Baby Madelynn…

Things have been pretty quiet on the blog the past couple of weeks as we approached the birth. Though delayed, birth there was, and this is the story.

Because we were past due, tests were ordered by our midwives on Friday to check on the baby. (At that point, we were 9 days past due). The first was to check amniotic fluid levels–and for that test, we had to be down in Olympia at 7:40 in the morning. Not the easiest–or most fun–thing with the 2.5yr old or the older kiddos (one of which is not necessarily a morning person). But we made it.

JoAnn could tell by the tech’s reaction that the test wasn’t great, but we had to wait until we saw the midwife, which was next after a pit stop for some food.

At the midwife came test #2, a non-stress test to see how the baby was doing. That one was great–baby was active, heart rate good, etc. But the results of the first test changed our birth plans: because the level of amniotic fluid was so low that even if the birth center was ok with the health of the baby, they could not, by law, allow us to birth there. We could either try for another home birth or we’d have to go to the hospital. But since we had not planned or rearranged for a home birth, that one really wasn’t much of an option for us this time. The midwife called the hospital, who had a slot available at 11:00…less than an hour from that time…and we still needed to drive back to Tacoma, grab a couple of things not already packed in the van, and get there.

We did, right on time. After getting settled in and twittering the updates (done throughout the day), pitocin was started at a very low dosage. The hope was just to kick-start the contractions JoAnn was already having into being more regular and stronger. Dosage started very low and were increased by small increments over a period of time–in the case, the rest of the afternoon. Things began getting serious a bit before 7:00pm….and sparing all the details (some of which are TMI, some aren’t), our baby girl was born at 8:57pm.

Madelynn Adele was 8lbs 13oz, 19″ long…and born with a full head of dark hair (the Portugese genes on JoAnn’s side seem to have won the battle this time).

Things have been pretty quiet on the blog the past couple of weeks as we approached the birth. Though delayed, birth there was, and this is the story. Because we were past due, tests were ordered by our midwives on Friday to check on the baby. (At that point, we were 9 days past due).…