Just Hanging Out At The Hospital

Here's your mom getting a fetal stress test on the Monday before you were to be born.  They monitored your heart rate and your mom for contractions.  We sat there for about a half hour before they got enough data to say that you were totally unstressed.

After that we went in for an ultrasound where they confirmed that you still had enough amniotic fluid around you and that you were still a girl (whew!).

With both those tests passed the greenlit us for an induction on Wednesday night (TONIGHT!).  Ready or not Madison you're coming out :)

Overdue

Well Madison it seems like you really like that womb your mother has made for you.  So much that you're now 3 days over due and showing no signs of wanting to come out.  Luckily modern medicine has the cure for that stubbornness - drug induced labor!

So the plan is for us to go to the hospital Wednesday night where they will give your mom a cervix thinner and a sedative.  She'll sleep the night away while I attempt to sleep the night away on the god awful chair/pullout bed thing they have in the rooms for dads.  In the morning they'll give Meghan some sort of suppository that'll get the whole show on the road.  If everything goes well you'll be born Thursday morning/afternoon.  Hopefully you have a nice short birth like all the kids on my side of the family.  We'll be in the hospital for another 2 nights and get home just in time for the Georgia season opener.

Don't worry, I have your pink Georgia baby hat ready for when you leave the hospital!

Text From Your Mother...

One More Day...in Theory

Alright Madison it's the day before your due date.

Every one - parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends - are all on the edge of their seat waiting for me to send word that Meghan has gone into labor.  I've gotten several texts already wondering if you've started your journey to the outside word.  Unfortunately I have to tell everyone that so far there's been no sign that you're ready to come out.  No real contractions, no Braxton Hicks contractions, nothing.  The closest we get are some cramps that your mom has.

We're in this strange holding pattern.  We can't really go anywhere or do anything too time consuming cause your mom could start getting contractions at any time.  I really hope you come tonight or tomorrow cause other wise this is going to be a long boring weekend!  Plus we're both kinda looking forward to a little time off work and if you came this weekend I'd get a nice little extra long vacation cause I'd take next week off and get Labor Day off as well.

So come on! Get to it!  We can't wait to see your little baby face for the first time!

Come Out Already!

Ok Madison - we're down to the final week here and everyone is on the edge of their seat waiting for your mother to go into labor.  Every day I get texts from my friends in Atlanta, "Is she in labor yet?".  Every morning I ask Meghan if she's had any contractions.  So far nothing!  Your mom went to her weekly checkup on Monday and you hadn't progressed at all.  AND you had turned so that your head was up on top again, facing the wrong way.

Meghan is very big now and uncomfortable all the time.  At the very least you could vacate the womb for her?

My parents come up to meet you for the first time a week from today.  I hope that we have a baby to show them!  The plan is that if you haven't be delivered naturally by Monday than we'll get a sonogram and if everything looks good Meghan will get induced by the end of the week.  In that scenario things get a little dicey for the visiting Georgia grandparents.

I know your technical due date is this Saturday but I just can't wait to meet you so why don't you come on out early?  Do it for dad?

Love
Dad

10 Days

Hello Madison,

We're only 10 days away from meeting you for the first time!  At least that's the plan.  After 2 weeks of progress towards delivery this week's visit to the doctor revealed no change :(  You're pointed the right way but you've got a ways to go in the downward direction before you're ready to come out.  People were hoping you'd come early, perhaps on your Mom's birthday on the 16th, but it looks like the best we can hope for is that you're on time.  Don't be late!  My parents are flying up here for Labor Day weekend and you need to be born by then!

Over the weekend your Mom had me put together a shelving unit for all your toys.  You're not even born yet and you already have enough toys for a whole storage unit! I thought that it should be put in the basement because that's where you'd spend most of your time playing but she wanted it near your room.  Since you're reading this in the future you'll know who turned out to be right.  I'm guessing your father had to eventually move that stupid shelf down two flights of stairs...

That's about it for now.  Remember - be on time!

Love,
Dad

Two Weeks...

Hello Madison!

We are getting into the red zone now with your delivery.  Only 2 weeks (and a day) until your due date.  You Mom is now going to the doctor every week to make sure things are going well and thankfully everything is.  The doctor says Meghan is almost 2cm dilated up from 1cm last week which means that you're getting ready to come out.  She couldn't tell us if that meant you'd be coming early though.

By this point I'm sure your Mom would appreciate you coming a little early - she's very uncomfortable these days and is waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to fall asleep.  And she's hot all the time.  Ask her how much I loved her little fan every night during that last trimester :)

Your Grandparents Reining were in Europe for the past week for a wedding.  They were seriously worried about you arriving while they were over there.  I kept telling Meghan to text them that we were in the hospital but she wouldn't go with the joke.  Boo!

I'll leave you with this picture I saw on Twitter today that I found very amusing.  Hopefully you've got a good sense of humor like your Dad...