Our Madeline Jane

Madeline Jane was born on her due date, August 18 at 6:07 PM. My water broke at 8:30 AM, my doctor had me come into the clinic to make sure it really had broke, and I was admitted to the hospital by 11:30 AM. I progressed relatively quickly and by about 3:30 PM I was "complete." They had me labor down for an hour since I had an epidural and the doctor was quite to the hospital yet (she was on her way). I'm glad I waited to push until the doctor got there, because Madeline was face up and the doctor was able to turn her head in the first push. Had I started pushing before Dr. Ambur arrived, she wouldn't have been able to do that and I would have had to push out a "sunny-side up" baby. I pushed for about an hour and a half. With the epidural it wasn't horrible, but it was so tiring. Finally, Madeline Jane arrived. She weighed 7 lbs. 9.2 ounces and was 19.75 inches long. Her eyes were wide open, even before she starting crying. She was so alert and stayed awake for about 2 hours after she was born. She stared all around the room, taking in her new world. I got to hold her as soon as she came out and it was so amazing. I didn't think I would want to until she was cleaned off, but as soon as I was in labor I realized that I wanted to hold her immediately, as long as everything was okay. She was healthy as can be when she came out and has been ever since. She is such a good little baby. She is a champion eater and sleeps relatively well at night (most nights). Relatively well means she wakes up every 2-3 hours, but she falls back to sleep immediately after eating. Sean and I couldn't be happier; we could (and do) just stare at this little girl all day long. We call her our frog princess because of how she scrunches up in a little frog position when she snuggles up to us.