365 days ago (continued)...

... by this time last year we were holding our sweet baby girl!!

the story continues: the nurses seemed to think that there was a good possibility that dr houlihan might just send us home in the morning, since my contractions weren't changing much. but when he came in just before starting his clinic appointments, he said that i was dilated enough to have pitocin. i had stood my ground the entire pregnancy, blatantly refusing pitocin. after having it with my labor with cole, i didn't want the stuff anywhere near me. however, by this point, i was singing a slightly different tune; i just wanted to have this baby already!

the pit drip started, and it wasn't long before things started moving with my labor. shortly after noon, dr houlihan came back to break my water. by mid-afternoon, we placed a call to mom, who left sarah and cole (at our house yet) to come be with us for the big event. meanwhile, i was in the tub. when in labor, i gravitate toward water. it's a good thing- it made things bearable. i was lucky enough to be allowed to labor longer than they would have normally let me- because of the pitocin, they wanted to moniter me more closely. lucky me- i logged quite a bit of tub time. when the shift changed (just before mom arrived), our 'new' nurse came in for briefing and to check up to see where we were at- her jaw about hit the floor when she saw "pitocin", "6.5 cm dilated" and "no epidural" on my chart. she couldn't believe that i hadn't gotten an epi yet, since due to intense contractions, most women on pitocin would have been blissed out in epi-land by then.

the first contraction that hit after getting out of the water about hit me like a bus... see? the power of water during labor is so immense! from there on, the pain just increased to the point where i finally came to a stand-still- my body wasn't letting me dilate past 7.5, so they called the anesthesiologist. i seemed to take forever for him to get the epi line going; in the meantime, one of the nurses had taken the fetal heart monitor off the belt and was moving it all over, as our little girl was a wiggle worm. i know that most babies slow down a little before labor and are pretty still during the process, but she was squirming the entire time.

shortly after the epidural was going, i felt this intense urge to push. the nurse didn't take me all that seriously, since not long before i'd still had 2.5 cm to go. she checked, though, and sure enough, it was baby time! the pushing/crowning/birthing sensations were new to me- with cole, i had been *completely* numb. didn't feel a thing. and you know, even though i felt almost everything when delivering madison, it wasn't that bad.

at 8.04 pm, our little girl was born!

brand-new baby!! welcome, sweet girl...

she stole our hearts, and cole was a great big brother from the start. sometimes a little too "helpful", but she became his world.

hmmm. no paternity questions here... hahaha!

and a year later, well...

... she's a cute lil monkey!! she gets into mischief with the dainty girly flair that's so "her" and we can't seem to fill that bottomless pit that stands in for her tummy.

she's full of personality, she's sweet and cute and we're overjoyed that she's ours.

happy first birthday, babydoll!
~we love you to pieces~