As the days leading up to Madelyn’s due date came and went, I began to wonder how long this little girl was planning to stay inside her mommy.  The week after her due date Madelyn’s mommy went in for her appointment and it seemed like there would finally be an eviction notice given the following week (at 42 weeks!)  The very next day, late in the late afternoon, I received a text message from dad “Hi Vicky, we think labor might be starting.”    Due to the fact that this birth was taking place in Decatur (about 30-40 minutes from Springfield, where my births usually are) I started getting prepared to jump in the car at any minute.   I was ready to go.   While sitting down to eat dinner, I received a second text,  “She’s dilated to 4cm!”   I shoved down my salad and was out the door.  I arrived around 7pm and poor mom was in a lot of pain and very uncomfortable.   After her epidural she was very relieved of her pain and everything seems to slow down a little.

We tried to get some rest, but with family coming in from all over, it seemed pretty busy.   Around midnight mom was dilated to 9cm and by 1am she was complete and we all thought this little girl was going to show her face at any time.  As the minutes turned into hours, poor mom and dad were exhausted.   Around 5:30am, I was starting to feel really drowsy myself so I ran to the 24-hour McDonalds to grab a coffee and a quick something to eat.   While getting on to the elevator I get the text from Dad “nurse said they are going to get her in stirrups and start pushing soon.”    Finally, we all thought…we will meet miss Madelyn.   After being up for hours on end though, this mom had quite the challenge as her bag water just did not want to break.   When the doctor arrived around 7:30am she broke her water and from there on out everything started to speed up.  An hour later, healthy, happy Madelyn made her appearance!

You can view Madelyn’s birth video here.