Madelyn's Birth Story {Part One}

Wow, what an amazing 24 + a few hours it's been!

Madelyn Reese definitely took us by surprise yesterday (July 29, 2009). For sure a very, very shocking surprise!

Just a warning, this may be a little long....and there may be tmi (what birth story doesn't have tmi?!). So, here I go....

It all started Tuesday. All day long I had contractions. Nothing too major, but it had me wondering what if...

They slowed down towards the end of the day, but I was still very nauseated as I had been all day.

I went to bed as normal--posted on my Facebook that I was planning on going to Mobile to go to Target to do some shopping this weekend. I was really looking forward to going to my favorite store even though it's an hour away! But in a way I was hoping I would somehow jinx myself and go into labor *smile*

I woke up Wednesday morning pretty early with horrible, horrible cramping. I didn't think a lot of it until I realized they weren't going away. I turned on the news and finally fell back asleep for a little while.

When I woke back up I realized I was still in a lot of pain and having contractions regularly. But this has happened to me before (hello, false alarm!) so I still wasn't thinking much of it. I really didn't want to get my hopes up(or anyone else's hopes up!) once again. I had breakfast with Isabella...just half a banana, a bowl of cereal and a Juicy Juice juice box. I noticed I was kind of grouchy...the dog and cat were seriously getting on my nerves and Isabella seemed to be a lot whinier than normal.

I sat down and called my mom. When she answered I told her about my contractions, cramping and back pain. As we chatted the contractions and everything were coming a lot stronger and closer together. When we first started talking my mom thought Isabella and I could go do some shopping or go somewhere where we could just be up and walking together. By the end of our conversation she was telling me to call Leo, get him home and try to take a warm bath. She also told me to pack my bag (Isabella had unpacked the whole thing silly girl!).

I called Leo told him he needed to get home and I was going to take a bath to see if that would help. I placed the phone on the side of the tub to time my contractions (coming 2-4 minutes apart by this point, lots of back pain) and sat down. Isabella wanted to come in with me (she was acting a little worried with what was going on).

I'm sitting in the tub when my back labor really intensified. I called Leo again and told him he needed to leave work. Now.

Isabella wanted to wash my hair (haiwuh, haiwuh Mommy), she wanted "froppie" (her frog squirtie), was pouring warm water on my belly and kept coming and holding me. She kept handing me my loofah (where I'd thank her and she'd say 'elcum, Mommy'). At one point she knocked my BlackBerry in the water (thank God it still works!). My whole relaxing bath was taking a comical turn for sure and I was thankful for Isabella making me relax and focus on something else!

I got out, got dressed and packed my bag very, very quickly. Thankfully Miss Madelyn's bag was packed! I started a load of laundry--this is the first time I saw Leo's parents and I told them I was in labor and Leo was coming home asap. They were so sweet and attentive and I reassured them that I was okay and just needed to stand up to relieve the pressure off of my back as it was killing me at this point.

Leo came in and he told me to get in the car. I told him he really should get out of his uniform and at first I don't think he fully understood I was in true labor. He told me he wasn't changing bc if this wasn't the real thing he'd have to return to work.

I then looked at him and in mid contraction told him that this was the real deal....

{to be continued.....)