A Birth Story + Newborn Photos

Dec 16

Written By

I can't believe our sweet girl is HERE and in our arms. Most of you don't know our entire story of God's faithfulness and promises coming to fruition through this baby, but it's truly a miracle. I'm still in awe of God. How He works, how He teaches, how He blesses, and how loving He is to His children. We are so grateful!

I'll try not to be super long winded...but she was in fact our stubborn - longest labor - baby. My official due date was 12/5 but all my babies have come early so we scheduled an induction on 11/30 for peace of mind. We don't have family here, Andrew's schedule is extremely demanding, and we have 3 little boys. Figuring out all the details sounded a little too stressful for me so I thought at least having the induction date would be nice.

I've never been induced though, so I was honestly praying she'd come earlier than the 30th. I don't do well with medicines and I'm not the biggest fan of being hooked up to IV's and confined to the bed. I like moving around and walking while laboring.

Then, the day after Thanksgiving, it all started. I woke up around 4am with some contractions. At this point, I was so ready to have a baby. My body was done. Moms, you know the feeling. But, sometimes when you feel "done" it can still be another month, haha! :)

I labored on and off at home for 6 hours before my 39 week appointment which was at 10am on November 27th. My overall emotion during labor was annoyance. I wanted her here, I wanted to see her face, and I wanted to hear her cry so I knew she was healthy. Our neighbor came over to watch the boys (I love you Grace and Laura!) and Andrew and I packed our bags and headed to the hospital for my appointment. My contractions were getting worse so I knew it was the real deal. My parents were flying in that evening, and all was proceeding according to my schedule :)

We arrived at my appointment, and I was already 5cm dilated and 75% effaced when the OB checked me! We were going to have a baby today! By the time we got checked into triage, I was 6 cm dilated. By the time we got checked into our hospital room, I was 7cm! Hallelujah!

Now it was around noon and things were progressing beautifully. I walked the room, did squats, turned on music, tried to watch a movie, and just labored for awhile. However, hours went by and I was STILL sitting at 7cm dilated! I was so frustrated because I was laboring all afternoon and wasn't progressing. So, I kept at it. Finally around 6pm, I was EXHAUSTED. I felt like I couldn't go on much more since things started at 4am that morning and I couldn't believe the baby wasn't here yet.

I finally asked for an epidural. Note: with Wesley I had a failed epidural, with Reid I passed out from my epidural (we thought I was given too much), and then with Nate I said, "forget it", and went all-natural. So, with this baby, my "plan" was to go natural.

Anyways, this turned out to be a horrible idea. They even gave me a pediatric dose because of my history, and I passed out again! Then I was pumped full of meds to wake me back up, all while Andrew was the calmest person alive and just tapping my face saying, "Nicole, are you there? Nicole, can you hear me?" Because this wasn't the first time this has happened to me, no one got too excited. (I also passed out during my biopsy during the whole cancer season. And it's never from the needles! So weird.)

After waking back up, I was drenched in sweat and felt horrible. Apparently, my body doesn't do well with epidurals. I should have learned that from when I was in labor with Reid, but it was too late. At this point I had all these drugs in me, I couldn't get up because of all the IV's and the catheter, and I felt absolutely every painful contraction. My right leg was numb and that's about all the epidural was doing for me.

By this time, it was close to 7pm so I had my doctor break my water, thinking our baby would be here within an hour. Once my water breaks, it's usually baby time. Except...not this time.

I go on to labor for 4 MORE HOURS. I started freaking out because the thought of needing a c-section to get this baby out started to cross my mind. Oh, and I'm still only at 7.5cm! Because I wasn't progressing, they started me on a Pitocin drip. Might as well keep going with all the meds! (eye roll) An hour goes by and nothing happens. Around midnight, they stuck a IUPC (intrauterine pressure catheter) up into my uterus to measure the exact strength of my contractions and increase my Pitocin dose to get things going faster. And that's what did the trick.

Around 12:50am, I needed to push. The doctor came in, got ready, I pushed 4 times, and she was born at 1:07am!

All 9 lbs 1 oz of pure love with a head full of hair and the chunkiest cheeks. She immediately latched and she's absolutely perfect. Once I saw her, I completely forgot about the 21 hours of labor I just went through. By the way, my other labors were 14 hours, 8 hours, and 7 hours, so I thought this was going to go quick. It's my fourth, so like 4-6 hours? NOPE, ha :) But it was worth every second. Always is.

We love you Maddie girl and never want to imagine a life without you. You complete our family and are so, so loved!