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| Proud Daddy and Maddison. |
With everything going on in our lives I haven't had a chance to write about our newest addition Maddison. Maddison Diane was born April 9th at 5:04pm weighing in at 8lbs 14oz and 20in long. She has dark hair with blonde highlights, and yes the highlights are natural! If you haven't been following my blog, Maddison has complete AV heart block like both of the boys. We were hoping she would be our lucky charm and not have the heart block. Maddison was scheduled to arrive on April 16th, which would of put me at 38 weeks. Our doctors suggested the early delivery hoping her heart rate would increase after she was born. During most of the pregnancy her heart rate was in the low 60's. Maddison decided to come a little earlier than expected. I went in on the morning of the 9th for a doctors appointment. One of the issues I had during my pregnancy was an issue with low amniotic fluid. Crazy enough that scared me more than the heart block, just because it was unfamiliar to me. Well, the morning of the 9th I went in and had only 2cm worth of fluid, which is extremely low. The doctor said "I think you will be having a baby today". I also had an appointment in the same office with our cardiologist. After meeting with her and looking at Maddison's heart she said everything was good to go for having a baby that day. That morning I had taken the one vehicle Perry and I were driving to the appointment. I called Perry from the doctors office and told him to get to the hospital as soon as he could. I headed over to the hospital to check in while Perry was trying to find someone to sit with Ethan and a ride over to the hospital. Perry finally made it around 11am thanks to his sister. After trying to figure out the plan for the day, they decided we would shoot for around 3 or 4 for my c-section. So the next few hours Perry and I had to figure out a name for this baby girl, and yes it took several hours.
So let me back up a bit and tell you a little about my previous deliveries. In having schedule c-sections I have never felt a contraction or know what true labor feels like In a way I've felt a little cheated that I never got the chance to experience this but, on the other hand I'm okay with not knowing what the pain of labor feels like. For whatever reason God chose for us to have these children with heart block, it has left me feeling like I missed out on a lot of the things that happen when you have a baby. For instance, I have never held one of my babies after they were born. We got to see Caden right after he was born and then he was taken to the NICU but it was the next day before I was able to hold him. Ethan was taken straight up to the NICU when he was born and then was transported to Children's Medical Center a few hours after he was born. I got to see him for about 20 minutes before he was transported and it was 3 days before I was able to hold him. With Maddison, we were able to see her after she was born before they took her to the NICU. I wasn't able to hold her until the next morning. There have been times when I've felt very angry that I missed out on those things but then I realize that's selfish of me and I should be blessed that I have these beautiful children.
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| Maddison right before she was transported to Children's |
One of the decisions that had to be made after she was born was whether they needed to send her straight to Children's or could she stay with me at Baylor Medical Center. Luckily, she was able to stay with me but would have to be in the NICU. Maddison was requiring some oxygen and they needed to monitor her heart rate. I was able to visit her the next morning and went back there frequently. She was the largest baby in the NICU by almost 7lbs. The next day the decision was made to keep her at Baylor with me until I was discharged and then send her to Children's. The doctors in the ICU were saving a room next to Ethan just in case. The day I was discharged they decided to transport her over to Children's since she was still on oxygen. The funny thing was that the transport team was the same people who transported Ethan from the airport to the hospital 2 weeks prior. They were so nice and did a drive by in the ICU so Ethan could meet his baby sister. Unfortunately he was asleep and didn't get to see her. They put her on the 8th floor and gave me a wheelchair to get me from the ICU to the 8th floor to see both my kids. Maddison did not require any oxygen once she arrived at Children's, so she was monitored overnight. That next morning we got word they would be discharging her later that morning. We also were told they were working on getting everything cleared so we could take Maddison by Ethan's room before we left. The smile on Ethan's face when he saw his sister was priceless!!
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| Ethan's first time to see his Baby Sister. |
Maddison is now 8 weeks old and doing good. She had her first cardiologist appointment 4 weeks ago and everything seems to be good. Her heart rate that day was 65. She had an EKG, echocardiogram, and wore a halter monitor for 24 hours. Some of the things they check for during these appointments are heart size, thickness of the heart wall, and velocities on how much blood is being pumped. When the heart beats so slow it causes the heart itself to be larger and the walls to thicker than normal. This is just one way the heart compensates for being so slow. We go back in 2 months for another checkup. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing that everyone knows us so well in the heart clinic!!
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| Halter monitor |
Here lately I've questioned different events that have occurred the past several months. I've wondered why God allowed us to get pregnant knowing we were going to have a baby while we were going through a really tough situation with Ethan. But, I soon realized that having Maddison has been a blessing in disguise. She has given us something to celebrate while dealing with uncertainties with Ethan. I truly believe that having her has helped us get through all of this. God does have a reason for things even when we don't see them at first.
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| Big Brother Caden and Maddison |
