— my little corner of randomness —
I know I am biased, but man, my brother took some gorgeous pictures of our beautiful baby! Here are the few he has given me so far and he’ll get the rest to me soon. When he does, I will post the rest of them.
Oh, I just want to snuggle her all day. Oh wait…I already do that! 
I am so thankful that my brother likes to come and take pictures of her!
We have had so many visitors come to see Maddie. Both in the hospital and at home. Here are some of the pictures of people that came to see us.
At the hospital, we had friends and family come to see us. We had lots of visitors because I was there so long!
Chuck’s mom….who also stayed with us for many hours at the hospital to keep Chuck company while I slept and stayed at our house for a couple days when we went home. She’s a very proud new grandma!
Chuck’s sister came many times. She works at the hospital I was in a couple days a week and would swing in when she could and check on us.
And her husband came a few times, too!
My mom, step dad, and youngest brother stopped by. My mom is also a VERY happy new grandma and my brother (who is 13) is so excited to be an uncle!
My other brother (who took my maternity pictures and is taking pics of Maddie soon) and his girlfriend stopped by, too, but I guess I don’t have any pictures of them with Maddie.
My dad and step mom came to visit. My dad had been fighting a bad cold, so he wanted to wear a mask so he didn’t make her sick.
One of my very best friends, Brooke, and her husband, Mark, came to see us. She was so worried about me when I was there. They have an adorable 6 month old little girl and we know our girls will be great friends!
Our friends Ben and Trisha came to see us and brought their adorable little girl, Chelsea. Chelsea is 3 weeks older than Maddie. And they are definitely going to be good friends, too! In the first picture, Trisha is holding Maddie and Chuck is holding Chelsea.
And a picture of Maddie and Chelsea!
Here’s our friend Stephanie. Her and her husband also came to visit us once we got home.
And I didn’t get pictures of my friend Kellyn when she came to see us. I am sure there were others, but I can’t remember…it seems like forever ago!
And at home, we have had lots of friends and family come see us. I didn’t get any pictures of those visitors. I did get one of the proud grandmas, though!
And a big thank you to ALL the visitors for showing us how much Ms. Madeline is loved. And thank you for the food! It is so nice to not have to think about what to make/eat for dinner!
OHH…I almost forgot. HERE is the gallery for Maddie. We’ll add more pictures there as we take them/remember to upload them. 
That’s about all I have for now. It’s taken me FOREVER to have the motivation to write on here, but I hope to get better. I’m still adjusting to this whole baby thing. But life is great and we’re getting in a groove…as much as you can with a newborn. We’re learning more about Madeline every day and it’s been the happiest 3 weeks! (Yes, my baby is 3 weeks old already!)
I am on lots of meds these days after I had Maddie. The biggest one is for my blood pressure. They hope to wean me off that at my 6 week appointment at the end of March. I am hopeful the BP meds are just temporary. Here are pictures of the pills I take….morning, afternoon and evening.
I must say, it sure looks like a lot. But there’s lots of ibuprofen in there and vitamins/supplements, too.
And I am very proud…I haven’t taken my real pain killers (oxycodone) since Thursday!
Also, I’m feeling way better, too. Today, Tuesday, I’ll be able to spend some time on the first floor instead of being upstairs all day. I am super excited! But I’m expecting it to thoroughly wear me out!
Both my work and Chuck’s work sent us flowers after we had Maddie. It was so sweet and thoughtful of them.
Thank you to WCK and Microsoft for thinking of us!
It’s been a long week. Since I last posted, there has been so much that has happened. Some good, some bad. I’ll see what I can do to write it all down.
Tuesday night, February 15th, at 41 weeks 2 days pregnant, I was admitted into the hospital for the beginning of an induction. My cervix was not dilated very far, so they gave me some drugs to help that. They usually give 3 doses of that. After 2 doses, I was dilated to 4 and was starting to have contractions. So they didn’t give me the third dose and broke my water. This was somewhere around 3:45 that morning. I had a lot more contractions and I asked for my epidural. That finally came after some painful contractions. My epidural didn’t end up working. I then got horrible contraction pain and the most painful hip pain ever. Chuck had me try to breathe through them, but could tell I was bordering panic mode and couldn’t handle these much longer.
Now I know people that go through horrible labors without drugs. But this wasn’t my plan. From day one, I just knew that I wanted drugs when they would give them to me. So to have to be in that much pain when I wasn’t expecting it, was horrible I my mind.
So I ended up getting another epidural. This one worked. Then the doctor came to check on me. She said that since my contractions were around a minute apart I should be much further along (dilated much further). I was only about a 6, possibly a 7, but I should have been a 10 and pushing by this point. Also, Madeline’s heart rate wasn’t recovering as well as they would like after the contractions. She had also pooped already (which is something they want to be sure the NICU people are there for after birth to be sure everything is ok with her). So all of this added up to me needing a C-Section. I was honestly just happy to get her out of me at this point after so much pain.
So they prep me for surgery and get Chuck ready with some scrubs and wheel me down. In about a half hour from the time they made the decision for a C-Section, they had delivered my beautiful baby girl. I got to see her before they took her away to be cleaned up and then they sent Chuck upstairs with her.
This is where it gets interesting. They couldn’t get my uterus to contract/harden after the surgery. I was awake for this whole thing. They asked me if I wanted to be put under and I told them I would stay awake. Little did I know at the time, this is probably what saved my uterus. I made sure they called Chuck to tell him what was going on since they wouldn’t let him come back to the OR to be with me. All they told him was that there was a lot of bleeding. And left him to worry about why his wife wasn’t coming back for over 2 hours while he was holding and meeting his new little girl
They spent over an hour trying to get my uterus to harden. I also had uterine hemorrhaging and lost probably 2 liters of blood. They (being the two doctors working on me) told me that I may need a hysterectomy at some point during this. I didn’t realize the severity of all of this (thankfully) and figured that just meant I wouldn’t have any more kids. I didn’t realize that this meant I may need a hysterectomy to save my life which is always a scary thing after losing so much blood.
Then, after maxing out 4 different drugs to try to get my uterus to harden and the doctors being probably moments away from a hysterectomy, my uterus started to harden. Like I said, being awake probably saved my uterus. Had I been put under, the drugs used for that would have relaxed all my muscles, making it even harder, or impossible for my uterus to harden. So they finally stitched me back up and brought me back to a very happy Chuck. He had his wife back and knew she was ok and his new baby girl. I was so happy to see Madeline and still didn’t realize how close I had been to possibly dying or having a hysterectomy. This is a picture of me after my surgery when I got to hold my baby girl.
I was asking all sorts of things during surgery. When could I breastfeed my baby? Would it be a problem feeding her that I was gone so long? Would she be ok if they didn’t hurry up? Would they bottle feed her and then she wouldn’t breastfeed if I didn’t get to her soon? Could I still have more kids safely? Somehow, these were the things I was thinking about at the time.
After this happy moment, they found out I had really high blood pressure and determined I had post partum preeclampsia. So they put me on magnesium sulfate. This is to prevent seizures. It is an awful drug that makes to feel woozy and hot all over. It’s no fun having this pumped into your system. I was also on a new pain medication that I could press a button when I wanted it.
After all that, they decided I needed a blood transfusion. My hemoglobin was 7.7 one evening. Had my hemoglobin been around 7 I would probably have been ok without a transfusion. But the next day it was down to 6.6. Had I not been going home to take care of a baby, I may not have needed the transfusion. But after losing so much blood, they thought this was going to be best for me or I might have been too weak to do anything and it takes a long time for your body to produce more blood. So, in went another IV and in went the blood. After the transfusion, my hemoglobin was up to 9.3. The next morning 9.6. This was very good. Things were looking like I might go home soon.
Then my blood pressure went up again and they didn’t like the results my liver was giving. So the decision was made to put me on another dose of magnesium sulfate. I got to experience all the effects of the mag on this round since I wasn’t on other pain killers. It was even more awful than I remembered from the first time.
My blood pressure was still a little high throughout the day even while I was on the blood pressure meds. The last BP I took was the one that sent me home. I was so happy. Chuck needs to keep checking my BP throughout the day at home and I needed to go to the doctor for a checkup. They reassessed my dosage of my BP meds and adjusted them slightly. As long as things are going well, they will hopefully start weening me off them at my 6 week post partum appointment. I am hoping I will only be on this for a couple months and not for my lifetime. My blood pressure was usually 111/70-something. I was up in the 165 or 155/90s or 100 range. I learned this isn’t very good at all.
But they sent me home and the wheels started turning while Chuck and his mom (who had been at the hospital with us during the day to keep Chuck company) started packing up everything we we had accumulated over our 7 day stay at the hospital and we were ready to go before anyone could change their mind.
During all of this, I was breastfeeding every few hours. We did bring Madeline to the nursery a couple nights for a few hours so we could get some much needed rest. My dear husband was so wonderful and patient and would feed her some formula or anything I pumped after feeding her. My milk wasn’t in until the day before we left the hospital or so and Chuck was a trooper feeding her from a little cup. She would lap it up like a little kitten. It was time consuming and inefficient, but he continued to do it. We wanted to make sure she wasn’t confused by bottle feeding and this is what they recommended to feed her and make breastfeeding work.
It was so nice to get home and sleep in our own bed. I have instructions to take it easy for a while. My body has been through a lot and we don’t want me to overexert myself unnecessarily. So I have been sequestered to the upstairs level of our house and have been feeding Maddie, eating, napping…lather, rinse, repeat really. I went to the doctor today for a checkup and things are looking good. They did adjust my meds a little and want to see me in two more weeks for a follow up to see how the adjusted meds are working. Everyone at the clinic knows me now and has heard all I had been through. I don’t think this type of thing happens very often. It’s not really the reason I want them to know me, but it’s nice to know they all care.
There you have it. It’s been a rough go, but Madeline is worth every moment of what I went through. She’s the sweetest little baby. I can’t believe I carried her inside me and I get to keep her. I don’t even mind being up in the middle of the night because I get to look at her sweet, snuggly face. I am definitely in love! And Chuck couldn’t be happier, either. He is so good with her and I love seeing him hold her and play with her. He’s the best dad and the best husband. He has been so supportive through everything and I know I wouldn’t have been able to make it through all of this without him.
I also know that God really had a plan. I have never believed this more than I did through this event. He made sure I can still have more children, my pain hasn’t been too bad and I am slowly on the mend. I am so happy that I was in a hospital for this event. I know I wouldn’t have had the outcome I did had I chosen to have a birth at home or chosen not to go to a hospital.
Thank you to everyone for your thoughts, prayers, visits, emails, text messages….it was so nice to hear from everyone and know how loved I am.
I will leave you with some pictures. I am working on getting the hundreds (yes, hundreds) of pictures we have of Madeline posted online in our gallery and I will post them soon. I need to get them sorted and moved around.
Madeline Rachel Hays * born February 16, 2011 * 7 pounds, 1 ounce * 20 3/4 inches long
She looks just like me! My mom brought a picture of Chuck and I when we were babies and we had to take a picture (and show everyone) how much Maddie looks like me!
We love you, Madeline. Welcome to the world!
Today I am 41 weeks pregnant. Yes. You read that correctly. I am a week past my due date. There’s a plan, though, and an end in sight very soon. But still, 41 weeks. It’s a long time!
The most irritating thing right now is that I have subscribed to a bunch of websites that email you and give you progress on the baby each week….how big she is, new tricks she can do, blah blah…..things that were fun to read earlier on. But now, they keep sending me ones that say, “Your baby is 1 week old”. Ha! That’s what you think! I wonder if there’s a way to change the settings on these emails to tell them, “Hey….no baby yet!” Oh well.
Yesterday we moved some furniture around the house. And by “we” I mean Chuck. I helped very little with this endeavor. One couch we moved comes apart into pieces and the other I called our neighbor to come over and help move them upstairs.
We had a nice (but HUGE) sofa in the living room. And we have a second “living room” upstairs that never gets used. Upstairs we had a sofa that reclines on the ends. So we decided to bring the reclining couch downstairs and give it a try in the living room.
Once furniture is in a place, it would most likely stay there forever if it were up to me. But Chuck has more vision than I do and thought it would be a good idea to try this.
We never sit on all the seating available on the huge sofa. So this will give us just the seating we need downstairs and open up the living room for baby things….like her cage (pack-and-play for those of you who don’t want to just call it what it is….a cage), her swing, and I am sure many more things. And it just generally makes the room bigger. So that’s how we killed a few minutes yesterday! 
But we’re getting excited! I can’t wait to send out news that she’s here and post pictures! It’s going to be life changing in the most amazing and wonderful way!
Happy randomness for the day!
See the countdown above? I find it amusing that it says I am “0 days pregnant.” (Granted, it does say “40 weeks AND 0 days pregnant”. That is beside the point.) I can assure you, even though today is my actual due date, I am still very much pregnant. 
It just struck me as funny when I read it.
Which means, yes, we are still waiting on Thumper to make her arrival. Or for my body to speed things along. Whichever way you look at it…we’re still waiting. And anxiously at that.
I have become an even bigger emotional disaster these last few days. I don’t know what the big deal is really…apparently first-time moms tend to go over their due dates. I’ve had a few friends recently who have. But it’s still hard to feel like I keep letting people down when I get the “You’re STILL pregnant?” or the “You STILL haven’t had that baby?” comment. We want her here, too. I promise! I go to sleep every night hoping I’ll be startled awake by shooting pains. Seriously…..who hopes for pain? Me! That’s who!
I’ve been having some contractions off and on, but nothing terribly consistent. I have my next appointment on Monday to schedule an induction if I’m not already holding this little bundle of stubborn joy! My mother did remind me that she knew a certain someone who also took her sweet time making their arrival (AKA ME, if you didn’t catch that one). We were really hoping she’d be more like Chuck on that front and want to be good and punctual. And by Chuck standards, punctual in this case would be early. Apparently she has more of me in her when it comes to being on time!
So, I am trying to keep myself busy and make my best attempt at not crying at every little thing. Here’s to lots of loads of laundry, walking on the treadmill, lots of future blog posts, gorging myself on food I find around the house and resorting and cleaning things that don’t need sorting or cleaning.
…..And a final project.
I picked up some stick on mirrors for Thumper’s room. I wanted to put some sort of mirror by the changing table for her to look at. Then I came across these at Kohl’s.
I just realized you can see me a little in the picture. 
So I stuck these on the wall. They add a nice little touch by the changing table and aren’t too overly obnoxious for all the stuff I already have in her room! Hopefully she likes them.
Now, I figured since I had the last project done in the room that I wanted to finish, I should show pictures of the whole room.
Here’s the changing table and the door to her room. I should have centered the picture better, or opened the closet door…or something. It just looks silly now that I look at it. There’s a closet to the left and I currently have the diapers hanging on the door.
Now, if you turn to the left, you can see the window seat, the other closet door, the chair, table and edge of the crib.
Continue to rotate….and you get this. The crib, mobile and door to the bathroom which connects Thumper’s room and the upstairs office.
Rotate once more, and you get the wall with the photos, bookshelf and again the changing table. We have made a full circle.
Ta Da! There you have it! Thumper’s room.
What do you think? Anything in there you think I am totally insane for doing? Something you love?
A few weeks back, Chuck and I were packing up our stuff for the hospital. Always good to have it ready to go. Well, I had a meltdown that night. I was in an utter panic. Here are some of the things that I either said or thought:
All of this being spoken while sobbing. My poor husband had surely thought I had lost my mind. Although, I am sure it wasn’t the first time during this pregnancy he has thought that! But I eventually made it through the panic. Knowing that all of this is such a blessing and we are so excited to have little Thumper be a part of our family. But I didn’t come to this realization without having one other tiny freak-out-moment….
I HAD to put a stuffed bunny into our car seat and I HAD to do it NOW because I was sure I didn’t know how and I couldn’t have this baby without trying it on a stuffed bunny!
Seriously….I am insane. And somehow doing this made me feel better. Wow. Thumper is going to see this some day and completely roll her eyes at me!