First Bath - January 21st

Getting ready for her first bath. I guess we know where she gets sticking her tongue out all the time from. Hmmm

Being clean feels good!

Thanks Aunt Suzi for my awesome quilt! I miss you already!

PICTURE UPDATE

Here are some pictures from this past Sunday when we got to bring Madeleine home from the hospital. CiCi Carol, Pop Steve, and Uncle Jordan had fun decorating the house for our welcoming and did a great job.

Maddie also had her first visit to the pediatrician this morning and she passed with flying colors!

We are coming home!!!

Update from Daddy...

Not much time lately to post new details. Maddie might get to go home tomorrow (Sunday). She got to put on some clothes yesterday and try out a blanket to help with her bilirubin...so that let us hold her more. However, her bilirubin number went up afterwards so she's back under the light for today. She really misses being held.

We are still in our original room. This hospital has been great about allowing us to stay here (as long as they don't need the room for another mom) until Maddie is out of NICU. That has been a big help for us. If Maddie's bilirubin number goes down tomorrow, there's a great chance that we can take her home tomorrow! She just has a lot of bruising and her body is not quite ready yet to take care of it on its own.

She's the most gorgeous baby we've ever seen and we think she's super awesome!!!

Here are some pictures.

Day 3

Mark and I are sooo thankful for all of the sweet emails, comments, and texts we've received. We have not had a chance to respond to most of yall but please know we've read everything and are so appreciative of all the kind words and prayers on our behalf. We still covet your prayers and know that Maddie is only here and doing so well because our God is so good and faithful. The more we have learned about her birth the more and more blessed we know that we are that Maddie (and I) are even here today. We would not have made it without the amazing doctors and nurses and where medical technology is today. Madeleine is not only here but she is thriving and surprising everyone by how much progress she has made! We are so blessed!

Well, I hope I don't jinx anything but it looks like 7-10 more days in the NICU is going to turn into more like 24-48 hours! Woohoo! We are super excited! Maddie's white cell count did go up but it is probably only due to her bilirubin increasing and not an infection. There were no growths that showed up on her lab culture this morning so pretty much as soon as she started the new antibiotic she was taken off of it!

Her big task now is to get her feedings all figured out and she seems to have no problems at all! I was really afraid she would have trouble since they didn't let her eat anything for almost two days. But it looks like her hard work with her giant paci has really paid off! She is nursing and being supplemented by pumped colostrum and formula until my milk comes in. As of tonight she is eating enough to be taken off her IV fluids completely. So just today she lost two tubes (the worst ones) she's been tethered to. That sure makes it easier to attend to her.

She's been pretty feisty today as well. She is fighting with having her temperature taken, taking off her bili-mask, and became inconsolable tonight when she had her IV and its tape removed. She previously hadn't even flinched at any of the above tasks. Until today she hadn't fussed when she got a new IV (which seemed to happen at least twice a day). So she is definitely feeling better! Mark and I just smiled when she cried a bunch tonight. It was great to finally hear.

48 hours old

Maddie is doing better today. She continues to soften up from her injuries and gets a little more active each day. She is learning to eat and seems to be getting the hang of it. She has jaundice and is currently sporting some cool shades under her own little lamp for any time she isn't trying to nurse. She really seems to like it. We were not surprised that she has jaundice since she had such a rough delivery and her body is trying to figure out what to do with all of her bruising. Her jaundice levels should hit her peak tomorrow night so we will see how bad that looks and know how much longer she will need her lamp.

We do not know exactly when she will be able to go home yet because her white blood count is rising which indicates an infection and they time her discharge based on her antibiotics. It looks like she will go home in 7-10 days (we aren't sure if that's from start of her antibiotics at 3am Tuesday or if it is when she starts her new set tomorrow).

The really good news is she doesn't show any signs of permanent birth injury or trauma. She just needs to get her strength and energy up, learn to eat vigorously, and fight off any infections she may have.

I may get discharged tomorrow but Mark and I will probably be able to stay in a room at the hospital on our own so that I don't have to travel back and forth from home all day while still recovering from a c-section.

She's here!

This is the belly at 38 weeks and 6 days. I took it right as we were leaving for the hospital...pre back labor obviously.

This post is mostly to update those of yall that wondered why we dropped off the planet after getting to the hospital. This was NOT in my birth plan! So for most of yall just skip to the pictures at the bottom.

Long story short (Yes, this is actually the short, less scary version...the long one is worse!) My water broke at 5:30pm and horrifically awful back labor kicked in on the way to the hospital at about 6:00pm with contractions 1 1/2 min apart that never slowed down. The contractions were coming too fast and Maddie's heart rate decelerated which scared the begeebus out of everyone (especially her parents!). I THANKFULLY was able to get an epidural before she went into distress. I received the epidural really fast because of the back labor and the crazy contractions (nurse's quote) got the staff's attention. The anesthesiologist walked into our room two minutes after we did! That man was sent from heaven.

Mark and I went from hanging out in our room watching the football game by ourselves to panic mode with 5 nurses. our doctor, and lots of machines coming in. When she started going into distress we tried to get her heart rate back up with some tricks - oxygen, positions, shot to stop that contractions, etc - but nothing worked. So the doctor decided it was time to start pushing and get her out as soon as we could since I had progressed almost to 10 cm dilated by that time (about 9:00pm). But pushing alone didn't work and she kept decelerating even worse so we moved on to the OR to try and push with the help of the vacuum and be prepared for a c-section if that didn't work.

The doctor and nurses weren't sure if she was wrapped up in her cord, couldn't handle the fast labor, was stuck, or what was going on. Once in the OR we tried a few times to get her out with the help of a vacuum and one of the nurses even had her hand inside under Maddie's head to pull at the same time. While we were working on the vacuum the awesome anesthesiologist was getting everything ready for a c-section. Maddie didn't make any progress with the vacuum so we proceeded on with the surgery. The earlier back labor was absolutely the worst thing I've ever experienced in my life but because it was so intense and the contractions were coming so fast I was given the epidural in record time. Without that in place I would've been knocked out with general anesthesia for the surgery and Mark would not have been able to be there. That is the only nice thing I can say about the back labor!

Once the c-section got started she came out after a lot of pushing and tugging around and it turns out she was wedged down in my pelvis sunny side up (opposite of how she should be) and could not get herself into the right position because there was no break in the contractions. It was just more than her little self could handle.

She was born at 11:36pm on 1-10-11 weighing 6lbs 9 oz and 19 3/4 in long by emergency c-section.

She was in pretty bad shape when she was delivered. The nurses told us later after we knew she was okay that she came out blue, not breathing, and totally limp. She scored a two on her APGAR (the only thing she was going her way was her pulse at that point). Eeek! I'm so glad I didn't know it at the time. She didn't cry for a long time because she was in such shock and Mark and I didn't know anything was wrong because we didn't even know she was out yet. There were probably 15 people in the room and I was so shakey from the medication that Mark and I were really only connected with each other and our anesthesiologist. Ignorance was bliss.

A NICU team was waiting in the OR for her to be born and get her stablized and breathing. We finally heard some little squeaks so we knew then that she was out and breathing. The poor little thing really was in total shock after her rough entry into the world and she has the battle scars to prove it. She has softened up a lot today and is looking soooo much better but she arrived with a black eye, giant goose egg, suction marks, and scratches on her head from having multiple internal heart monitors placed on her head that would not stay on. We are soooo lucky she is resilient and doing well today. Each time we've seen her she has been a little more alert and her color keeps improving.

She has to be in the NICU and I've been two floors below her so that has been hard but she is making some good steps today and hopefully will continue to make some more tomorrow. She had her first bath this afternoon, and we are attempting to nurse tonight for the first time. I don't totally understand it all but since she had such a rough entrance the NICU has just let her rest and not push her to do anything that might stress her out (like eating anything, bathing, we couldn't even hold her last night). We were able to watch her be bathed and she got really mad and told us how much she didn't like it! She hadn't done any real crying yet so we were cheering her anger on! She kept her vitals up the whole time too!

Her NICU nurse said she doesn't expect her to get to go home with us on Thursday but we are hoping she is wrong. If Maddie can figure out her feeding and not get stressed about it then we should be good to go so pray for that please!

Anyway we are done with DRAMA from this child! And the internet now holds proof of how much she scared her parents and we can hold it over head when the need occurs.

On to the photos.

The eye of the hurricane. After the epidural before the distress.

Things heating up

Baby's busted noggin'

My Knight in blue scrubs-Ray

Settled in her room in the NICU

The next morning in her daddy's arms.

Mommy getting to hold her!

CiCi meets Maddie

I don't like baths!

Wild wet hair!

My big hat and big paci!