Madilyn's Birth Story 01.24.19

Well, here we are on our 4th child and I haven't even written her birth story yet. She's already one. This will be the best version that I have from my memory. We were scheduled to be induced(as per usual) on January 24th, 2019. It was a pretty typical last week being pregnant. I was really uncomfortable. It was the first time that I have been pregnant while I had other kids in school, so walking the halls was really awkward and embarrassing for me. The night before we were scheduled to be induced, my mom had the kids over for a sleepover. We dropped them off and then went to Brown's to have some supper. We got home and I can't even remember if we watched a movie or packed our bags, I just remember that Andrew put the car seat in the car that night...way to wait until the last minute haha! We arrived at the hospital around 6AM. There wasn't anyone in the emergency waiting room. We were admitted right away and sent upstairs. I was so excited to see the new birthing suites, they did not disappoint! It was still dark outside and we had a direct view of the parkade, so we were able to watch everyone arrive for their shifts while the nurse was taking our information. I was too nervous to eat that morning, plus you don't want to eat too much, if you know what I'm saying. So I quickly ate a fruit bar and then got changed into my hospital gown. By that time they were in the middle of shift change and we were just chilling out, getting excited. The birthing plan was different then any of my other inductions. My doctor decided to just come in and break my water right off the bat without using any of the gel. She checked me, broke my water and was out of there! You can tell she is super efficient haha. From there, I got my IV put in and was just waiting to have my epidural. Here is when one of the most memorable parts of this birth came to be. I kept filling up my blue bed pads with amniotic fluid and they were just changing them over and over again but I started to feel like I needed to pee as well. The main RN had gone on break and so I was left with a nursing student. It wasn't even her practicum either, she was just on the floor for a few days to see what labour and delivery was like. You could tell she was totally out of her element and that this wasn't an area of the field that interested her. I asked her if she could see if one of the senior nurses wanted me to use anything specific to walk from the bed to the bathroom without getting amniotic fluid on the floor. She went and asked and they told her it was fine if I just held the bed pad underneath myself as I shuffled to the bathroom. My nurse just happened to come back in as I was contemplating how to pull this off without making a mess. She was all like "oh you should be fine, we've already changed the bed pads quite a few times, I'm sure you won't make a mess if you just hold one under yourself and walk to the bathroom". I don't think they realized how much fluid I was carrying, I knew there was still a lot left in there. Anyways, my prediction of making a huge mess was accurate and as I stood up to go the bathroom, the bed pad filled up completely and I just started getting TONS of amniotic fluid all over the floor. The RN was SO nice and made me feel so good, she was like "it isn't a problem at all, we will clean that up for you!!" So I figured they would get a janitor in there to mop up that part of the floor (there really was a lot of it). But instead, she told the nursing student to help her and they were trying to wipe it all up with cavi wipes. It was quite humorous and very memorable. Andrew just laughed at me. Anyways, soon after that I was able to get my epidural. The anesthesiologist was a woman and she did a great job of my epidural but they were so efficient that morning that is was probably only 8:30AM by the time all of this had occurred. So now the waiting game had commenced. We did what any couple in love does, we stared at our phones for a bit! Nothing was really happening. I had started to contract pretty regularly but they weren't painful obviously...just a tightening and then release. I'm always really interested in anything medical so I didn't spend too much time on my phone. I was happy to sit an stare at the monitor to see how things were going. Our nurse was fantastic (she was actually my brother's friends little sister and her and my mom had gone to nursing school together.) She was very knowledgable and seemed to really love her job. As we were getting closer to noon, my doctor had come back and checked me, I was still only a 4 so she decided to give me a little pitocin to give my body the little kick it needed to progress some more. I definitely started to feel my contractions were amping up. It was noon when my main nurse went on lunch and another RN came in to cover for her while she was gone. This other nurse was fantastic as well! I had such a great experience this time around. She visited with me but I was starting to feel that my labour was changing. I was feeling uncomfortable but not quite in pain yet at this point. She decided to check me again and I was about a 6-7 she said (this is around 12:45). By 1pm I was really starting to feel some pain (which was unlike my other deliveries). I totally forgot about the top up button on the epidural and I guess things were so chill for so long that no one reminded me that I could use it. The nurse helping me said I should push the button and see if it would help at all. I didn't quite know if I had progressed the last 3-4 cm's in the last 15 minutes but I wasn't wanting to talk at all during my contractions. The nurses started placing bets on when the baby was going to be here. The temporary RN was like "I'm pretty sure we are going to have a baby by 1:30". At this point she decided to check me so she could call the doctor if necessary. She said I was at 10 cm but that I needed to try and rest so that the doctor would have a chance to run over here (she practices across the street from the hospital). Well for a girl who's epidural has started to wear off...resting wasn't really an option. So I turned onto my side, tried to grin and bear it while my doctor was called. My main RN was back by that point and was surprised by how fast I had progressed in an hour. I couldn't lay there anymore, I needed to push! She said "how about we do some practice pushes while we wait"(this was around 1:10). So I turned onto my back, got my legs up and started pushing. They were amazing coaches, but when it gets to the pushing part, I almost want to say "don't worry, I got this". I was in A LOT of pain by this point. Right when my doctor walked in I started crying (something I haven't done EVER during labour). She was like "ahhh, it's okay, it's okay, you are okay". I think it was just a combination of feeling most of the labour but also the relief I felt when she showed up so I could push this baby out!! She was an amazing coach as well. Madilyn had the cord wrapped around her so she was able to coach me on when to push and when to ease off the pushing so she could get the cord off of her. Andrew said it was amazing to watch her get Madilyn out. Of course we didn't know who or what this little baby was yet. I felt her head come out and then that really weird feeling when the rest of the body follows and kind of just slips out haha. So they lift her up to put her on my chest and obviously Andrew is by my side and sees that she is a girl before I got the chance. So they lay her on my chest and I still don't know what it is! Andrew was all teary eyed and looked SO happy...so I assumed it was a boy (not that he wouldn't have been happy with a girl, but he was hoping for a boy). So I immediately assume that it's a boy, and say "Is it a boy?" and he was like "no, it's a girl", which made that moment so incredibly special. It was literally heaven touching earth. Such an amazing moment. I have always wanted a lot of kids so I wasn't really leaning towards either gender. I had guessed from the beginning of the pregnancy that is was a girl but we decided to have one surprise baby. Logically I thought it would be great to have a boy close in age to Max so they could be besties but something about that moment when we met her. Everything just felt so perfectly right. Like she was absolutely the next little spirit that was meant to enter our family. She was absolutely perfect. Her official time of birth was 1:18pm and she weighed 7 lbs 9 oz. My tiniest baby yet! I don't have her exact measurements but she was around 20cm long, so even though it seems like she would be light, she was pretty short and stout! I held her for a little bit while they did all the "end of labour" stuff. They then weighed her, and listened to her heart, they thought they heard a murmur so that was a little bit scary (I always go to worst case scenario) but Lexi had the same thing and she was fine the next day. Anyways, I held her for a little bit longer but I always get the "shakes" after I have my babies. So Andrew took her for about an hour while I suffered through them. They were especially bad this time. I felt like I was dying!!! The student nurse made me some peanut butter toast and I literally wanted to throw up at the sight of it. Nurses kept coming in to check on me and try to calm me down but nothing was working. They had me loaded with warm blankets, at least 5 of them! I was finally able to drink some apple juice and I think the fact that I hadn't really eaten a good breakfast that morning and had just pushed another human out of my body had affected my blood sugars. So once I had started drinking the juice I started coming out of it. Everything after that was pretty standard. I was able to cuddle with her for a little bit longer before the wheeled me over to the post-partum floor. We didn't want to pay for a private room but ended up not having to share, which was awesome! My mom and grandma came with our kids but they weren't allowed onto the floor, so we met them in the little waiting area and they got to meet "the baby". The girls were very excited but you could tell Max was really homesick. It was his first night away from us and I don't think he was feeling very good. Andrew decided to take the kids with him home to get them some supper and Mom decided she would stay at our house for the night so that Max would be able to feel more comfortable. So Andrew left with my grandma I think, to take the kids home. Mom stayed with Brock for a bit and my Dad showed up later on. The nameless baby and I cuddled for a bit by ourselves but I had a student nurse that kept checking on me non-stop...her voice was so crazy high that I couldn't take her seriously. I wanted to laugh at her every time she would talk...I'm terrible but seriously...it couldn't have been real and she was annoying me! So next to being her little "project case" everything went as decently as it can while you are stuck in the hospital. We didn't sleep very well, a snow plow was clearing the walks at like 4AM and Andrew was snoring the whole night....so I was eager to get home. I was trying to decide on a name for the baby. When I first found out I was pregnant (before I knew the gender) I had Hudson Gordon Maclean as my boy name and Olivia Dawn Maclean as my girl name. My friend ended up naming her little girl Livvy, which totally suits her but I knew we would probably be in the same ward and school for a while and wanted my baby to have a different name. I was so TORN because I love that name so much and couldn't really think of anything else. One of my other top girl names was Addilyn but it just wasn't speaking to me in the hospital haha. So I chose a name that had been on my list when we were pregnant with Max (before we knew he was a boy), Madilyn! We chose both our moms middle names because we found out we were pregnant with Madilyn on Mother's day of 2018. So there you have it! We did the little blood test at the end and they had to squeeze Madi's foot like crazy to get enough blood, then ended up just poking it again. We drove home and I really wanted to have some McDonalds before we got home, while we were at the McDonald's, Andrew made me drive because he was tired and his eyes were dry LOL. I like to tease him over that. When we got home my Grandma was there, she had made us dinner. She is the best! She had a few baby cuddles and then decided to leave us....too soon... Our journey as a family of 6 had began!

Baby Max's Birth Story 08.19.16

I am so bad at blogging! It has definitely been put on the back burner, however, this is the only platform I use for journaling. Most likely, it will just be a place where I record big huge important events, like birth stories!

Just like my other two pregnancies, I was overdue and super ready to have this baby. I was scheduled for an induction on Friday, August 19th. When I got to the hospital we signed in at the ER and it was completely empty in there. I was really happy because I thought that meant that labour and delivery would be fairly quiet as well. When we got up to Labour and Delivery, the nurses were just about to do a shift change and had told me it was going to be a very busy day. I started getting nervous that they might send me home. Max had not dropped AT ALL. Thank-goodness the doctor came in at 8am and put the gel in. I knew I was golden after that! My contractions came on within 5 minutes with this baby. I immediately felt a lot of pain with each contraction. I started timing them on my labour app because the nurses seemed really busy that morning. The girl next to us was a first time Mom and had to have an US to confirm her baby was breach, so I kind of was forgotten about for an hour or so. My nurse seemed distracted and didn't really seem too concerned with my pain level (side note-this post is coming off as kind of negative towards nurses, not my intention at all, just trying to get my raw feelings and experiences down in writing). Anyways, she encouraged us to go walking(about 9AM by this point). With Lexi I went walking for 10-20 minutes, every hour, with very manageable contractions. I was able to chat with Andrew and walk quite a bit between each contraction. With Max, I could walk maybe 5 steps (dead serious), before having a pretty painful contraction. Heck, I had a nap after getting induced with Lexi, so I knew it wouldn't be a terribly long labour with Max. Our walk took about 30 minutes and all we did was walk up the surgical hallway and back with lots of talk about Andrew getting a vasectomy LOL. I was ready to get back in bed! When we got back we had to wait another half an hour before it was time for me to have another blood pressure check. I continued to breath through each contraction but I was definitely in a significant amount of pain. I could hear one nurse say to the other nurse "the girl in bed one sure is huffing and puffing"...now I'm definitely not one to ask for things because I usually feel like I am putting others out...but I was hoping after that comment they would send someone in to check on me! I don't know what was going on behind the scenes but it took until about 10:20AM before anyone came to check on me. I was about to ask Andrew to go out there because I knew I was about a 4 and I was super ready for my epidural lol! A new nurse came in at 10:20 and took my blood pressure...I asked if she was going to check my cervix but she said that I wouldn't get checked until the doctor came at noon. Well, I finally got some courage up because I was NOT having a baby without my epidural haha!! I asked her to check me but she was still really hesitant...I think the whole "this is my third baby and I know how far along I am" helped A LOT. She came back and checked my cervix...and I was 4 cm! This mama knows her body! So they had to wait a little bit before I could get into the actual delivery suite because of how busy it was. I finally got stuck with the suite with no windows...I was doing so good with those girls of mine haha! The anesthesiologist was already in there and getting ready for me. It took him a while to get the epidural in and even then it was only working on one side..the other side was about 50% numbed. It was about 11:20AM by the time he left the room. I felt so much relief after getting my epidural. I couldn't believe I had been in so much pain for so long with this baby. I was still feeling some burning on my right side and was having some major referred pain in my upper thigh and hip but SOME pain management is better then NOTHING! I felt some warmth and realized my water had broke. It's never broke on its own before so I was really happy they didn't have to stick that thing up my vajayjay and pop it themselves! Andrew said there was a lot of blood and the nurse had to keep changing my bed pads. Then came the waiting game...with my girls I had both of them within 15 minutes of getting the epidural. My body just relaxes and everything goes very fast after that but not with this little guy. The nurse checked me around noon and I was at 8cm. My doctor came in very shortly after that and had me flip onto my left side, he then went to check on another one of his patients. Within 3 minutes I felt pressure and the nurse started yelling to the other nurse to go get the doctor because she could see the head crowning! He popped back into my room just in time to catch Max. 12:22PM Maxwell Gordon Maclean was born! 9lbs 2oz (which I totally brag about all of the time) 21 inches long and his head was huge. They had him all wrapped up for me and I got some major newborn snuggles for the next hour! I lose a lot of blood after my babies so they put me on an oxytocin drip and monitor me in the delivery suite for about an hour. I told Andrew to go and get some lunch while he was waiting and boy was that a mistake! Everyone had left the room and I was holding Max when I started shivering pretty badly. My teeth were chattering, I was trying to get my blankets up higher, I'm surprised Max didn't have shaken baby syndrome!! But honestly, I was so scared something was wrong but I didn't think I would be able to hold Max with just one hand in order to push the call button. Someone was looking out for me because Andrew walked in just in time for me to say "take the baby". Then I really got shaky!! My whole body was going crazy. The nurses brought some heated blankets but those weren't working so they got me in the shower at the hottest setting it would go. Finally, about 10 minutes in, I started feeling less shaky. I guess it was just my body reacting to the anesthesia. Everything after that went pretty well. Andrew had asked me if I was nervous while we were getting ready that morning (keep in mind,it was right after the olympics and my pregnancy hormones make me a bit loopy)..my response "hunny, I'm not nervous at all, labour is like my olympic sport, I'm going to rock it in there". I am a crazy person, right?! LOL I love looking back at all the crazy stuff I say! Anyways, you sure do things differently on your third go around. I packed hardly anything...we didn't even bring wipes..which they don't provide anymore, just an FYI. So during Max's first meconium diaper, Andrew had to try and clean it with a wet cloth...best.thing.I.have.ever.watched. This kid is literally crapping and peeing all over Andrew and he is like a deer in headlights with this teeny tiny wet cloth. He kept trying to fold it different ways to find a clean spot to use..it was just so little! I still laugh just thinking about it. Anyways, there is definitely a part two to this hospital experience...I'm just not sure how much of it I want to share lol.

Photo Cred: Photography By Kels. Check her page out, she is absolutely amazing at what she does AND she is the sweetest person ever!

01.13.16

Can I just reiterate how hilarious Scarlette is with a few of the things she has said this week.

Andrew- "Do you need help?" (she's using the bathroom) 

Scarlette- "No! I need privacy!" 

The girls and I are driving in the car

Scarlette- "Daddy fixes cars? 

Me- "Yep, Daddy fixes lots of different cars." 

(There is a huge dirty yellow school bus stopped next to us) 

Scarlette- "Well, he really needs to clean that bus. It's so dirty." 

Hilarious that she thinks fixing cars means washing them...her daddy is a glorified car wash. Love it. 

I'm taking a bath the other day when Andrew peaks in to see what I'm doing and offers to get me some bubble bath from downstairs. Lexi is already in bed for the night so he leaves the door open and runs downstairs, whilst downstairs he needs to stop for a bathroom break (#2) after about 5 minutes of him being gone and the bath is all filled up, I figure that's what he is doing and I decide to call for Scarlette to come close the door for me. She sees what I am doing and says OK, and runs back into her room. Now, I figure I'm hooped. All of a sudden a little naked girl runs into the bathroom, closes the bathroom door and says "There mommy, I closed the door for you" and proceeds to jump into the bath. So much for my alone time. How is it that Andrew always ends up with no kids when it is suppose to me "mommy time". He is strangely good at that. 

I made stroganoff a few weeks ago and made her try a bite, she really really didn't want to, so it was kind of forced on her haha. She spit it out and started gagging, like we had fed her poison. Then she started to bawl. I was kind of miffed that she was making such a big deal so I kind of ignored her while I was cleaning up the food all over the floor. Then I went to my room and she followed me crying. Eventually, I felt sad that she was so upset haha so I picked her up and cuddled her and asked her why she wouldn't eat the nice dinner I made her. She said " I don't like Mommy food, I only like Scarlette food!" "what is Scarlette food?" "It's bread and cheese and juice". Which is basically all she eats around here haha. Also, she gives all the food she doesn't want to eat, to Lexi. 

She definitely keeps us on our toes! She is pretty sassy. I wish I could get some of her mannerisms on camera lol. 

01.07.16

My blogging has seriously been lacking over the past year! However, I've decided not to make New Year's resolutions this year because they always put way too much pressure on me haha. Instead, I have a small list of things that I would like to do better but if it doesn't end up happening, I won't be disappointed in myself. Pretty much the lazy way out haha! Christmas was really nice but very busy. We had both of our families over for Christmas eve for personal pizza's and dessert. My family watched a Christmas movie while we skyped Andrew's sisters. He has six of them and only one was able to make it over to our house for Christmas Eve. Esther and her family live in Hong Kong so we skyped them first, the kids were opening presents (time difference) and so we didn't keep them too long! We got Anna next, who lives in Idaho Falls. She had John on her lap and he was giving us the CUTEST faces. We had a good little visit with her, we were talking about how excited we were to meet her new babe who arrived December 29th. Next was Rebecca, who lives in Grand Prairie. I actually was changing Lexi at the time so I missed her call unfortunately. Karina was hosting a dinner party so we skyped her later that night. Miriam and Barry were headed to Cardston on Christmas day, and the boys were having supper at the Maclean's, so we exchanged gifts and got way too spoiled!!! 

The kids played while we ate way too much dessert! After the Maclean side left, the Hendry's played some card games...it got kind of wild!! We had a blast, I even pre-wrapped all the Christmas presents so I wouldn't be up until 2am doing that. After everybody left, Andrew helped me clean the house and I set up everything for Christmas morning!! My family came over for breakfast and the kids opened their presents. I honestly cannot express how spoiled my children are. It kind of just works out that way when you are the only one with kids. 1 and 3 year olds are way to fun to buy for! Plus, you can honestly get so much stuff for $100! That was my budget for both kids, and I think I ended up spending $150 on each of them with clothes and PJ's included. What can I say?? I have a problem. At least I'm admitting it haha. 

For Journaling Reasons

Great Grandma Lyons got the girls a little peoples nativity set, matching "thing 1" and "thing 2" PJ's, and some super cute books. 

Grandma Hendry got Lexi a Dress-up box with crowns, wands, rings etc. and Scarlette got a Sky and Chase paw patrol set...which she was ecstatic about and they each got a really cute outfit from Children's Place. 

Grandpa Hendry got Lexi dinosaurs and Jasmine PJ's, and Scarlette got a minnie mouse purse with lip stick, cell phone etc. and a Frozen Night gown. 

Uncle Austin got Lexi a little people's bath set and he got Scarlette another Ariel Barbie (which she had picked out with him a few days earlier) 

Auntie Ciara got Lexi some kitchen food in a cute little basket, Scarlette got paw patrol and good dinosaur books. Plus, we needed a roaster for Christmas dinner and she got that for us too! What a great sister! 

Grandma&Grandpa Maclean got the girls a Frozen sticker book and the cutest little music box I have ever seen. She gave me the cutest fridge magnet with coupons for certain meals I had been asking to learn how to cook. I'm excited to learn from her. 

Auntie Miriam and Uncle Barry got the girls a big Sky (from paw patrol) and the cutest little matching hair bows. 

Uncle Joe got the girls Carhard gear that they looked adorable in!! 

Andrew and I got Lexi some clothes, PJ's, water painting books, look&find books, a Frozen collapsible ball pit and a little monkey baby that makes screeching noises that are very similar to the ones that Lexi makes haha! She clicked on it's tummy and immediately started screeching. Scarlette got a pets alive turtle, which she had spotted on Hobby Kids, and was actually quite scared of it when we opened it up and put it on the floor (she has since warmed up to it). She also got quite a few books (I have an addiction to children's books!!). She got a new Ariel dress that fits, with shoes and a wand. 

Santa brought Lexi a little piano and some boots. Scarlette got Rocky from Paw patrol. 

After all the hoopla of present opening, we sat down and ate a huge breakfast that Andrew had made for us. He slaved over it! mmm...I'm hungry just thinking about it. Then we cleaned up, bathed the girls and started getting the roast ready for supper. Then, in pure Christmas day tradition, everyone crashed on the couch for a good snooze. We had roast, mashed potatoes, yorkshire pudding, carrots and peas for supper. Followed by my mom's delicious Skor cake for dessert. After we finished cleaning up we played more games and got even more obnoxious then the night before! Austin brought catch phrase on his phone and we did boys against girls....holy man...Austin and Dad were HILARIOUS to watch. Then we played some balderdash...which was also quite hilarious. Austin is quite a good little liar!!! It totally brought back memories of when Kylie, Maggie and I use to play. Kylie was always tricking us with her detailed answers....I have always sucked at balderdash! I think my favourite moment of the whole day was when I had to move Brock's Lego (which he had spent hours building) from the kitchen table into Scarlette's room so we could eat dinner. I was just about to put it on top of her shelf when it split in half and I dropped the WHOLE thing on the floor. It did NOT just break into two pieces once it hit the floor. It was completely annihilated. I fell to the floor in hysteria....I was totally beside myself. WAY TOO FUNNY. My poor brother...got stuck with such a crappy clumsy sister. Anyways, Christmas was super fun, even if it took me a whole week to recover from it.