Maddy's first Halloween

Today was my official due date but fortunately Maddy arrived 16 days early so she could wear her Halloween costume I got at a garage sale this summer.

While Maddy didn't go trick-or-treating this year, her 15-year-old sister did. Erika and her friends Kat and Maria dressed up and headed out around 5:30 p.m.

Maria has lived in New Zealand for the past 10 years and just moved here in March so she was very excited to go out trick-or-treating since in New Zealand, Halloween isn't a big deal. She was so cute. She even made and decorated pumpkin-shaped cookies for all of us. Nels, Maddy and I just planned to stay home and hand out candy to the few trick-or-treaters who come to our door.

Happy Halloween, from our spooky family to yours.

Little Miss Madeline

She's here!

Madeline LaVonne was born at 3:23 p.m. Weds., Oct. 15, 2008, weighing in at 7 pounds, 15 ounces, and was 21 inches long.


It's been an exhaustive first week of maternity leave, between visitors and lack of sleep, but exhilarating since we finally have our lil' bundle of joy home with us. It's been a long nine month wait and I'm not that patient.

While my actual labor with her was unusually quick, the days leading up to her birth were very uncomfortable and I was frustrated because I didn't know whether I was actually in labor or not. I had terrible back pain starting at 5 a.m. Monday, Oct. 13th...but decided to go to an interview I had at 10 a.m. I didn't want to cancel everything in case it was a false alarm...then I went to the doctor afterwards and the doctor on duty said I was dilated to 3 cm. I had been dilated to 2 cm the following Thursday. They hooked me up to a fetal monitor and said I had plenty of "uterine irritability," but not strong contractions. However, she said I'd likely be having this baby within the next few days.

So with my cranky uterus, I went back to work and wrote my dang story, thinking that I had better do it now, otherwise it wouldn't get written for months. My irritable uterus was downright annoying, and I went home early from work, skipping a school board meeting that night.

I took Tuesday off and it wasn't until around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, during a new episode of "House," that the back pain disappeared...and that's when I started to feel contractions every six to 10 minutes. Nels and I both took showers at 10 p.m., called family and told them we may be going to the hospital and then.... NOTHING... The pains went away and Nels and I just went to bed.

I had a doctor's appt. the next morning at 10:15 a.m. and decided to go alone, figuring Nels and my dad needed to finish the construction project they were working on. They are remodeling Erika's old bedroom across from Maddy's room into Nels' office and they were laying the wood flooring...or so they thought.

Instead, my doctor said I was dilated to 4+ cm and that we could do one of two things..he could strip my membranes and I'd go into labor later that night in a more natural way or he could just admit me and break my water and have the baby earlier. I decided to go with the first option since it seemed like a more natural process would be the way to go. But once he started doing it, he said I was actually at 5 cm and I needed to be admitted and have my water broken anyway. He told me I had time to maybe drive home and get my bag but since I had my bag in the car he had me go get it and come back to admit myself.

So I called Nels in the elevator on the way down, telling him to hurry, and then stopped by and saw my aunt Shari who works on the first floor to tell her the news. At this point the contractions were getting stronger ... and the walk to my car - at the end of the parking lot - took forever. I also called my friend and coworker, Heidi, so my coworkers would know that I was not coming back to work. The walk with my huge bag back to the hospital was slow, getting painful but still manageable, I guess.

I think it was just before 12:30 p.m. when my water was broken and Nels got there shortly afterwards. The contractions became more intense around 1 p.m. I was dilated to 6 cm before I got into the jacuzzi tub and within 20 minutes was dilated to 8 cm. That's when I started crying out for "Drugs! I need drugs!" And I got a dose of an analgesic that seemed to make me more groggy than anything. I got a second dose a half-hour later.

Soon after, I started pushing and with four pushes, baby Maddy had entered this world. Nels wasn't sure if I actually remembered that I was having a baby - since I was consumed by the pain and the seemingly unending rounds of intense contractions - and I think I had sort of forgotten about that. Nels was an incredible labor support person, as I knew he would be. He was in my face, just inches away, helping me breathe when I just wanted to panic and hyperventilate.

When they placed the baby on my stomach, it was a major shock. The baby didn't look much like me, or so I thought, and that took me by surprise. I didn't know what I had expected but for some reason I was a bit bewildered. Maybe I was thinking she'd be like another little Erika, 15 years later. I'm not sure.

I had pushed so fast that I had torn pretty badly so it took the doctor some time to sew me up while my mom, Nels' mom and Erika waited impatiently in the waiting room to see little Madeline. They had to wait an hour since Maddy had to get checked out, she had to nurse for the first time, etc.

But some time that day, I'm sure it was rather quickly, we all fell in love with her. Not just the idea of her joining our family, but with her, this new little person who is just too beautiful for words. It's in the way she grimaces, yawns and even sneezes. The chicken pecking she does on my chest when she's rooting around for her next meal (It cracks Erika up!) We also have gotten consumed with whether she went poopie or not. Erika often asks when she comes home from school.

So Maddy has become the center of our lives, especially mine. It's been 15 years since I had a little baby so I have a hard time putting her down. She has no concept yet of what it's like to sleep in her crib or pack-n-play during the day since we're always holding her. She's starting to sleep at least for 2-3 1/2 hours at a time at night but I'm still exhausted.

Nels and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary on Weds., Oct. 22nd. We did absolutely nothing to actually celebrate - we didn't even get each other a card - but we had the best anniversary gift either of us could have ever asked for - and it was more than enough to simply just stare at her for hours.

Sooner, rather than later...

I had the first of my weekly doctor's appointments yesterday and everything is going well.

I'm dilated to 2 cm and 50 percent effaced so things are progressing ... but like my doctor said, it could mean I go into labor today or three weeks from today ... He said I most likely won't go late, which would be fabulous because I'm not sure if I can even take three more weeks of waddling around with all the aches and pains I've been experiencing lately. I have aches in places I didn't realize I had muscles! OK, TMI...

But anyway, baby Madeline has to get her soon because she has an awesome pumpkin costume and cute little newborn caps and bibs she has to wear on Halloween, her due date, along with a great "future president" onesie she will be wearing on Nov. 4, Election Day.

The baby's room is bulging with stuff, thanks to the three baby showers and lots of garage sales I went to this summer. Nels and I bought a car seat on Monday after our childbirth class and our video baby monitor should be coming in the mail soon.

We are all set on everything — there's just one thing missing.

The baby.

Happy October!!!

What a great feeling to wake up today, knowing that the baby will be here within this month! (Or at least I hope so!)

We have four weeks to go, and I start my weekly OB appointments next week. Yesterday I think her bottom was firmly planted underneath my right ribs all day - It was difficult to breathe and it felt like my lung was folded over. Very uncomfortable. By last night I was ready to have a C-section if my doctor would have gone for it, but the discomfort went away by this morning, although it still feels like her feet are in there nearby, moving around.

I got a call last night from my 9-year-old nephew. He was sad because his hamster had just died. His hamster was a sibling of our hamster, which were born to his twin brother's hamster - if that makes any sense. Anyway, his hamster had this nasty tumor growing on its side so we knew that death was inevitable and we'd told my SIL and BIL that when his hamster dies, we'd gladly give them back ours since Erika doesn't seem to care at all about the little guy. He's more my buddy than hers since I'm the one who ends up feeding him and cleaning his cage.

So he called last night and asked if he could adopt back the hamster - and Nels was positively giddy. The hamster had been living in Erika's former bedroom, which is going to be remodeled into Nels' office, across from the baby's room. He refused to have the hamster living in there with him while he worked so I wasn't sure where I was going to put the little guy once the room was finished. (We'd tried keeping him out in the living room but one morning our cat knocked his cage off the counter, smashing the cage and nearly eating the hamster. Thank goodness I was home or our hamster would have been cat food! Our cat was perched about a foot or two away from the hamster, who has sitting on top of the crumbled cage, ready to attack, when I found them.)

So today my sister-in-law stopped by my office and took him. So sad to say goodbye since I have gotten attached to the little critter but I know my nephews are going to have fun with him....and he'll have much more fun at their house than being totally neglected and in danger of being eaten alive in our house.

I promise, we'll take much better care of the baby! :)