What a Week!

First off, for an update of Maddox, we are changing his name to Jeffrey Maddox Bird...mainly because I decided I liked it better than Maddox Jeffrey Bird. It just flows better and to me he is a little Jeffrey, so I may just call him that. Afterall, I am the mom! It will be a hassle, but after actually getting a bit of sleep, it just feels better and you can't argue with that.

Second, I posted so quickly last time that I forgot to tell about my labor and Maddox's stats. He was born weighing 8 lbs. and was 21 1/4 inches long, so he was one big baby, considering I only gained about 16 pounds total during pregnancy. I weighed myself the other day and I actually weigh less than my prepregnancy weight, which is probably due to my muscle loss and lack of lifting weights. Either way, he was MUCH BIGGER than expected, which is probably why it took me almost two hours to push him out. And then when he did come out, Jeff said his head just kept coming and coming and coming and then finally there was some body. :)

From start to finish, they broke my water at 10:00 a.m. I was already dilated to a 3, 80% effaced, and he was at a -2 station. They started me on pitocin at 1:00 p.m. because I had only progressed to a 4 and really still hadn't felt any contractions. They came soon after that and I got an epidural around 3:30 p.m. all by myself! Jeff still had school to go to and had left for a clerkship he had to attend. It ended up taking longer than expected so I braved the epidural and got it without him there to comfort me. My mom was also around, but I can't remember where she went at the time. By 6:00 p.m. I still was only at a 5, so they started talking about a c-section possibility and decided to up the pitocin every 15-30 minutes to see if that would progress me. It did and at 9:30 p.m. I started pushing...right when my epidural ran out! I felt everything and boy did it hurt. The whole time I was laboring throughout the day they had trouble keeping my blood pressure up. I kept almost passing out and getting dizzy and nauseous and threw up twice. While pushing, the anesthesiologist had to come and give me more stuff through my epidural and kept giving me epinephrine shots through my IV throughout the day so I wouldn't pass out.

Eventually Maddox was born. He came out crying and turned pink right away. He let out a couple cries and then stopped abruptly and started looking around at everything. He is the best baby ever and hardly ever cries and when he does it is so cute! His lower lip trembles and it is such a quiet, polite cry. He is very alert and awake and eats great and sleeps great and is so precious. I love him so much! Being a mom is so so so fun! I think I want 20 kids now!

Some other exciting news we had is that Maddox was admitted to the hospital on Monday and we just got home today. When I went in for my 2 day check up, the doctor (a resident--nice, but still a resident), said Maddox's heart rate dropped to 30 beats per minute, called the paramedics and whisked us both off to the emergency room. I was bawling uncontrollably, thinking my baby was going to die. The resident said NOTHING. I had no idea what was going on, just that it had something to do with his heart. I do get a bit upset when I think back to it now, that she didn't say anything to me when I am the parent and have all the right in the world to know what is going on with my son...even moreso than she.

Maddox was then hooked up to all kinds of machines, poked, prodded, given an IV, EKG's, echocardiograms, all kinds of blood tests, a catheter, to name a few. It was horrible and I had to leave because he was screaming. Jeff stayed with him the whole time and held him and talked to him. I am so grateful for a strong husband who was able to support our son through this whole experience. It was the most horrible think I have ever experienced in my life. However, the whole time I kept feeling like, "Why are we hear? He is fine." I have never felt such amazing peace in my life...I can only attribute it to a mother's instinct.

I won't go through all the details of what happened over the next couple days, but will say that we are home now and Maddox has been given a clean bill of health, although he will have to see a cardiologist for a follow up appointment in one month just to make sure he is thriving. They diagnosed him as being a healthy baby and sent us on our way. He does have a lower than normal heart rate, which drops as low as the 70's during sleeping periods, but it still falls within "normal" range for sleeping babies. Apparently awake babies heart rates can range anywhere from 100-200 bpm and sleeping babies can range anywhere from 60-110 bpm. Maddox is just very healthy and doesn't need his heart to beat as fast. They were very concerned that his heart rate could have dropped to 30, but the fact that he was sitting in my arms at the time naked and squirming around is very contradictory to his heart being that slow. It is more likely there was human error involved. The doctors still had to check it out, but said a baby would pass out or turn blue or something if his heart rate fell that low, as would any person, and Maddox showed absolutely no signs of failure to thrive and never has. He is already back up to his birth weight and eats like a pig and is more alert than most babies his age. He is very healthy and we are very very thankful for this knowledge. I will still probably be a bit paranoid, but I am just so grateful to have him home with us now. Thanks to all who knew what we were going through and offerred their support and love! We really appreciated it!

Here is a video of Maddox. It is kind of long and bumpy, but you will see just how cute he is and how good he is and why we love him so so much!