living the dream: Our Baby Story

I know in my last post, I said I was going to post more frequently, well... since I last sat at this computer A LOT has happened! Since I totally failed to write frequent updates about the arrival of our 3rd baby, I'll backtrack and try to summarize the very EXCITING events of our Halloween 2008.

Thursday, when I last posted, I was having a day of contractions, that tapered off in the afternoon and I figured we were not having a baby that day. I tried to rest because I hadn't slept much the night before, but the kids were excited for the Halloween events that were coming up on Friday... so they tried on their costumes. We headed to Lewiston, which is where most of Wes' family lives, and they did their Trick-or-Treating at the Great Grandmas and Grandma's house.

Here are the pirate, Great Grandma Joy, and Rapunzell the night before Halloween

We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner, and I did my usual Thursday night bookkeeping for the Construction company. I noticed my contractions getting more intense, and after talking to the nurse at the hospital, we decided to leave the kids with the grandparents and start on the drive to the hospital. We made it to Red Bluff in just over a 1 and a half hours, trying to drive safely on the newly slick from rain, and foggy mountain roads. When we arrived, it was 10 pm, and the contractions were about 3-5 minutes apart and very painful. I was a bit dissappointed to find out I was only 4 cm dilated and still had a long way to go. Wes' parents drove down the mountain with the kids, his mom came in and joined us, while his dad and the kids slept in the van. Within the first hour there, I quickly progressed to 7 cm, but was beyond exhausted between contractions and eagerly awaited the arrival of Andre, who was called in to give me my epidural. Just before 1:30 am, things got exciting. My parents arrived from Oakland in time to join us in the delivery room, and the nurse called my Dr. in because I was 9 3/4 dilated, and my water still hadn't broke. But I was having constant strong contractions, that were even felt on top of my epidural. My Dr. arrived at 1:35, and after a quick hello, and 2 1/2 short pushes, our newset daughter was born! Madison Joy Scribner entered the world surrounded by loving family at 1:50 am, October 31, 2008. That's right, she's a Halloween baby- weighing in at 8 lbs, 7 oz and 21 inches long!

Mom and Dad take a first look at their sweet little girl

Here she is on the warming bed

With mom

Grandma Linda

Grandma Sue

Kylee meets her new sister for the first time!

Sisters!

Owen is not too excited about waking up at 2:30am to greet the baby!

Madi's first bath with our lovely nurse, Eileen

Daddy swaddles his newest princess after her late night bath.

We are so blessed, she is absolutely healthy- slept wonderfully the first night, is a champion at breastfeeding, passed her hearing test and pediatrician check-up, they cleared us to go home with an early release that day. We had an amazing hospital stay at St. Elizabeth's, we had incredible nurses and pretty much a whole wing to ourselves since there was only 1 other woman admitted that day. Here's a link to the hospital online nursery- where you can catch another glimpse of her if all my pictures aren't enough!
Here are some Halloween daytime pictures at the hospital:

Madison looks super cool in her hearing test headphones

Friend Jen and little Jimmy come up for a visit.

Jimmy wants to scoot Madi around the room in her bassinette.

Heading home with our new baby girl

All ready for the road trip.

We were back on the road by 5 pm on Halloween, and home just as the kids were finishing trick-or-treating on Main Street with Grandma and Auntie Amy. Both sets of Grandparents, Auntie, and Taylor helped make a nice family dinner and get the kids all settled back in with us and our new baby after a very exciting and tiresome 24 hours!