Madison Leigh was born on April 23, 2012 at 11:42AM. She was 6lbs 4oz (thank god she was no bigger!) and 19 1/2 inches long. Here is her birth story...
I had just turned 37 weeks the Saturday before I delivered little miss Maddie. Full term according to my doctor! I even posted my 37 week bump picture on Facebook Sunday night. Funny how I thought I had another 3 weeks to mentally prepare for our baby's arrival. She came fast and furious, which is so her. I remember being really uncomfortable ALL weekend...more than normal at this stage. I had been extra tired, but I was also severely pregnant so I did not think anything of it. Morgie, my female Boxer, had been EXTRA clingy the past couple of days, but she is always a stage 5 clinger...so again, I did not think much of it. Matt kept joking she knew the baby was coming. She was so right.
Fast forward to Monday morning around 5:15am (4/23/12). I felt something weird "down there" and I remember my eyes flying open and looking at the clock. I got up to go to the bathroom thinking I still had another 45 minutes to sleep before I had to get ready for work. As I walked to the bathroom I thought to myself "I think I peed my pants". How am I supposed to go to work when I am now at the stage that I pee my pants!? I wake Matt up and tell him this. I decide today I am going to stay home and deal with this issue. Maybe buy myself some freakin diapers. I change and get back into bed and about 10 minutes later I start feeling these cramps. Kind of like menstrual cramps but definitely stronger. I get another cramp 7 minutes later. Then it dawns on Matt and I that I did not pee my pants and it could have been my water starting the slowly leak. Well crap! My bag is half ass packed and I need to shower and flat iron my hair. I hop in the shower at 5:45ish AM. Matt is checking his work email...no big deal. I start timing my contractions...6 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 3 minutes. I finish doing my hair because of course I'm going to look awesome while giving birth, and of course I put in my pearl earrings. I throw some last minute things into my bag (useless crap that was so unnecessary - this is so me) and I start really feeling the contractions, which at this point are 3 minutes apart. I look at Matt and I'm like "we need to go...like now". He still has to shower! So he jumps in and I'm walking around my house like a mental case trying to breathe through the contractions which have me doubled over at this point. I'm still in denial that I am in labor.
We get to the hospital around 7:15AM. It is pouring rain and I remember telling Matt to just drop me off and park. I only brought in one bag because I was convinced they were going to send me home. I get up to the L&D floor and I am literally leaning on the front desk. The nurses are like "honey are you in labor??" I'm like I think my water broke and I think I'm having contractions. They were like ummm yes it looks like it! Matt comes up and they bring us to a room to check my progress. The nurse is checking my cervix (and by checking I mean digging up into my brain) and I remember her saying "I can't find your cervix let me try one more time". Then she stops and looks at me and says "oh...you are almost a 10, that is why I was having trouble!". Matt and I were like a 10 what? What does that mean!? She confirms she means 10 centimeters. HOLY CRAP. Next thing I know they are throwing a gown on me and wheeling me into my private room. Matt calls everyone and my parents head over to the hospital. My contractions are INTENSE at this point and of course i'm whining for the epidural, which they nicely inform me is not going to happen and I am almost ready to push. REALLY? I mean REALLY? How many times have I mentioned the epi in my posts? It's in my chart, it's in my "birth plan". How could I NOT be getting this epidural!? I'm a hot mess at this point. They are trying to get the room in order and Matt still has not eaten breakfast. I remember my parents coming into the room and Matt went to the Dunkins to get a sandwich before he passed out...my biggest worry! At this point it is around 8AM, and the nurse informs me they called my doctor and he is in the Caribbean. Of course he is on vacation..AWESOME. But really at that point I was in so much pain that a bum off the street could have delivered this baby. I wanted it over with. They check me one more time and the on call doctor (who is actually a midwife) calls into our room. The nurses inform her to hurry the hell up and get to my room because I am fully dilated and the baby is coming. I ask one more time for the epidural...maybe I can trick them into giving it to me! No such luck.
It is now about 8:45ish AM and the doctor has me do some practice pushes. Everyone says it feels good to push. I thought it still hurt like hell, but I was ready to get it over with. My parents are still in the room at this point since everything happened so fast. I was glad they were there with us since it was all so shocking and we needed the extra support since everything was not as we planned. And no...my Dad did not see anything. Luckily it was a huge room and he was in a corner somewhere. I remember the nurse saying "wow it is unusual for the grandfather to be in the room!" Again...I could have cared less who the heck was in the room at that point! Anyways, I start pushing and it is going great. Baby is moving down and I am so happy to hear the doctor say how she is going to be born any minute. FALSE. After an hour into pushing like a freakin maniac...no baby. They start to realize she may be facing up instead of facing my spine, which makes delivery a LOT harder. Another half hour passes and I keep hearing "this is the push Lea! This is the one! Here she comes!" and then nada. My nice hair is now a sweaty mess and I could not even speak at this point since I am in pain and pissed this baby is not coming out. Your body kind of takes over and does the pushing and all that jazz, but still...it just really hurts! I never screamed or made any ungodly noises, which is a shocker since I am a huge complainer. It was like i was in the zone and I would just focus on the clock in front of me and I would push when the doctor told me to and when my body told me to, which was every minute. So yeah...downtime between contractions was pretty much non existent. But the little downtime I got was heaven. They give you ice chips like in the movies and and cold washcloth for my forehead. The washcloth was nice...I remember wanting to shove the ice chips down someones throat! Those do nothing!
FINALLY at 11:42 I finally had "the push" of the century and little Madison Leigh came out "sunny side up" or face up and squeaked like a little chicken! Once she was out all the pain stopped and I was able to hold her right away! She was perfect. :) I do not even remember delivering the placenta (ew), but I do remember them giving me 3 stitches. Only 3! Not too shabby. I was up and walking and was able to go to the bathroom 20 or 25 minutes after Maddie was born. How crazy is that? I got to have her "skin on skin" for a good 20 minutes before they took her and weighed her. It was really nice to have her all to ourselves and not whisked away by the nurses and doctor. This was the part I had imagined. Everything before that was not how I pictured Maddie's birth to go AT ALL! The doctor joked with me and said "see how great a natural birth is!? Next time will be even easier." I remember saying "yeah wonderful...I still want the epi for the next baby".
So, that is my story on Maddie's birth! About 6 hours from start to finish, which seemed so long at the time. She is the perfect little chicken and we are so thankful for a healthy baby. Of course she had to be pesty and make the pushing part of my labor hard! Got to love her. I still have flashbacks of last Monday and everything that went on. I am shocked I made it through labor without my beloved epidural, but I had no choice. It is amazing what your mind and body will do in a situation you are least expecting. And for those of you wondering how Matt did! He was awesome. He only felt faint once...and that is when we first got to the hospital and the nurse said I was almost at 10 cm. lol! Other than that he was by my side the entire time and helped me get through it. My mom too...both of them were awesome. They had to somehow keep me sane and they did a really good job. Having my dad in the room (I repeat..he was hiding in a corner not able to see anything) was also comforting. He would put in his 2 cents every now and then telling me I was doing a great job. My sister missed it since her phone was on silent. Such a Sera thing to do! But we really were not expecting Maddie to come 3 weeks early either. I remember Sera getting there right when she was born...perfect timing ha! It was all in all a very special day. :)
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| This is so fun! In labor :) |
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| Delusional smile haha I don't even remember this! |
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| Finally she is here! I love this pic of her and Matt. |
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| All smiles :) First family pic |
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| Matt cutting the cord. |
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| Maddie was so alert! |
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| Maddie Leigh just hours old. |
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| Going home outfit! It was huge on her. |
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| The chicken! 1 week old <3 |
