsake later on.

<3