Holding Pattern
Although our due date was January 9th, but we were not scheduled to be induced until the 18th! Needless to say, Madison was well done and mommy was ore than ready for her to come out. We woke up early on the 18th for our 8am appointment at Celebration Hospital and just as we were about to walk out the door, the phone rang. We cringed because we intuitively knew that the 7am call meant that something was wrong. Our intuition was confirmed; our appointment was delayed. It was explained to us that they had a very busy morning, leaving no rooms for us (…in the Inn – I can only imagine how Mary must have felt!). Anxiety simmered in the uncertainty of the holding pattern that we found ourselves in. Eight hours later, which felt like an eternity, a room became available. It began to become real when we arrived at the hospital that we would be parents in a matter of hours.
Push! Push!
With help from our friend pitocin, the contractions immediately grew stronger. It wasn’t long until the anesthesiologist was summoned to administer the epidural. Once his work was done, Feather felt great! We spent the rest of the evening visiting with family and planned to allow the pitocin to work through the night while she peacefully slept numb to contractions. The clock struck midnight and the doctor came in to examine before we turned in for the night. We were unprepared for the news that she was fully dilated and that we were going to start pushing! The spotlight turned on, a cart was wheeled out that was covered with surgical instruments, and Feather was put into the pushing position. The thought that Madison was almost here was thrilling, but we hadn’t planned on a sleepless night.
“That’s a big baby!”
After a couple hours of pushing, I was able to see the top of Madison’s head – which was really awesome! At 4:03am (in room 403 – what a coincidence!), on Friday, January 19th, we gave birth to our beautiful baby girl. “That’s a big baby!” exclaimed one of the nurses. “She’s got to be over eight pounds!” exclaimed another. We were all surprised when the scale read 9 lbs. 6 ozs.! She also measured 22 inches tall. We called our family to share the news and among the first to arrive were Uncle Chris and Aunt Shalise with food and a really cool gift. He gave me a shirt that displayed Madison’s birth date, time and weight! That was a really great surprise – the breakfast they brought was nice too!
Home sweet home
We spent a very long night in the hospital because we made the mistake of letting Madison sleep for too long and she was awake all night. In a zombie-like state we struggled through the night to calm and comfort our baby girl. We were released at 4pm on Saturday and were relieved and comforted to be back home. We have been busy taking pictures and video of our little squirt that will be posted for your enjoyment!
Thank you all for your love, support and prayers!
