Everything up to this point

Well Madison is almost a month old now and wow has the time flew by. Between dirty diapers and weight gain issues things have been crazy. She is still in preemie clothes for the most part and swims in most of them. She spends most of her day in her swing lounging in pjs and her cloth diapers.

She would be happy in just her diaper all day. Cloth diapering has been great i love that we dont have to worry about a late night run to get diapers since everything closes before 9 here. We haven't had many leak problems other than when the doctor put her diaper on wrong.

We started breastfeeding her but after 3 weeks of no major weight gain the doctor has me pumping measuring and feeding. Honestly i feel like a cow and some days i feel like throwing in the towel and switching to formula. I keep telling myself that this is better for her and that keeps me from running out to the store. We had a scare the other day where she was spitting up uncontrollably after having a breakdown on facebook my friends helped me figure out what was wrong. I might have had about 10 mini slim jims and apparently those dont really agree with her. Its hard remembering that everything i eat effects her. The things that change when you become a parent.

We have had a lot of people ask us how the furkids are taking to their new little sister. Well when she was born we brought home a blanket that she was wrapped in before we brought her home. Then the day we came home I came in the house first and played with both of them while Chris took care of Madison. Gabriel was very curious and wouldnt leave her side. Shooter on the other hand acts like nothing is different and only occasionally smells at her. The love seat has gotten smaller fitting all five of us on it but somehow we make it work.

The only real issue we have had is Gabe tries to steal bottles and pacies. Even during tummy time everyone is well behaved. Gabe will lay his head on her if he can get to her and doesnt mind when she finds his ears to pull on or get her fingers caught in.

She is starting to focus more on things and can really hold her head up during tummy time. Most of the time she would just rather sleep then work any neck muscles. Not ready for her to start crawling but ready for her to start walking lol. Carrying her in the car seat is a chore which I don't know what I'm going to do when she actually starts growing. Though when she starts walking I'm sure she will start want me to carry her so it wont help my cause.

Birth Story

Well I went to bed at 6am on Feb 15th. I woke up at 7am for potty break went back to bed, woke up again at 930am another potty break. Something just wasn't right and I thought maybe my water was getting ready to break or had broke. It was nothing major which is why I wasn't sure. I called the doctor and asked them they said that it sounded like my water broke. I woke Chris up and as he ran around the house kinda flipping out I was fixing my make-up. He looked at me said "really make-up" I laughed and out the door we went.



We arrived at the doctors around 10am. They weighed me at 161 for a total of 31 pounds gained. Madison was kicking and throwing a fit as they checked for heartbeat and measured belly. They checked my cervix at 80% and 4cm. Doctor said she felt bag still in-tacked but with my high blood pressure they would want to talk inducing me soon. I was actually really disappointed that my water hadn't broke and I figured we still had a few days ahead of us. Doctor said she wanted to do test see if it was am-biotic fluid that I had leaked or not. After 20mins that seemed like 4 hours she came back in the room. "Ready to have a baby today" I was like of course. She said my bag had torn and I was leaking so it was time to head upstairs. We went down to the car got our bags and I took out all my metal :(



We took the elevator upstairs and was put in a room i don't remember the exact time but i believe it was around noon. Doctor came in popped the bag at this point i was still not having ANY painful contractions. In fact I couldn't even feel them at all. They started me on pitocin and the contractions finally started coming where i could feel them. Still wasn't painful at all. Doctor checked my cervix a few more times don't remember the times but i was progressing very quickly. I told them i wanted an epi because i wasn't going to try to play like I'm that tough lol. They got the epi started around 4pm and the contractions started to get painful. After about 5 REALLY painful ones (no tears to my eyes but some to Chris's when I broke his hand) they said they were going to redo my epi. They set me up to do it again and apparently the moving me around moved the drugs around because I was fine. They laid me back down and i honestly felt great. i was talking through the contractions and even called dad to tell him his granddaughter was almost there. With every contraction her heart rate was dropping. Apparently it was pushing on her cord to much so they put in a tube to pump fluid back in around her. This fixed the heart rate problem. The doctor came in around 510pm and said lets do some practice pushes. Chris was on my left holding my leg and nurse on other side. Took a deep breath and started the "practice" about 4 pushes in she looks at Chris and says "want to see her head" All i could think was wait a sec you said practice and why cant i feel her coming out?? At 526pm she was out and screaming. Chris cut the cord and she was on mommy's belly and getting all rubbed down. They said i didn't push for long enough so she still had a lot of fluid in her nose so she sounded all congested. After they got her all rubbed down they weighed her at 7lbs 8 oz and measured her at 19 3/4 inches. Chris was itching to hold her so bad so after they finished up with her he held her for the whole 5 secs before it was time for her to eat. After she ate her daddy got to hold her and she was fast asleep. He changed 3 diapers in less than 24 hours and has been so amazing with her. She loves to sleep and only wakes up if you uncover her and then its only for 5 secs just long enough to scream and go back to sleep. We stayed up till midnight trying to wake her up to eat again but she was NOT having it. Finally gave up and laid down for a nap. I woke up at 5 till 3am and she was awake finally got her to eat and daddy changed diaper and she was back asleep within 20 mins. its 6am and she is still out like a light and mommy and daddy are wide awake wanting their own breakfast.