Madeleine has Arrived!

Late Thursday night/early Friday morning around 2am I started having some contractions and over the course of the morning they became more regular. We ended up calling my OB's office and got the go ahead to go the hospital at 11:30am and we headed right over. We were able to get checked in and squared away with no problem, but when they examined me, I was still 1-2cm dilated...I hadn't made any more progress since my check-up appointment the day before. The OB asked me to walk around for an hour to see if that would help things move along and sadly it didn't. But when the doctor examined me, she was checkin to see if I was 2cm, and I opened up to 3cm. At that point, they said I could either stay in the hospital or go home for a while and come back when the contractions were stronger. I was really uncomfortable so we decided to just stay at the hospital and I'm so glad we did! I couldn't imagine driving back out a few hours later with the more intense contractions going on! I ended up dilating to 4cm about 2 hours later, they broke my bag of water and things moved well from there. I requested an epidural as my contractions had become a lot more painful and all I can say is thank the good Lord for allowing someone to invent that!

About 3 hours later the OB came in to check my progress and I was fully dilated and ready to go! I pushed for about a half hour and then the OB had to step out to deliver another baby, so we were on hold for about an hour. When she was back, we started pushing again for another 2 hours and made good progress. The OB had to step out for another quick procedure at this point, so we waited out some of the contractions and when she came back we did our last half hour or hour of pushing. That was the hardest hour of my life! I was physically so exhausted that I didn't know where the strength would come from, just that it had to come!

Maddie arrived...absolutely perfect...on Friday night, March 20th, at 11:05pm! She weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces and measured 20" long. She is so beautiful!! We couldn't be more in love! Here are a couple quick pictures for you!

This is Maddie's very first photo!

These are some cute close ups of her adorable face!



And of course, when we dressed her to come home yesterday, we thought that showing her early love for the purple and gold LSU Tigers would be perfect!

Right now, we're back at home getting situated and realizing what is truly meant by "lack of sleep"! As soon as we have our feet underneath us again, we'll be sure to post more.

Love you all!
Nile & David