Baby girl Maddison Anne Marie was born Monday February 27th at 3:07am weighing 6lbs 11oz and 20.5 inches long.

Our story is long.. the last couple months have been LONG. I'll start out by saying I'm Mama to a beautiful 3.5 year old girl named Kenna. She's amazing, she's my best friend, was extremely excited to be a big sister and is smart as a whip. That's what made things so hard.

On January 17th, my water ruptured. I was 31 weeks and 2 days. It was a small leak... but after thinking I just peed a bit, again, I realized what happened and went to the hospital. It was confirmed thru a swab and then again under a microscope that it was my waters. Within 10 minutes I was given my first steroid shot, started on antibiotics and given one of several suppositories to prevent contractions and then admitted. The next 2 days I was given 2 steroid shots antibiotics every 6 hours thru an IV and suppositories every 8 hours. The 5 days after that I was on oral antibiotics. I had NSTs every day, 2 biophysical ultrasounds every week and was on bedrest. NICU came and met with us and prepared us for the worst, which was terrifying. After the first week my daughter got sick, so she couldn't even come up to the hospital to visit me. Being away from her was the hardest thing I have ever done. Though she's only 3, she's extremely smart and knew exactly what was going on. She took me being gone hard. She was sympathetic, and more understanding of why I was gone than any 3 year old should ever have to be.

We scheduled induction on Sunday February 26th. They were going to skip the foley balloon and start with misoprostol. 9 am I was brought to the high risk section and hooked up. After a couple uneventful hours with the misoprostol I was checked. Nothing. My cervix was long and hard. The dr inserted a balloon to help things along, and then at 2pm I was given another dose of the misoprostol. I was checked when the balloon came out and found to be 2cm but I wasn't feeling anything and the monitor wasn't picking up on anything. At 6pm, they started me on oxytocin. They said we could increase it every 30 minutes by 2, which was done. Right after 6 they also told me if I wanted an epidural I had to get it then, because the only anesthesiologist was going to be tied up. I didn't want to be stuck without it having been induced with my first and knowing the pain I was in for, so I got it. Finally labour started. My contractions were minor and barely registered on the monitor. My body was fighting hard. I was checked twice more in the next couple hours and hadn't progressed past 2cm. All of a sudden at 2 am I started feeling pressure.. I convinced my nurse to check me and was found to be an 8, even though less than 10 minutes before I was at a 2.

From here things went crazy.

By about 2:10 I was telling me nurse I was ready to push. She informed me the on call Dr was in a c section (just started at 2am) and I'd have to labour down for a bit. So I fought the urge to push.. 45 minutes later I was screaming that she was coming. The dr was still busy and the nurses were trying to get me to stop... I don't even know how many times I was told to close my legs. HA. no chance. I asked the nurse if she'd eve delivered a baby by herself and she said no and she wasn't going to. I told her tonight's your night let's go and started pushing. After being told to stop and everybody in the room telling me TO RELAX they finally figured out that this baby was coming whether they were ready or not. They grabbed my legs, nurse on one side and my boyfriend on the other and finally told me to push. Not even 3 seconds later, everybody in the room, 2 nurses my boyfriend and both our mothers screamed STOP because the baby was coming (I told them so!). They ripped apart the bed and put the stirrups up. At this point the dr comes running in and suits up (lucky for the nurse haha), I put my feet on the stirrups (not my legs in them) and pushed my baby girl out in one push. I have NEVER felt so much relief in my life. Had they made me wait even another minute or 2, the baby would have came anyway. The next bit is a blur.

Baby did awesome and was placed on my chest. I delivered my placenta with no complications (unlike my first, my cord broke but that's another story). After begging they finally took my epidural out. I asked over and over for them to let me walk, but they wouldn't. I was in very little pain, and still have very little considering how fast she flew out.

That morning my daughter came up. Her aunt and grandparents came up and just a couple close friends. Tuesday morning baby's bilirubin came back high but we were sent home with an appointment the next day to come back and check it. MacKenna was THRILLED to have me and her little sister home, after a total of 43 days away. Wednesday we went for her appt and her bilirubin climbed again, but again we were sent home to come back the next day. Thursday her levels had climbed high enough that they decided to admit her. Since then, we've been back in hospital. This has been so incredibly hard being away from my oldest. Once again she's sympathetic and it's heartbreaking. I feel like it's a cruel joke that I'm being made to decide whether to stay at the hospital with the baby or go home with my oldest. But there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Tomorrow morning they expect her levels to be low enough finally to go home, again. I cannot WAIT to be home with both my girls home with me.

I'm sure I've missed lots, but this is our story. My boyfriend isn't my firsts father, but he's been around since she was a month old and has always been amazing with her, loves her like his own.. seeing him with the baby has been unexplainable. I've fallen in love with him all over again. I'm so proud of these 3, and so glad I get to call them mine.

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