Our newest addition to the family.
Madelynn Mae Smith
March 1st, 2011
7 pounds 15 ounces
20 inches
Madelynn had quite the birth story!
I'll start with a little background. At 33 weeks there was a day that I hadn't felt the baby move. I waited until a time when the baby was usually active (11pm) to finally get worried enough to call my Doctor. He advised me to go to L & D to be put on the monitors. So I went. When I got there the baby looked great, but I was showing contractions. GREAT. A shot was ordered to stop the contractions, which worked, and I was sent home. I had an appointment the next day with my doc. He started me on a longer term medication to keep the contractions down and I was put on bed-rest. Bed-rest with two kids . . . not fun! Thank heaven for family. Over the course of the next 6 weeks I was back into the hospital 7 more times. I know this sounds excessive, and it probably was, but I know I was having contractions and I had mentally checked out of this pregnancy. I was done. Might I add that at 35 weeks I was dilated to a 4. Like I said mentally done. I made it to almost 38 weeks before my doctor decided it was safe to schedule an induction. March 1st. We bought Erik a ticket for that morning, because the night before he had a test that went until after the last flight of the night. I was scheduled to go in at 6:30 and his flight would arrive at 8:45. We both figured that by the time they got me hooked up to the monitors, started an iv and a epidural, and then finally got me started on the Pitocen, Erik would be arriving at the hospital. Erik's parents would have our other kids, which would allow my mom to be at the hospital with us, and then my sister would join us as I started to push. I spent the night at my mom's house so we could be at the hospital at 6:30 to start the induction.
Why do we even make plans?
It seems that every time I make a plan, it falls apart.
and my plan did.
At 3:30 I woke up to make my 2nd bathroom run of the night. I was feeling fine, but as I was washing my hands, my lower back started to hurt. Nothing awful, and I figured I could go back to bed and sleep it off. The pain disappeared for a while but when I got back into bed and the pain started to get worse. I tried and tried to sleep, but at 4:15 I decided I should probably go in. At least this time I knew that they would keep me even if it was only for a few hours before my induction started. I woke my mom and dad up and let them know that I was having some really bad pain. My mom got up and started to get ready to take me in. I went and grabbed my bags and waited. We left my parents house at 4:45 and made it to the hospital at 4:54. As we were getting out of the car, I was unsure if I was going to make it up the elevator and down the hall to L & D. I told my mom that I was not stopping at security to sign in; I was going straight to L & D. Luckily security let us go straight in. We got to the L & D desk it was 4:56. They asked me to sign some papers, but I could hardly stand. My mom signed the papers as a nurse took me to my room. I immediately started to undress, but only got my pants to my knees before I collapsed on the bed. I asked my nurse, Megan, if I could go to the bathroom, but she said she had to check me before I could go. She checked me between my first and second contractions in the bed. I was at 9.5cm with a bulging bag of water. She said, "You're going to have a baby in the next ten minutes. There's no time for an epidural." At this point I completely lose it. I was NOT going to deliver without one. Then my second contraction hit. My water broke and I knew I HAD to push. I couldn't do anything to stop this baby from coming. Megan was yelling out the door to get their Doctor into the room as well as other nurses. I think there were 2 Dr's and at least 4 nurses that came running. One of the Docs flipped me to my back and had my mom and a nurse grab my legs. I pushed once and out the baby came. My mom got the privelege of telling me that the baby was a GIRL. (NOT what I had expected!) She was born at 4:59 am. Yes, if you did the math that's only 3 minutes from the front desk to delivery. I felt bad for my nurse. I honestly didn't know that I was so far into my labor. I had a doctor's appointment at my doctors office on the 28th and he told me I was dilated to a 5, but he wasn't worried.
Erik missed the delivery. Well, let's be honest. I almost missed it too!! We waited to give her her first bath until Erik was able to be there.
Ok everybody…sorry for the delay in the post. We’ve had a few “unexpected” aspects of this delivery which has thrown off my posting-groove. Here’s the skinny. I should preface this by saying Amanda began having full labor contractions and was dilated up to a 4 by 32 weeks. She was put on smooth muscle relaxers in order to delay labor. In the meantime, I’ve been living in California, and came to Utah last week, thinking that would be the time where Amanda would deliver. She was currently at 38 weeks, and had discontinued her meds. During that week, we went to the hospital twice, where she was having contractions 1-2 minutes apart. We spend several hours at the hospital each time, but were discharged each time because she didn’t continue to dilate. I waited as long as I could, and then headed back to NorCal to resume school. Amanda met with her OBGYN and it was decided that she would be induced Tuesday (3/1) because she was continuing to be dilated to a 4 with contractions, and it didn’t appear the pregnancy was progressing. So she was tentatively scheduled to between 6:30 and 9:00 am. I had a midterm Monday night and couldn’t come any sooner. So I booked a Tuesday morning 6 am flight, arriving at 8:47. I figured, even if they induce RIGHT at 6:30 (yeah right…), they’d start with the epidural, get her prepped and on the monitor, start the IV and give pitocin, and possibly rupture her sac. Then a few hours of contractions would follow, then the delivery. I figured I had it made getting in before 9. So I thought. Amanda woke up that morning at 3:30 and had to use the bathroom (her near hourly ritual as a preggers!). She felt some strong low back pain. By 4:30 she decided to ask her mom (with whom she was staying with that night) to take her in. Amanda was checked into her room at 4:56 and delivered at 4:59. Yes, math majors, 3 minutes later. No time to put her on a monitor, start any IVs or epidurals (would have been worthless at this point), break down the bed into a delivery position, or even get her changed into a gown. She walked into the room, had assistance removing her pants, the nurse checked her, and stated she was at a 9.5 with a bulging sac. She hollered for more nurses and the Doc on call, and out it came! Meanwhile, I’m on my way to the Oakland airport. I get a picture message on my phone with my new baby girl!!! SOOOO beautiful. All goes well, I arrive in SLC, get to the hospital, and see my wife and in-laws all staring at this new bundle of joy. Our kids were currently with my parents, and hadn’t met their new sibling yet. Considering how chaotic the delivery must have been, everybody (especially Amanda) looked great. We had a names picked out for each gender (we didn’t find out on this one), but after the delivery, Amanda decided the one we picked for a girl wasn’t a good fit. While I have no idea what that means, I suppose the one with the uterus gets a large say in the matter. After all she’s been through, I owe her that respect. So we are currently back at it, reviewing names. We THINK we have it narrowed down to two (although you know how well my plans have worked out during this pregnancy), and are making the final cut. Also, we have all of the pictures on Amanda’s camera, and didn’t have the cable at the time of this post. So I snapped a few pics on mine to hold you over until we upload hers (hers are better anyways). So really, I took a day to report, because my entire plan failed, I had no pictures, and my baby is nameless. Just a few details people like knowing. And my deepest apologizes to my lovely wife for any omissions or inaccuracies. Mom and baby are doing great. Our little lady was 7 lbs 15 oz, 20 inches, and stinkin adorable.
