The two weeks leading up to her arrival were stressful, to say the least. I had been told that I would have my baby any day... but of course that didn't happen. After lots of appointments with the midwives, ultrasounds, and a non-stress test, I was finally scheduled to be induced on Wednesday, June 13th at 7 am. Baby girl decided to rush things and my water broke that morning at 5:15. So we rushed to the hospital and two and a half intense hours later I was holding my precious (and big) Madelynn Nicole- all 9 pounds 5 ounces and 21.5 inches of her. It was a crazy, fast, and smooth natural delivery, and I am so thankful to God for His protection over both my baby and myself.
I've had an awesome recovery, and we've had very few bumps in the road in the last three and a half weeks. The biggest hurdle we've had to deal with has been Madelynn's positive Coomb's test (we have opposing blood types that mixed at some point during pregnancy or labor), which resulted in her having jaundice and therefore phototherapy beginning at about 15 hours old. We were so grateful to have an awesome nurse who paid close attention (even during an overnight shift) and caught this so early. Originally we were going home on Friday morning, but because of her jaundice levels we had to wait (and weren't even certain we'd be released that day) and were finally discharged at 7:30 pm. It had never felt so good to be home. We were only released because the doctor made arrangements with a home healthcare company for Madelynn to continue to have phototherapy at home. It was pretty neat, and we were so grateful that he pulled some strings to make this happen. The icing on the cake was when the doctor called us at 8:30 to check in on us and make sure everything had worked out with the home phototherapy. We've got a pretty awesome doctor.
We've had lots of grandparents around to help, both before and after Madelynn arrived, and it has made our life so much easier. Andy was also able to take some time off. The first several days home went something like this: Saturday, doctor and blood work; Sunday, doctor, blood work, and church; Monday, doctor and blood work; Tuesday, blood work; Wednesday, lactation consultant; Thursday, stayed home and began packing; Friday, lactation consultant, more packing, and left for camp/vacation. All of this = craziness.
The last 2 + weeks have been... busy. When Madelynn was 9 days old we packed up and went to New Hampshire for a week of camp, followed by a few days of vacation. We returned when she was 22 days old. That means that at just over 3 weeks old she had spent more time in New Hampshire than at our home! It was nice to be away though. The cottage we stayed at had air conditioning and lots and lots of family around, so it actually made life much easier for me. It is nice, though, to finally be home and really start figuring things out as a family of four.
It's been fun getting to know our little girl. From the get-go we pinned a particular cry that, in our interpretation, means "don't mess with me". She got so many pokes to her heel during that first week, and several nurses expressed her great displeasure with them. She also despises diaper and wardrobe changes. What does she love? That's easy. She loves snuggles, of course, and sleep. She has been, so far, an incredible sleeper. Since her jaundice levels have been back to normal (and we haven't had to set an alarm to get her up to eat during the night), she's been getting up once (sometimes twice) during the night to eat and for the most part goes right back to sleep. She's slept through the night once, and one morning she slept until 9:30 am - and so did I, thanks to my hubby. She's starting to have more awake and alert times, and she's even begun to give us some real smiles.
Madelynn has already been such a blessing to our family. We're spending our days getting to know her better and enjoying all the firsts of both she and our family of four.
~ Carrie ~
