Little Miss Madison's Birth Story

I had so much fun linking up to Mama M (http://fivecrookedhalos.blogspot.com/) a few weeks ago I thought I would try it again. And what better story to share then the story of the best gift I ever received.

Ok, so before we get to the good stuff there is some background info that you need to know. In March of 2007 I had been having tons of horrible back pain but kept blowing it off because I have 2 herniated discs that act up sometimes. On March 15th I called my mom because the pain was out of control and I knew I needed to go to the ER to have it checked out to see if things had gotten worse and get some pain medicine. Before they could give one of the medicines they told me they needed to run a pregnancy test and I quickly waived them off and said go ahead, there's no chance there's a baby in there. I had an ovary removed in August (after years of ovarian cysts) and was on some medication to shut down my ovaries for a while to let the remaining one rest for a while and hopefully learn how to function without producing cysts. I was also on birth control since my husband and I had only been married for 6 months and wanted/needed to wait a little longer to start a family. So I was convinced there was NO chance that I was pregnant. When the nurse came back and told me surprise you are pregnant, I think the entire ER heard me yell "What? No I'm not!" and my mom tell them they better check again. We spent the rest of the ER visit repeating "Oh my God" or "Is this some sort of joke?" Later when we met up with my husband and father, I told them and they had similar reactions.

The next day (our 6 month anniversary) we went to an appointment with my OB and after talking figured I was maybe 6 weeks or so but he wanted me to have an ultrasound to confirm our best guess. He warned me that all we would see would be a little blob, if anything at that point, so we weren't expecting much. But once again we were in for a big surprise. The ultrasound tech turned on the equipment and insead of this little blob we saw a full grown baby. Not actually full grown, but big enough that she looked like a full grown baby to us. So based on the ultrasound alone they estimated that I was already 4 months along. So not only am I pregnant but I am also almost half way done with the pregnancy?!? I was just in a huge state of shock and could hardly breathe at this point. Making it even more unbelievable is that had we not went in to the ER that day I wouldn't have noticed anything different for at least another 2 months. I could have ended up on that show I didn't know I was pregnant!

On the the good stuff. I had a rough last few months where I was throwing up tons (I guess it was payback for no morning sickness earlier) and needing to go to the hospital for fluids and anti-nausea meds. I was also having spells where my blood pressure would just drop with little to no notice and I would pass out so I was on modified bed rest. As we approached 36 weeks, my blood pressure started to climb and I had to be admitted to the hospital for it a few times. I was in to see my doctor every 2 days and each time I left his office I had stricter guidelines to my bedrest...stay sitting or laying on the couch or bed most of the day, stay laying down most of the day, until finally stay on your left side at all times. When I went in for my 38 week appointment my blood pressure was again elevated so they had me lay on the left side in the office for 15 minutes since that had always brought it down in the past. This time it didn't work so my doctor came in and asked how we felt about 7:30 that night. This was at about 11:30 so they sent us over to L&D to hang out and be monitered until he could do the C-Section. Because I was passing out at random, they were concerned that I would pass out if I tried pushing so I was a planned c-section.

At 7:00 that night (August 24th 2007) the nurse started prepping me for surgery and brought me back to the OR for my spinal, which apparently worked a little too well because I was so numb I couldn't feel a single thing or even turn my head on my own. I started to feel like I couldn't breathe at all which my wonderful anesthetist assured me was normal. At 7:35 Madison Nicole was born weighing 6lbs 13oz and was 21 and a half inches long and she was screaming her head off. Once they had cleaned her up a bit and let me get a quick peek she and daddy headed to the nursery for her bath and my mom stayed with me. They finished sewing me up and moved me off the operating table and on to a gurney, which turned out to be a bad idea because my bp dropped big time. It went from 160/97 to 53/30 in about 10 minutes. After getting some medicine to raise it back up and hanging out in the OR for a while until they felt comfortable moving me again, Zach brought Madison into the recovery area for us to get to know each other. We spent 4 days in the hospital before we headed home to start our new life as a family of 3 and our life hasn't been the same since!

Just One of Those Days

Today (and yesterday) has just been one of those bad days that make me want to scream Why Me at the top of my lungs. Not that I would wish being in constant pain on anyone else, but why does there have to be so much pain and suffering in the world anyways. I know that it is not in my hands and I just need to trust the One who knows all, but why do kids have to get horrible diseases? Why did so many people lose their homes and families in Haiti? I know that compared to what so many people deal with my life is a piece of cake, but that doesn't make days like today any more bearable. I have had a few people ask me what exactly is wrong with me without knowing what a loaded question that is. I decided to blog about it because a) I thought writing it out might make me feel just a little bit better tonight, b) I started writing this at 4:00 in the morning because I hurt to much to sleep and needed something to fill the time, and c) this way you have to option of if you want to read it or not!

The biggest issue right now is horrible stomach pain on my right side, under my ribcage. How bad it is changes day to day, but on it's worst days I can't keep anything down and end up in the ER needing to get IV fluids and pain/naseau meds since I can't even keep any of them down. Sometimes I have to stay for a night (or 7) before we can get things under control again. There really is no certain diagnosis, but the doctors think it is a condition called Spincter of Oddi dysfunction. I have had 3 surgeries that helped for about a week each but then things went right back to how they were. Best guess as to why the surgeries don't work like they should is due to problem number 2; Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.

EDS is a connective tissue disorder that, for me at least, just means that I can sprain something if I even think about moving the wrong way. It also means that my muscles, ligaments, and tendons are too streched out to support my joints like they should. After 3 years of intensive physical therapy that did nothing to help me out I gave up. In addition to problems with my connective tissues I have joint pain from fibromyalgia and arthritis in my hips.

Thankfully a few of the things that have caused me tons of problems in the past have either resolved or are much better. I used to get horrible coughing attacks , brought on by playing sports or any kind of upper respiratory illness, where I would literally cough for 24-48 hours straight. I could not stop long enough to do more than take a quick breath and maybe a sip of water. Not long enough to relax at all, let alone get any sleep. Finally after years of dealing with it, we found a treatment that worked. The last of the major ones (have I bored you to death yet?) is Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. When I got the pain from my first cyst at 13, we were sure that it had to be my appendix. After a series of traumatic tests and procedures (I hadn't ever seen a gynecologist before) the childrens hospital told us that they couldn't treat me and had to transfer me to another hospital for surgery. For the next 9 years I got cysts once or twice a year until I convinced a doctor to remove the offending ovary since I had never had a cyst on the left one.

Well it seems like maybe this actually helped a little, that or the pain meds are finally doing their job, and I think I might be able to get a little bit of sleep. In a few short hours my wonderful husband and I are on our way to Madison, WI to see one more performance of Rent the Broadway Tour!

Sesame Street and Surgery

Last Friday the 3 of us went to see Sesame Street Live and had a blast! We had incredible seats thanks to a great Christmas present from my Mother and Father in law. The second the show started Madison screamed abby, ABBY, ABBY! She loved seeing all of her favorite characters dancing around, especially when they actually came off of the stage and danced in the aisles. She was so upset when intermission came that we were willing to do almost anything to calm her down so I asked Zach to go get one of the Elmo balloons that they were selling up by the stage. I almost fell off my chair when he told me it was $10.00. Ten freaking dollars for a balloon are you kidding me?!? But I guess it was worth it to see her beautiful smile. Well I learned from intermission and when I could tell the show was almost over I started to tell her that it was almost time for Abby and Elmo to take their naps. Crisis averted...whew.

Monday Madison had speech therapy and her amazing speech therapist can't believe the progress she has made in the past weeks. She is still going the come out a few times more just to make sure, but says that Madison is completely caught up to where she should be. I knew she was doing so much better but never imagined she would catch up so quickly.

Thursday she had an appointment to get another set of tubes put in her ears and to have her adenoids removed. I was more nervous than I would like to admit. Mommy and Daddy both got to go back to the OR with her while they put her to sleep which made it much easier on all of us. She did great and we were back with her before too long. While we were in the short stay unit I just crawled up in the bed and had her lay on me. After some juice and a popsicle and a dose of the medicine that she would be going home with we were told to pack our stuff and head on home. After a nice family nap we had a quiet night watching movies and eating popsicles. Other than being a little clumsy from the Tylenol with codeine she is back to her normal, sweet self.

Five Question Friday 1/15/10

I thought I would join in on some of the blog hop action so here it is: Five Question Friday created by Mama M (http://fivecrookedhalos.blogspot.com/) The idea is that you copy and paste the questions to your own blog, answer them, and link up to all of the other posts. Sounds easy so I guess I will see how easy it is when I try to link up using MckLinky. I hope you enjoy getting to know me a little bit better.

1. Worst trouble you ever got into as a teenager? I know I am going to come across as a big goody two shoes here, but I honestly didn't get into any major trouble. I guess it would have to be for either coming in a little late for curfew (I had EVERY excuse in the book for why I would be a few minutes late...oops) or for talking back to my parents (my mouth has always gotten me in more trouble then I would like to admit).

2. Are you a morning person or a night person? No question a night person. I do not like to get up early at all. However my idea of sleeping in has drastically changed since having Madison. These days sleeping in until 9:30 is a major indulgence.

3. Are you a one-handed or a two-handed Texter? One handed

4. Democrat, Republican, or Independent..or maybe even Green Party (whatever that is). I can't honestly say that I know for sure what I am. I have my own personal beliefs on the major issues but in some cases am more conservative and in other cases am more liberal.

5. Are you a pet person? Big fat yes! I love pets and have always had them. We have a few at our house and if it was up to me we would have a ton more. We have 2 cats, 2 bunnies, and a tank of fish. I would love to get a dog, but our landlords have had some bad experiences so we are not allowed. But let me tell you, as soon as we are in a place where we can have them we will be getting a dog or 2!

Late Christmas Post

I decided it was probably time for my blogging hiatus to end. I always have such good intentions to blog many nights, but it never seems to happen. I guess I waste so much time trying to think of something interesting to post that I never actually get the post done. So my (late) New Years resolution is to be a better blogger, and by that I mean to post more frequently and to try and post more than just what we have done that day. So if anyone has suggestions or anything you are dying to know about me feel to let me know.

We had a wonderful Christmas together. We spent time this year thinking about what traditions we wanted to start as a family now that Madison is getting older. We spent a night decorating our tree together, made and decorated cookies for Santa, and let her open one present on Christmas Eve. We decided to get her a new pair of Christmas Jammies every year that she will be able to open the night before to wear to bed. Christmas Eve was really relaxed and we just hung around the house with my mom and dad and took it easy. Christmas morning we got up and opened our stockings as soon as little miss woke up and also showed her new playhouse downstairs since that was a little bit too big to take to Uncle Chris' apartment. I even took a short nap before getting ready to leave and it was wonderful! Once we got to his apartment we had dinner, opened gifts, decorated a few cookies that we saved to great gramma and uncle Chris could join in, and played with all of Madison's fun new stuff. The next day we were supposed to go celebrate with my dad's family but had a very unhappy little girl who wasn't feeling good. So I stayed home with her so that we could go get her ears looked at. 2 hours and an antibiotic later we were home. We still can not get these annoying ear infections to go away, but thats a whole nother post. Meanwhile here are a few pictures from Christmas.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Good Night!