Madison Olivia Valentino

Well, as you can see I stopped updating my blog the second I felt better. Needless to say the 18 weeks of sickness was no fun. The rest of my pregnancy was smooth sailing. I gained weight as expected, not too much and not too little. My blood pressure was always great and I never felt miserable. My only complaint was restless leg syndrome that kept me up at crazy hours of the night, like 3:45 am, 5:45am and never did I fall asleep before 2am. I told myself that this was my body preparing me for the crazy hours ahead.

It was my 37 week appointment that we had an unexpected jump in growth. Baby V had measured 40 weeks at 37 weeks. Like I said before, I was shocked because we had been measuring right on par for the whole pregnancy. It was this appointment that Dr. Pohl mentioned inducing me if necessary, but no further discussion on that until my next appointment at 38 weeks. When they took me back my blood pressue was good, as usual and my weight had actually not changed from the last appointment. With that being said, I knew when he measured I would be the same as before. Well, I actually measured 41 weeks. He said that the baby grew, but I actually lost weight. He also checked me and I was 1cm, baby was low, but he believed that the measurements may be a little off. He was thinking me measuring 41 weeks might be a little over what she actually was. Although, this was the appointment that we discussed being induced in more detailed. I was not sure how I felt about it, but the goal was to prevent having to have a c-section due to a large baby. I was so unsure, and when he asked me I turned to John. John was down for whatever Dr. Pohl suggested, we had a lot of trust in him. John also had voiced his fear of getting the phone call at work from me telling me to go to the hospital. He liked the idea of knowing when. So, Dr. Pohl says he was going to look at his calendar and he would be back. When he came back to the room he said alright how does Monday, the 27th sound at 7:30pm? I didn't know what to say. I was in shock, I guess reality set in. I just said "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" and tried to breath. Dr. Pohl was a little confussed. I then had to explain my reaction and tell him I am just nervous and in shock. I liked knowing she would be here soon, but I also left the appointment with the intentions of getting her here sooner, and naturally. So instead of the elevator, we took the steps out of the docotors office. Needless to say that was the last of my attempt-haha.

38 Weeks and 5 Days

So Monday, August 27th it was. I was 39 weeks and 1 day, as Dr. Pohl wanted me to be atleast 39 weeks. I spent the next few days getting ready to go in to the hospital--packing bags for her, myself and John. Making sure I had all paper work that I had already filled out. Monday came quick. I was at home all ready to go, waiting on John to get home from work. He got home, took a shower, we ate dinner and it was time to call the hospital to see if they had a room for me. The lady on the other line said "we will see you at 7:30". It wasn't until we pulled out of the neighborhood that I got real nervous and wow, could you feel it in air between me and John and both. We were both so nervous and not saying much...but we had this beatiful reminder that God would take of us. I was not able to get a great picture, but I atleast got one. We took it as a sign from God. :)

Once we arrived at the hospital we didn't have to spend too much time registering because I had pre-registered. We waited about 10 minutes for them to get a room set up. They then took us back, and into the beatiful gown I went! They then set up my IV for fluids, and placed the monitors on me to keep up with the babies heart beat and my contractions (which by the way I was having, but not feeling). Shortly after they inserted the cervidil at about 8:30pm. This was to stay in for 12 hours and it's purpose is to soften the cervix. Then it was just waiting until the next morning. I did not sleep at all that night, I was up and down to the bathroom which was no different then being at home (which involved unplugging my monitors, drap them around my neck, and wheel the IV bag with me to the bathroom each time). The only difference was that it was even more difficult to get comfortable with an IV coming out of your arm and attached to a bag of fluid and then a blood pressure cuff going off every 30 minutes on the other arm. Also, I tossed and turned and every time I moved the nurse had to come back in and re-adjust my monitor to find the babies heart beat as she moved or I moved. I slept for about an hour. John on the other hand was snoring away, but was interupted as well when the nurse would have to come in to fix the monitors. He had a not so comfortable bed--he actualy feel back in it because he had it reclinded back so far. It was halirous. The nurse helped him up and another came in asking what was going on in our room because I was laughing so hard.

As Monday night ran into Tuesday morning, Dr. Pohl came in at about 9 I believe to break my water. Not the must pleasent feeling is all I will say about that, I felt like I was peeing on myself for hours. Not too much longer after my water was broke did I begin to feel my contractions for the first time. They did not give me the Pitocin right away because I was having my contractions naturally. Not long after that I was in need of an Epidural. Shortly following my Epi they decided to go ahead and give me Pitocin to speed things up and keep my contractions going as they were because they began dipping down a little. When they gave me my Pitocin, they accidently cut off my epidural and I begin to get less numb. I mentioned it to the nurse and they realized it had been off and that was when I was given the magic button! Haha, the Epi button that I could push if I needed it or felt any pain. She did tell me I could only push it every 12 mins though. I didn't use it to much until later in the evening when it got closer to time, just to make sure I was not in too much pain. :)

AT around 4:30, I was 5cm and fully efaced. Dr. Pohl said hopefully we will have a baby before the night was over. He also was expecting time for pushing around 10 and could last 3 hours. Well, that was not happening before 6pm I was 8cm. By 7:30, I was 10cm and fighting back pushing. Then 30 minutes later (not 3 hours!), Madison entered this world at 8:21pm. She ended up weighing 7 lbs and 9 ounces. She was 19 1/2 inches long.

I will update later with more pictures of our stay at the hospital. This is a super long post already. This is only the beginning of our long journey with our new blessing from God. :)

Below are the hospital pictures!