Madison

Madison Ruth
February 19th 
7 pounds 13 ounces
19 inches long
12:18 pm

On February 13th I went into my routine checkup and the doc said everything looked great and proceeded to  ask if I wanted to be induced THAT DAY. WHAT?! I told him I had to check with my husband and he looked at me like I was a crazy person. Apparently in Utah, with your second child you can get induced a week early. I wasn't ready for that.
When I got home, kind of in a panic I might add, Ethan and I decided that if we could pick the day that she was coming, we might as well pick a day that Ethan had less school. That day was February 19th.

I scheduled an appointment and then we spent the week getting everything ready. My mom decided to come down from Washington on Wednesday night to help with Kelsey and on Thursday February 19th, we went to the hospital at 6am to start the induction process. I had spent the whole week being scared but on Thursday morning I was just in an excited daze. Its kind of weird walking into the hospital knowing that you are going to have a baby in a few hours.

After all the paperwork, they gave me my iv and then we just waited. Ethan did lots of homework and I took a nap.  Slowly but surely I got more ivs and more medicine and more tubes and stuff and then eventually my epidural came.  Like last time I was a giant baby when it came to getting the epidural, well and everything else actually. My epidural doc had me sit up and proceeded to do his thing and half way through he was like, "are you a runner?" In my nervous state I was like, "You can tell that I run from my spine!" Everyone burst out laughing. Apparently he could tell because my heart rate stayed low and consistent. I'm still not convinced its because I have an awesome spine. After the epidural, everything was peachy. I felt nothing more than I needed too and so I have to say that at 12 pm when they said it was time to push I was shocked. Its amazing how wonderful birth is when you can't feel it.

*There were a few other funny things  to note. The nurse, who was AWESOME, kept stepping on my iv line which would tug it and hurt like crazy. She did that like 5 times. The epidural doc said that I would probably need more medicine because " red heads have a higher need for medication" Besides that being crazy, did he SEE my hair?! The last thing of note was that when they were taking the internal temperatures of Madison they kept asking me if she had a lot of hair. Um.... haven't met her yet.

I started pushing at 12 pm, and at 12:10 I begged the doctor to be done. He kind of chuckled and was like " you know some women do this for hours right?!" I told him I was a whimp so I didn't feel bad. Luckily for me I was able to be lazy again shortly after that because at 12:18 she came!! Dr Broberg was a wonderful doctor and a great coach. Because of his help I needed no extra attention after Madison was born which helped recovery ten fold.

 

After she was born, they cleaned her up and brought us a beautiful baby girl. We still didn't have a name picked out but after about 30 seconds of looking at her with her adorable hat we just knew that she was Madison and just like that we were in love all over again.

We got an hour to just rest and then they took us down to the nursery where they cleaned her up. They took me to my room and about 9 different nurses came in to tell me all the rules and I swear I heard about 10% of what they told me. I was so out of it. I literally had a baby 1 hour before and they were telling me all about menus and other important things like social security cards. I listened so poorly I thought that we couldn't order food and that we had to go to the social office to get a card both of which were completely false.

 The rest of the day was spent holding Madison, recovering, and seeing lots of visitors. We had so many people come and visit us. It was wonderful and very much needed.

 Andy and Annie sent these beautiful flowers!

Aunt Hannah took tons of selfies and shared some with us. I love it!

We also had Aunt Christine, the Nelsons, and Grandma Nelson stop by.

 

That night Ethan spent the night at the hospital and Madison spent the night in the nursery.

I don't want to compare birthing stories, but it was nice this time to be able to hold my baby after she was born, to be able to spend time with her during the day, and to be able to take her home on schedule. Also being born in the day light just somehow made it so much easier. 

The hospital was on "child lock down" so no child under the age of 14 could visit because of flu season.  Kelsey couldn't come to the hospital at all. It was really sad and really hard on all of us. She needed to see where I was and needed to meet Madison and I needed to see her. Ethan got the brunt of it trying to be in two places at once all day long. Ethan was such a trooper and never complained but I know he was exhausted.

Because of the lock down, the hospital was deathly quiet which was nice. I also got a lot of one on one time to snuggle with Madison while Ethan ran back and forth. As peaceful as my hospital stay was, I was so excited to leave and get back to Kelsey once again.

We slept like this for hours especially when Ethan was with Kelsey

The rest of our stay consisted of more visits from Grandma Nelson, Gramma Wing, and Hannah and then more rest and recovery. That day I spent a lot of time on the phone talking to my Grandmas and friends and family. Its amazing how fast the day can go when all you do is talk to people. Ps the cookies that the hospital kept bringing me (I had at least one every meal!!!) were amazing!!!

 Unfortunately, the night that Ethan and I were going to have our celebratory dinner at the hospital, Kelsey smashed her fingers in the door and so Ethan had to stay home and comfort her. He also wanted to take Kelsey to on a little date as her last night of being an only child.

Kelsey was so good while we were gone, but she just needed us to be together and needed everything to be normal.Ethan decided it would be best if he stayed home that night and slept at the house. After Ethan got Kelsey in bed he came and held Madison from like 10-12 pm. He was so exhausted the hospital was so calm. It was nice to have him around for so long. 

On Saturday February 21st we packed up and were ready to go home. My delivery doc was so amazing that by Saturday I was walking around and felt amazing. I hope all deliveries can be like Madison's.

Kelsey was at Ralphie's house, so we took Madison home and the first thing I did was start to clean. I couldn't help it. I was so excited for Kelsey to meet Madison that I had to find a way to pass the time. My mom was at a birthday party, so when we brought Kelsey home it was just the four of us. It was kind of amazing. I am so grateful for my little family and love them all so much. I didn't know I could feel so much love for so many people.

And then Kelsey got home. At first she really didn't want to hold Madison but she walked right up to her and gave her a big kiss. Then she immediately went to get all her new toys so that she could share with her. By the evening, Kelsey's heart had changed and  we couldn't pry her fingers off her sister. It was love at first sight for Kelsey too!!

The first meeting

 

 After loves and hugs, it was time to play!!

 

Kelsey hasn't stopped asking to hold Madison since this moment.

On Sunday Gramma and Grandpa Wing come to visit. I'm so glad we have so many family members who show so much love and support during big events in our lives. Its going to be sad to leave so a circle of love.

We also had Andrea and Jed visit and the Nellys!

We are so grateful that Madison is in our family. I already feel like our family wouldn't be complete without her. She is such a sweet little girl and I can't wait to get to know her better.