7 months... and a half

Turkey! You're 7 and a half months old!

You can;
feed yourself most things
crawl like a champ
kneel by yourself
laugh almost as if on cue at the mere sight of your sister
babble 'Dadadada!'. a LOT.
Sometimes put yourself to sleep.
Can find your pacifier and put it back in most mornings to give me a few extra minutes to pry my eyes open.

This past month you've grown a lot. You learned to sit up in your cradle two days before you officially turned 7 months so we had to scramble to get your crib painted and ready. It made me sad to see that cradle get tucked away so soon but you've got big plans apparently and need to be super mobile to do them!

The first time i put you in your crib my heart jumped a bit. It reminded me that even though you outgrew the use of your cradle, you are still so little. I just sometimes wish YOU would remember you're still little. You're in an awful rush little lady. 

You love your high chair. And i love to see you in it. Especially when you're using your chubby little hands to feed yourself. You love love love to eat whatever anyone else is. We tried avocado again and you loved it so much you yelled in anger when you had eaten it all. 

 

Ever since you were a newborn you have liked to kick and rub your feet together when you're really concentrating on something or super mad. You still do it. It drives both me and your dad crazy. 

Because you've finally gotten the whole crawling thing down you, my darling, are like a Visa card. You're everywhere i want to be. Underfoot constantly. You just need to know where i am at all times or you get so so sad. You never take long to find me in the kitchen and your favorite thing to do is to try to eat my legs while i'm cooking or washing dishes. It's a good thing we have a tiny kitchen or you'd get accidentally trampled! 

 

Did i forget to mention you have two tiny razor like teeth now? They're still growing in but they're certainly there. And you don't let me forget it! Luckily you haven't really bitten me while nursing yet. Mostly because you're so busy looking around these days you can't be bothered to slow down for a full nursing session without you being super duper starving. Those big eyes of yours get the best of you! 

If i open the vertical blinds in the kitchen you crawl back and forth along the length of the slider observing the outdoors like a caged lion. You're pacing just waiting for the day that you get to explore the outdoors and try some of that tasty looking grass. (We both know you're going to try to eat some. Every kid does at least a few times) 

You've also just become so so much fun lately. You're happy and smiley at strangers and at night before you nurse for the last time you get so so giddy that nearly anything will have you in stitches. My favorite moment of the day is when Noella notices you're giggly and makes funny noises and faces at you just to make you laugh. You love love love it. Then you try to pull her hair and she runs away. Which makes you laugh again.


We're so delighted and joyed by you little turkey. We can't wait to see what the next month will bring.

We all love you.

Half

Oh Madeline Louise. You're half a year old. Six whole months.

It's breaking my heart in the best ways.

You're so strong willed and determined to do/have/get what you want.

You still demand to be held as often as you can. I've taken to wearing you on my back now that you've got great head control. You're pretty pleased as long as I'm not standing in one spot for too long. (I have to sway while i wash dishes or you start to whine and pull my hair.)

You've started to ride in a shopping cart like a big girl. I make sure to pack some things around you though because if you get excited about something you have this bad habit of stiffening up and throwing yourself in a random direction and I'm afraid of you hitting your little head. You lasted almost a whole shopping trip through Sams club without me holding you.

Speaking of holding, you're getting better about letting Daddy hold you when i'm around. Though if you're the tiniest bit hungry or tired you start this high pitched whine and dive bomb in my direction if you see me. If i stay out of sight you're fine, so I'll admit I sometimes finding excuses to be in another room so Daddy can get some time with you too. 

You bring that man SO much joy and you always seem to happy when he calls you his 'Turk Turklestein'. (Because your nickname happens to be Turkey and so we like to come up with variations to change it up sometimes)

Quite often I get the 'I'm SO over this Mom' look. You seem unimpressed by a lot of new experiences.You're pretty stoic until you form an definitive opinion. Very much unlike your sister and I who approach everything with a smile. You like to think about things and take your time. 

Most mornings when I go in your room to get you I'm greeted by half your little face popped up over the side of your cradle. It makes me sad because it means you're that much closer to outgrowing it. I LOVE that cradle and as soon as you start to pull yourself up on things we have to ditch it for the big crib. It's vintage and so easy for me to get you into when you're sleeping and I don't have to break my ribs leaning over the side to put you into it. Please stay uninterested in learning to stand a bit longer. 

You've started to sit up on your own more often though you still prefer to lay down. I keep the boppy around you just in case yous stiffen up and i can't catch you in time.

You also LOVE to eat. You have some trouble with textures just like Daddy and big Sis but you never refuse food. You've tried avocado, peaches, apples, blueberries, banana, carrots, broccoli, mashed potatoes, squash, oatmeal, sourdough toast, green beans, strawberries and you've loved them ALL. So much that if you see me eating and you're on the floor, you turn yourself to face me and whimper straight up sad puppy style. It's so sad and so cute. 

You're STILL in 0-3 month clothing except for jammies. You're finally too tall for the 0-3 month jammies. I'm starting to rotate some of the smaller 3-6 month things we have into your wardrobe but most of the things we've tried look silly because they just hang off of you. I'm thankful you're small though. It's stretching out the amount of time you can wear what we have for you that much longer before i have to start shopping again. You've started to FINALLY fill out with some lovely delicious rolls and you've got quite the double chin going too. I love it. I really really do. I struggled with you being on the skinny side for a long time but you're catching up a bit and it's marvelous.

You can scoot pretty efficiently. But... backwards. Like... on your back. With a creepy gonna-break-your-neck back bed. But it gets you where you want to go for the most part. You get stuck on the corners of the couches or under them sometimes. 

I'm glad you haven't officially started to crawl yet. I thought for sure by now you would be but please keep waiting. It's making keeping track of you that much easier. I have a feeling that once you start really moving you'll be impossible to stop. 

You still light up with uncontrollable smiles and giggles and wiggles whenever Noella comes near you. I never tire to see how much you love her. Her favorite thing to do lately it to rescue you from the tile. She grabs your little feet and carefully tugs you back onto the carpet. Then you scoot right back off again in sheer delight of her presence. 

You've taught me to really slow down in the past month. To let us eat easy meals more often and to snuggle more. Your love for me is still all consuming and sometimes still sucks the life out of me but i'm thankful everyday for you. 

I love you my tiny Turkey and i'm excited for the next 6 months. 

Five

Maddie Lou Who!!

You're five months old today! Holy cow! Five whole months! And it really has gone by in a flash. It's like I blinked twice back when you were still safe in my water balloon, saw you as a newborn and now you're this tiny marvelous semi-mobile creature!

Yep. That's right folks. Madeline is semi-mobile. She's working on lunging on all fours and is a champion backwards scooter when she wants the object juuuuust out of reach in front of her. Crazy but true.

This past month has been awesome. Full of adventures and triumphs.

We started the month off with your very first trip. Just you and I flew all the way out west to see my best friend Heather Kunz get married to her lumberjack. You got to meet my other very good friend Amanda too and sat in a high chair for the very first time!

It was so very lovely and green out there. We spent some time in Heather's backyard in Rexburg ID and you seemed to love it. I certainly did. It was a lovely change from good ol' Florida! 

 It was a short trip and you were a champion traveler until I lost your paci on the last leg from the Vegas airport home... whoops! Before that little adventure, you were scooped up and showed off at the Salt Lake airport by a group of retired Chinese travelers. They were SO enamored with you. They all stood around and chattered and took pictures with you. It was quite the surreal experience since none of them spoke English and we don't speak Chinese but you were a trooper and very fascinated with them.

When we returned home you decided for the first few days to take two 2 hour naps a day. It was heavenly and i thought you FINALLY had this whole napping thing figured out. I was wrong because after about 3 days of blissful naps you went back to your unpredictable catnapping ways. 

The last weekend of May was Memorial Day weekend. My dad, your Papa, drove down to Savannah GA for the weekend for a job interview so we decided to make the 4 hour drive up since you hadn't met him yet. Just like your sister at your age, you were cool with him in short bursts but anything longer than 5 minutes and you gave this terrifically sad look and started to cry. Don't worry. You'll warm up to him. He's pretty awesome. I promise. 

We made you a little nest in the hotel room and you slept from 8 until 5;45 without a peep. We were stressing about sleeping all together in one room because you tend to be a light sleeper but you were a champ. We were so proud.

On the way home from our Georgia excursion, we stopped by Peach World. Obviously nothing here interested you all that much but we did get a family photo and it was a fun little part of our trip. 

You're starting to LOVE to sit up more and more often. You're also really getting the hang of holding things. (No pun intended) Your current favorite thing to hold is a plastic spoon. I had to convince your sister that it was okay for you to borrow one because they're 'hers'. 

You also tried your first food this month. It was sweet potatoes. I swore we were going to just skip the purees all together with you and only offer table foods and let you figure things out but after a few weeks of lip smacking and chewing motions and you staring me down whenever i ate, we decided to try it. You were excited for about three spoonfuls and then proceeded to push whatever you had left in your mouth right back out again. So i didn't push it. I gave you the spoon and you played with it a while and i got to eat my dinner while you watched me intently. 

At five months old you can;

Bring objects to your mouth and rarely miss

sit up unassisted for about 10 seconds at a time

get up on all fours

scoot backwards

roll front to back and allllllllmost can go back to front if you could just learn to kick that arm out from underneath you

you still wear 0-3 month and newborn size clothing, though the newborn pants are more like capris now. you're one tiny little turkey!

You babble when you wake up most of the time at night

You can make an 'n' and 'g' sound

you can rotate yourself completely around while on your tummy

you cried it out for the first time and have been sleeping better during the day since that night

you still love your paci while you sleep as much as i want you to be rid of it. 

you still LOVE to nurse and are starting to finally fill out a bit more. 

Sometimes you'll smile at strangers but in general you're still super clingy to me. 

I can't wait to see what this next month brings. 

First haircut

Noella has had haircuts before. I trimmed her bangs up when she was about 18 months old and I've barely trimmed the ends to get rid of some of the split ends and even things up the tiniest bit. But I knew she was REALLY growing up the day she came to me and asked for a haircut in a SALON and NOT at home. 

Being the frugal mama i am, i called a few places around town. Most places charge an arm and a leg for haircuts even for little kids and i was worried that Noella, being only four, wouldn't have the patience to sit in the salon chair for two hours and i certainly didn't want to pay $30 for a first haircut. Sorry babe, but it's true.

Luckily there's a hair school right down the road so if she wanted to bail partway through, i wouldn't be out that much money.  I made an appointment and Noella was unbelievably excited.

She was pretty patient while we figured out what to do with her hair. I had initially wanted to cut it into a chin length bob but Noella was adamant that she wanted to keep her "Rapunzel hair" so we compromised with two inches off and some layers added in. 

Getting through the hairwashing was a bit of a struggle. Noella was unsure of leaning back into the bowl but finally relaxed once the water started to stream through her hair. 

It was hard for me to see her in that chair because my little mama heart knew she's just getting that much bigger. She's too cool for me to cut her hair now. She's too grown up and sophisticated. 

Watching her in that chair was a funny transition for me. She instantly went from my toddler into a pre-schooler. I've known for a long time that she hasn't been a toddler but there was something that just clicked for me when i saw her sitting up there in a 'real salon' chair. She just suddenly LOOKED so grown up and just... BIG. 

Noella was pretty enthralled with the big mirror in front of her. It was pretty funny to watch her watch herself.  She kept pulling finny faces and then laughing at herself. 

In the end, it wasn't a dramatic change but she looks just so darn grown up to me. But perhaps it is a case of mama-goggles. 

She sure has come a long way from her first trim in her high chair so so long ago. 

First Four

Oh my Maddie Lou. My second babe. My most needy babe. I love you and am so glad you joined our family.

The first few months of your life have gone undocumented because there simply wasn't time to blog it. I have lots of pictures and blurbs on Facebook and Instagram during small breaks in the day about your progress in life but actual written down documentation? Nope. Because you just wanted to be held. Or nurse until i thought i was literally going to dry up because there couldn't possibly be any more milk left but there always was.

You came into this world screaming and scared your sister. Yes, that's right. She was there when you were born. Well, not in the room but she was in the house. She was SO excited for you to 'pop my water balloon' and come play with her. She really didn't want much to do with you the night you were born because you were so new and loud but the next morning, oh, she fell in love. And she fell hard. 

 

She loves your tiny hands and feet and the way that you always burst into a smile when you hear her voice. Those first few weeks of your life she marveled at you as we all did. 

You just wanted to be held close. You wanted to smell me at all times. At times i felt like i was drowning in your love and not always in a good way. Your attachment was and still is fierce. There were many times when your poor dad took you so i could get a break for a few minutes and you wanted nothing to do with him but would calm as soon as i got you back. Your love for me is overwhelming at times but it's taught me so much about patience and endurance. 

At a week old I decided it was time to do newborn pictures. You were less than thrilled with the idea.

As time has gone on, you've settled into our lives and it seems like you've been here forever. You are amazingly strong considering you're so tiny. At just a few days old you were lifting yourself up off my chest for about 10 seconds at a time. You started to roll from front to back at only 2 months old! You're a champ at tummy time and i think that's mostly because you prefer to sleep on your tummy. At four months old now you will rotate and wiggle yourself around when you're on the floor towards whom ever is nearest. You're dang close to army crawling which is impressive but please, for the love of pete, slow down little one. I'm not yet ready to have you be mobile. You've recently started testing your vocal range and boy, can you yell! You like to yell at the animals on the jungle mat or the butterfly toy i've attached to your swing. I think you're mad because you can't get them into your mouth. 

 You still fit into your newborn and 0-3 month clothing. I get asked all the time if you came early and chuckle when i tell folks that you were indeed 3 days 'late' and they were the longest three days of my life. At your four month appointment you weighed in at 11 lbs and 6 oz and are exactly 24 inches long. 

 

We had a little trouble with nursing in the beginning but now, it's second nature. You have a temper that flares up and sometimes, the only way to calm you down is to literally shove your face onto my breast and you make these angry grunting sounds until the milk starts to flow and then you relax into it. If you're REALLY upset about something, you'll pop off every few seconds at first to let out a little angry cry then latch back on grunting away and after a few minutes, you go limp and let out little sighs between gulps. And those moments are bliss. At two months old you started to reach your hand up to my face and now your favorite thing to do while nursing is to gently wave your arm around until you collide with my face and explore it a little. Sometimes you'll stop nursing all together to gurgle and coo at me and boy does that just melt me into a puddle of mommy. 

 Nursing you is a bittersweet experience for me. I wasn't able to make it work with your sister so having this sort of relationship is new for me and it's made me shift in my feelings towards my whole mothering experience. I know, you're the second babe, i should have expected it to be different but i didn't realize that i would feel THIS different about everything. When everything seems so chaotic in life, taking those 10 minutes to nurse you changes my perspective. It forces me to slow down and settle into life again and realize that there are indeed things that i need to let go of. 

You came into our lives at a time when we seemed to need you the most. Your Daddy and I hoped for you for a long time and these first four months have been magical. You've grown so much over these first four months and you never cease to amaze us. Thank you Sweet Girl for choosing us, we're so so glad you're ours. 

Love,

Mama. 

p.s. i'm going to try to be more on top of blogging about you now that you seem to have figured out this whole napping thing.

Home birth- Madeline Louise

At about 24 weeks pregnant with Madeline, I knew that the relationship I had with my current OB wasn't working. I wanted someone who would have the time for me and take my desire for a natural birth seriously. I searched the web and stumbled upon the Birth Without Fear blog and read stories about women who had all sorts of birthing experiences from hospital inductions to c-sections to home births. The experiences that hit home with me the most were the home births.

There was something about the way that they described laboring in the comfort of their own home and everyone coming to them when it was time to bring that baby into the world that resonated with my desire to have a natural birth this time around. I was still some what disappointed with my induction experience with Noella and wanted to really be as healthy as i could to avoid having another one.

It took a little convincing of the Mister because child birth has so many variables and so many scary things that can happen in a split second. I talked him into at least meeting with the midwifes of All Bright Beginnings (Now Tree of Life Birth and Gynecology) and he was on board as long as things continued to be healthy.

My pregnancy continued without a hitch. My blood pressure and urine looked good, and i was feeling good (except a few times that i didn't drink enough water). We began to gather the birthing kit for home. I had my heart set on a water birth because i found water to be so relaxing when i labored with Noella so we bought a kiddie pool i found on Amazon that had wonderful reviews as a birthing tub. Noella was quite disappointed that it didn't stick around after the birth.

Christmas came and went with lots of nights spent not really resting because of prodromal labor, then the New Year (My due date) also came and went and I thought i was going to be pregnant FOR-EV-ER. I remember standing outside with Jason to watch the fireworks in our neighborhood and feeling so let down that this baby wasn't coming yet.

Three days later I woke up feeling odd. My back was tighter than usual and i was grumpy and restless. It was a Saturday and that meant one thing. Grocery shopping. I was up earlier than everyone else and had gone into the nursery and took a picture of my round belly on Instagram and noted that it was much rounder than it had been in days and i was indeed feeling little tightening contractions but i was sure they were going to go away as they had in the weeks previous.

We got dressed and headed out the door for breakfast at IHOP before we hit up Sam's club. I was thankful for the big breakfast later on in the day. At breakfast i noticed i was having regular contractions still. Not painful but i timed a few and they were about 20 minutes apart almost on the nose. By the time we were finished they were about 15 minutes apart.

We headed over to Sams club and i remember having to stop a moment every few contractions because i could either walk and contract or contract and breath. Apparently my brain couldn't handle all three functions at once. My contractions were about 10 minutes apart by the time we were ready to be in line. I was aware of them but they weren't painful yet. I still was sure that these would just disappear so i tried to not notice them. In the car they picked up to 8 minutes apart and by the time we were home they were about 6 minutes.

I was still in denial that this was in fact labor so i called my good friend Erin Moody who's had two marvelous natural births before to discuss what was going on. She assured me that it probably was indeed early labor and told me to keep moving and see what happened. I looked at the tile floors in my kitchen and knew what i was going to do.

Maddie had a habit of flip flopping from anterior to posterior frequently and if i wanted to keep these early contractions going and have a shorter labor, i needed to do everything i could to keep her facing my back so i pulled out the bucket and scrub brush and scrubbed the grout in my kitchen floor as long as my knees could take it.

I texted my Doula Kelly to let her know i was contracting regularly but i wasn't ready for her to come yet. I spent my time trying to stay on my feet and put things away and prep for the baby. By 3pm Jason had realized we still had to run to Publix and offered for me to go too. I didn't want to leave in case things became harder to handle so he packed up the Miss and took her with him and planned a little last minute date with her. I made myself some boiled eggs on toast because i realized i hadn't eaten since breakfast and let Kelly know that Jason was running out for some errands and that my contractions were 5-ish minutes apart. She said she was headed over. She arrived at around 5 and we made up the bed and put the adapter on the sink in preparation for labor.

Kelly suggested we go for a walk but it was the hottest day we had had in a while and the heat was making me nauseous so i opted to just pace the driveway instead for as long as i could take the heat. The sun was setting at that point and the sky was a gorgeous pinky orange color. After a bit we headed inside because i was getting hit with heat waves that made my contractions worse.

The air conditioning felt SO good. I pulled out my yoga ball and started to rock and bounce a bit. I felt Maddie move further down into my pelvis every few minutes. The phone rang twice while i labored on the ball and the second time the answering machine had picked up. It was Micah and Becky calling to see how things were going. Becky was going to come take pictures for me during the birth so she wanted to know when to head over. I called them back and said she could head over whenever she wanted.

I stood up to head to the bathroom since it had been a while since i last peed and was hit with a whopper of a contraction. I had to lean against the wall to get through it and then immediately bolted to the bathroom to puke. Boiled eggs and toast wasn't the best pre-labor food choice i guess... and with this being my second babe, my weakened pelvic floor let loose and i peed my pants. I got undressed and kind of yelled while contracting that i was going to hop into the shower.

The hot water felt good but my contractions also jumped from 5 minutes apart to 2-3 minutes and got much more painful. Well, painful isn't the exact word. My labor wasn't PAINFUL so much as a LOT of intense pressure.

After a few minutes i realized it was time to call the midwives. It was around 7:30-8pm and Kelly called them while i was in the shower. I got out and toweled off and sat on the closed toilet for a minute to labor then i heard my midwife Diane's voice. Becky had arrived too. Becky had brought an old bathing suit i left at her house and was instructed by me to cut out the crotch so i could use it to labor in.

I put it on and the tightness of it was super uncomfortable for me so i asked for this other old bathing suit my mom had sent me. It was far too big but that's what made it comfortable. Diane asked me to head into the bedroom so she could do a cervical check and do my vitals. I climbed into bed and got into position and was hit with another contraction. Rather than dive in anyway like the doctors had during my induction with Noella, she waited until it had passed. I was immensely grateful because there's nothing worse than a hand up your who-ha while you're trying to relax into a contraction.

I was 4cm and 100% effaced. I tried not to focus on the number because through my extensive research in preparation for this birth i know that that number means very little and could change very quickly.

I decided to labor on the bed for a while since i had been up and moving for a while and wanted to rest a bit before it was really 'show time'. My contractions were consistently 3 minutes apart and increasing in intensity every now and then. I had been having to loudly moan through contractions since just before i had showered and now i was surely loud enough that anyone near my house could hear me.

While i labored my doula stayed by my side to hold my hand and rub my legs through contractions. This was totally different than when i labored with Noella. I hadn't wanted anyone to touch me while i labored with Noella but this time i found that having someone near me was very grounding and helped me to focus on relaxing as my body opened up to let this baby out.

After a while i asked for Jason and he came and laid with me too. The poor man. I had indeed brushed my teeth after i puked but i was burping after each contraction and apparently it was AWFUL. But he toughed it out and stayed with me.

All the time i had spent in the shower and on the bed, Jason had blown up and filled the birth pool. Noella had really wanted to 'swim' with me in it but i wasn't ready to get in yet and it was late so she got to swim by herself before Jason put her to bed. She was THRILLED.

 At about 10:15 i was ready to get up and go into the tub. I knew Noella was in bed and i tried to be quieter while i waddled down the hall to the tub but as soon as i hit the doorway of our bedroom i was hit with another intense contraction with a heat wave and nausea. I moaned as quietly as i could through it and let out another burp.

The water was lovely. It warmed up my chilly legs and took all the pressure off of my back. I labored while leaning over the side for a while but soon the contractions started to get a LOT more painful. 

Once i turned over my contractions became more managable again. They had jumped from 3 minutes to about a minute and a half  apart within the first few minutes. 

I felt more and more out of control with each contraction and was now yelling to get through them. The pressure was intense but i kept telling myself that it would come to an end. There would soon be another break. My doula Kelly and midwife Diane had to keep reminding me to keep my tones lower and to relax in between contractions. I felt my face release at the end of each contraction. 

I got louder and louder and in my mind i kept thinking about Noella and wondered if she was sleeping through all this noise. (She wasn't) I shifted in the pool and contracted and my moaning was interrupted by a grunt. I had started pushing without even trying. Diane asked me if i was feeling 'pushy' and i said 'i think so' and once again a contraction hit and ended with me grunting. I could feel Maddie beginning to descend. 

I remember at one point feeling a slight burning and telling my midwife about it. Then i saw a flashing through my closed eyes and it immediately sent me into a world of pissed off until i saw that it was the flash light held by the assistant midwife to see what was going on inside the pool. I tilted my head back and tried to once again concentrate on relaxing and ignore the light. 

A few more contractions and Diane told me it was time to really push. I didn't want to. Pushing hurt. Pushing was worse than the contractions. Pushing felt scary and wildly out of control for me. Diane used her very best firm midwife voice and said "Erin, get back in control, deep breaths and PUSH!' and i did and felt Maddie's head delivered. One more push and she was all the way out. Diane told me to reach down but then told me to stop. She had her cord wrapped around her neck twice. Diane quickly unwrapped it and pulled her up from the water and placed her on my chest. 

After one small gurgly cry she let out her first full wail. She wailed and wailed and WAILED. She had a robust cry from the very start and was this tiny marvelous warm creature. She had the same cheesey vernix covering her sister did. She smelled differently though. She layed there in my arms with her eyes screwed shut and screamed for a few minutes while we all marveled at her. 

Jason cried. Oh boy did he cry. And it made my heart burst. I'm so lucky to have such a sensitive man in my life. 

After a few minutes I asked Jason to go get Noella. She was wide awake and sitting up in bed when he went in to get her. She came down the hall excited but unsure of what exactly was going on. It had been really loud with my yelling a few minutes ago and now there was a new sort of yelling going on from the tiny squishy babe laying in my arms. 

She quickly said hello then went to sit on the couch. She wasn't super thrilled with all the noise going on but she was happy to be awake and hanging out with the adults.  

After the cord had stopped pulsing Jason cut it. Noella was worried that it was hurting Maddie but we explained that it didn't hurt. Noella was adamant that it WAS hurting her because why else would she be crying? 

After the cord was cut, Jason took Maddie so i could get out of the tub to deliver the placenta and get cleaned up but it took a moment to gather towels so i sat back down. When i tried to stand up again, i again felt the urge to push and had delivered the placenta. After a few moments of sitting back down to make sure i wasnt going to pass out, i finally was allowed to go down the hall to get checked out. 

Everything was intact and looked good considering a tiny human had just pushed her way through so they told Jason he could bring the still screaming Maddie down to me so we could nurse and she could get weighed and measured. 

Madeline Louise Chauvin made her appearance Januaray 3rd 2015 at 11:26pm

She weighed in at 7lbs and 6oz and was 20 inches long. 

More on our first night and the newborn exam in my next post.