So just to catch up...baby Madison was born on May 18th, 2011. (Beware...delivery story is included...I will try not to be too graphic) When I was about 34 weeks along my Dr. had me repeat the glucose test which I had taken at about 15 weeks and passed. This time I failed. Since it was so late into the pregnancy he didn't make me do the 3 hour test but just treated me for gestational diabetes. So that meant I had to test my sugars 4 times a day and have 3 Dr's appointments a week. Perfect, no big deal to drive out to the base which is a good 20 minute drive 3 times a week with two little kids. Sounds fun. I have an extremely hard time asking for help especially when it comes to my kids. But after some debating with myself and figuring out that I could use help I asked my father in law to come into town to come help me with the kids during my appointments. I felt so bad asking him to come all the way from California because I just needed help during those 3 appointment times but it wasn't exactly feasible to have him drive up 4 hours to watch my kids for my Monday appointment, then drive home 4 hours, then drive back up for my Wednesday and Thursday appointment. So we asked him to just come stay with us during those last two weeks. Well on top of the several appointments a week that I had, we had just been informed that the house we are renting from was going to be replumed. As in the entire plumbing to the whole house needed to be redone because of some faulty connectors in the pipes. So we moved into an extended stay suite for about 5 days. That was a huge headache. So my father in law slept at our house and would let the workers in in the morning then come to the suite to hang out with me and the kids. I was a stressful wreck during those last few days because there was so much around the house that I wanted to get done before I had the baby. I was scheduled to be induced on May 23rd at 39 weeks but our house was not going to be ready until Wednesday May 18th. So my whole plan was to get home from the hotel and scrub the house from top to bottom from the replumb, organize the kids rooms, set up the pack and play for the baby and so on. Well I went in for my monitoring appointment on Monday the 16th and my blood pressure was up. My Dr was concerned that it was turning into preeclampsia like I had with Chase. I had to do a 24 hour urinalysis again to check for protein. I turned that into the base on Tuesday after an appointment we had for Chase and within an hour of turning it into the lab my Dr called and told me that the cut off for protein is 299....guess what mine was....300. So he said I had to come in that night to be admitted to the hospital. I had to call Phillip home who had just teed up on the first hole at golf and I had to pack my hospital bag with stuff I had at the hotel with me in Abby's suitcase. I burst into tears because I was extremely stressed from staying at the hotel and not being home to get ready for the baby. I told my Dr he would have to wait for a little bit because I was not prepared and I wanted to shower and get ready. haha. So we finally got to the hospital and checked in. Phillip stayed with me for awhile then he went back to the hotel to take the kids home because we were going to check out of the hotel a night early. He would need to be at the hospital early the next morning because they were going to start me on pitocin in the morning and the workers were still working on our house so someone needed to be at the house to let them in. So his aunt and uncle came to our house to sit with the kids while Phillip and his dad went back to the hotel and packed it up. We were there for 5 days so I had not packed light with all the food and kitchen stuff I had to pack too. So that night Phillip came back to the hotel just long enough to bring me some food. That night they just monitored me for a few hours then gave me a sleep aid to help me sleep (which didn't help at all) and inserted something to soften my cervix (sorry TMI). The next morning at about 7:30 AM they started the pitocin. My contractions started coming regularly but were still bearable. Then I started to feel nausea. I went to the bathroom and threw up a couple times then on my way back to the bed my water broke. Right before that I was dilated to a 6. So Phillip told them that I needed the epidural now because I would dilate very quickly now especially since my water had broke. The Dr came in and started getting everything ready for the epidural and by this time the contractions were extremely strong and I could barely catch my breath before the next one started. I was in so much pain. They said they were just going to do a spinal tap because it was quicker then an epidural and they could tell they didn't have much time. But as I was leaning over for them to start the injection, I could tell I needed to push. Time was out. I laid back and the nurse started yelling for my Dr. He didn't even have enough time to get his jacket on all the way before Madison was already out. It was so fast that I didn't get my feet in the stirrups Madison literally was delivered onto the bed. Haha. It was the worst pain I have felt in my entire life but of course it was worth it. I definitely had not planned on going through the whole thing without pain meds, I am such a wuss I wanted that epidural, but she came way too fast. After she came and everyone including myself was in shock at how fast it was, I was like "Wait....what is it??" They had forgotten to inform me that I had delivered a beautiful baby GIRL. I felt such a relief that it was a girl because I know Abby would have been heart broken if it was a boy because for the last 7 months she was 100% convinced that she was getting a baby sister. Madison Jenkins was born at 9:39 AM and weighed 8 lbs 7 oz and was 20.5 inches. She is beautiful and looks a lot like her sister and brother. From the time my water broke till the time she was born was maybe 15 minutes...it was insane. Her blood sugars when she was first born were extremely low so we had to feed her formula immediately to try to get her sugars to come up. They had to constantly prick her foot to check her sugars for the rest of the day and into the night. Finally her sugars came up and she did not have to get an IV. Abby and Chase came to see her that day and they were both so excited to meet their baby sister. They love her like crazy. So we got to come home from the hospital on Thursday and two close friends of mine had been nice enough to come over to my house while I was in the hospital and help Phillip get things put away from the replumb and from the hotel. It was nice to feel less stressed about coming home to a disaster of a house. I still had so much I wanted to do around the house like figure out a place to put the baby's clothes, put up her bassinet, etc. It took me at least the whole next week to feel like I had caught up on things. My mother in law flew into town that weekend, as Madison wasn't supposed to be born till Monday. So we had to whole weekend to visit and shop for baby clothes since we finally knew what she was. My in laws went home on Tuesday and then my mom flew into town on Wednesday. It was so nice to have extra hands to help with the older two kids and keep them entertained. While my mom was here she would let me sleep in in the mornings and she would even wake up during the night with me to help me with Madison. She would feed the baby while I pumped so that we both could get to bed sooner. It was so nice to have her help. She went home a week later and we all have been trying to adjust to having a little one around again. I know these next couple months will be hard but we will manage. It is just hard because Chase is barely 20 months old now so he still requires a lot of attention and it takes us forever to get anywhere because I have to feed the older kids get them ready, get myself ready, get the baby ready, pump, and feed her. It takes FOREVER. haha. I just feel like I spend most of the day running around the house trying to keep up with Abby and Chase and the millions of messes they are making, laundry, dishes, feeding, pumping, washing bottles, changing diapers, etc. 3 kids ages 3, 20 months, and new born is A LOT of work but I love it...most times ;) So that is the story of the crazy weeks and days leading up to Maddy joining our family...here are some pictures to enjoy!
