Birth details..don't read if you don't want DETAILS!

The birth story of Madelyn Francis Stevens:

So, my mother in law came down at 6:30am to watch the girls for the day...Brad would be home by evening to watch them and we would have a new baby..or so we thought!

I drove to the hospital, Brad in the back and my Mom next to me, the trunk full of pillows, hospital bags, and things for the baby...oh and don't forget the cards!

We stopped at Chick Fil A because last time I gave birth...yes only 2 years ago, you couldn't eat during labor...so I wanted a full stomach before going to the hospital! So some chicken minis and hash browns were great. I was on about 2 hours of sleep because I was up all night...I had a bad feeling about today...I chalked it up to nerves....my mom and husband kept telling me it was my 3rd baby and I was going to pop her out easily (never believe people when they tell you what you want to hear)!

We parked and went to registration at the hospital, I registered and got put into my labor and delivery room. A cute little young nurse walked in and said she would be my nurse until 7pm. Brad was not in the room yet but I thought, wait until he sees my nurse he will want to deliver a baby (I know my husband)!

Sure enough he walked in and saw the nurse and said something like, "Wow....that's the cutest nurse I've ever seen!" He preceded to tell my mom (whom was on the phone with my dad) to tell my dad he was really missing out this time! Then he practiced using my mom's camera by taking pictures of the nurse (so my Dad could see what he was missing!). Now some women would be mad and I thought it was hilarious...you have to know my husband he is a dork (in a cute, funny way)!

The doctor came in and checked me, I was 1.5 centimeters dilated, and my cervix was still long and thick, I was only 30% effaced. We will call her Dr.L, I thought I liked Dr. L but my opinion is about to change as the day goes on. She says she can't give me pitocin because she doesn't want me to have contractions until I am thinned out, so every 6 hours she would give my 1/4 of a pill to swallow that would thin my cervix out, and it could take a few days! A few days! I don't have that kind of time! I need to be home in a few days! I was hoping by tomorrow to be home! I was upset but Brad told me it wasn't going to be a few days, well I knew it was not going to be a few hours either!

So....We decided to play cards to pass the time, and of course my husband asked our nurse to play...he is just so funny! Then when we play cards we whistle when you draw a wild card, yes back to being dorks. Well the nurse bent down to pick something up and Brad drew a wild and whistled. It was so funny my mom and I started laughing, it was like he was whistling at the nurse. He totally didn't get it!

We played cards, and played cards, and played cards......They started me on antibiotics since I was group B strep, and I needed the antibiotics every 8 hours. When they did the IV I thought I was going to die, I have really bad veins and it took a few try's....my arm was all bruised. It was horrible!

At noon my husband and mom were hungry so they left me for 2 hours to go out to lunch! Laboring wife, husband ditches to go have a nice lunch... no I didn't care the quiet was nice, I took a nap.

Finally at 3:00pm the doctor decided I was ready for a small amount of pitocin. I was so excited I could have cried, I tried to convince the nurse to give me a large amount but she wouldn't :) I was eating a turkey sandwich about every 2 hours since the nurse informed me I could eat during labor, it was great!

Then 5pm hit, and the worse was about to come...CONTRACTIONS every 1.5 minute lasting 50 seconds...the longest 50 seconds of my life. Well, when I signed up to have this baby 9 months ago I was under the impression I would feel no pain...I needed an epidural! I was now crying bouncing on a stupid birthing ball that was not helping, my husband was telling me things like, "I love you, You can do this, You are the strongest person I know...!" It was really gross and I wanted to hit him! I think I said some inappropriate things and told him to be quiet, I hate being in pain and people talking to me. Where's the drugs?

So Dr. L came in and checked me I was 2 centimeters dilated (I still had 8 more to go!) and 60% effaced and she would not give me an epidural! She told me to wait until the next doctor came on call. Which was 7pm! It now was only 5:45pm. Was she crazy! I was going to die here! I could not even breathe through the contractions. I had never felt pain like that before! Well I survived until 6:45pm a nurse came in and I told her I needed drugs and I needed them now! 7:30 I got my epidural when the new doctor came on whom I love. Dr. C. My best friend!

That epidural hurt 10 times less then the IV, I had no headache, no backache. Not even a mark in my back. It was great, it was wonderful! I love epidurals.

So we played some more cards, took a nap. While I was napping we got a new nurse, whom happened to be just as cute as our first nurse. Brad decided to ask her, her life story, where she went to school , where she grew up, she worked at a restaurant that Brad and I went to, she had been with her boyfriend for 10 years, just got engaged...!

I started having bad pain at 10pm so they gave me more drugs in my epidurual which now was a mistake. The nurse checked me and I was 9.5 centimeters dilated. I went from a 2 to a 10 in 2.5 hours! Which is really quick! She told Brad to move the cards, we were going to have a baby very quickly (Brad was upset because he was winning the game)...SHE WAS WRONG!!!!!! We pushed until midnight..2 long painful hours!!!!!!! I was so tired. I was throwing up everywhere, and sleeping between contractions, I was very numb from the redose epidural they eventually turned the epidural off. The doctor had to leave the room 3 times to deliver other baby's while I pushed. I was making no progress as I pushed. It was crazy! The baby's heartbeat was under 90 and it was above 160 all day, fetal stress. They put an oxygen mask on me. Finally the doctor said we need to make some decisions. She wanted to use a vacumm to get the baby out. Brad and I weren't sure but finally decided to try it. They put the vacumm on and with in 2 minutes she was out. She was sunny side up and completely stuck! They had no idea, that is why my pushing for 2 hours was going no where. Baby Madelyn was perfect but blue and a huge cone on her head. She layed on me and the doctor stiched me up, she was 8 pounds 11 ounces and tore me pretty good.

The doctor left to do a c-section and the nurse rubbed my stomach and realized I was hemorrhaging. I gave the baby to Brad because I hemorrhaged with my last one and knew how bad it was about to get. She picked up the phone and called the doctor in the operating room and nurses to come help. I hemorrhaged until 3am, it was really bad. There was blood everywhere, some blood clots almost the size of golf balls. Every time she pushed on my stomach it would be like someone was shot, blood was everywhere. When they finally got it under control they had to weigh all the towels they used to clean up the blood and if the towels weighed a certain amount then I had to go to ICU, if they did not weigh a certain amount then I could go to a postpartum room with the baby. The towels were piled up on the baby scale, it was a big mountain of bloody towels and luckily the weight was close but not enough for ICU. My mom left in the middle of all of this, she could not handle the blood.

We got moved to our room at 4am and it was a shared room...gross who wants to share a bathroom with another bleeding woman? Brad crawled into bed with me because there was no where else for him and the 3 of us tried to get a few hours of sleep.

The next day we were moved into a private room. Recovery was great! It was the best out of the 3 kids. When I woke up my bleeding was very small, usually I bleed a ton! Must of been all the medicine to get me to quit bleeding. My stitches didn't hurt, my epidural in my back wasn't sore. I could walk around, sit, dance, shower, I felt great. Usually I want pain pills, but didn't really feel like I needed them. I was tired, very tired, but not in pain.

I was induced Tuesday morning, had the baby Wednesday, went home Thursday at noon, picked Emmie up from preschool Thursday afternoon, and took Lizzie to school Friday morning. That's how great I felt! Postpartum was a breeze, labor was a nightmare!