Such a blessing: The birth of Madelyn

My pregnancy began with lots of morning sickness, but I didn’t mind because I was so excited to be a mom for the first time!

When the contractions began 3 weeks before my due date, I was thinking it had to be something other than labor pain because it was too early. I laid in bed all night long and wrote down what time each contraction started, what time it ended and how many minutes were in between contractions. They started about 7 minutes apart and I was fairly uncomfortable. Instead of panicking like I thought I would, I took my time taking a shower and getting primped for the big day. (I wasn’t going to the hospital unless I looked just right, of course.) We went to the hospital around 8 a.m. Luckily it was a Saturday, so the baby’s aunt and grandparents were all able to be in the room during my labor.

My water broke shortly after arriving at the hospital, and it hit me that this day would be our baby’s birthday. This day would change me forever. I was no longer just a daughter, sister, granddaughter and wife. I was about to add MOTHER to the list. I couldn’t be more excited!

After several hours of horribly painful contractions, it became apparent that the birth would be via C-section due to fluxuations in the baby’s heart rate. They took my husband out of the room and prepped him for the surgery. I was SO excited that it didn’t even phase me that I was about to have majoy surgery. We waited to find out the gender until the birth, so I was too focused on finding out what we were having to even care what the doctors were about to do to me!

Within minutes I saw and heard my beautiful baby for the first time. My husband and I were overwhelmed with love! After the nurses weighted and wrapped the baby, my husband marched out to the waiting room like a proud papa and announced to our anxiously awaiting families … “It’s a GIRL!” He’s never had such a proud moment! Madelyn is such a blessing!

Send us your birth story! Whether you had a home birth, hospital birth, 37-hour labor or emergency C-section, we’d love to read the tale of your little one’s grand entrance. Write up your birth story (click here for tips on getting started) and email it, along with a few photos, to birthstory@pnmag.com. We’ll share it on our Birth Day blog and may even print it in an upcoming issue!