Welcome home, Madison Nicole Welch

Suddenly, all of the cheesy cliche things that people say begin to ring true. "Bundle of joy" "Precious Spirit" and "Our Little Angel" are just a few of the phrases I never thought I would use. We are going to take you through the details of the past few days while they are fresh in our minds:

Monday, July 26th - 9:30 am
After a week of high blood pressure and mind numbing bed rest, we made our way to Brittney's doctor visit. We prepared ourselves to hear our doctor say that Brittney might have to be induced a week or two earlier than her original due date (August 15th). After the doctor had seen Brittney's numbers, he said (in slow motion I believe) "How 'bout we have you come in tomorrow night and we can get things started." Sheer panic. In the 24 hours previous to this news, Brittney had said a dozen or more times, that she wished the baby was coming this week. She obviously didn't mean it, judging by the look on her face. We left the doctor's office in shock, and returned home to begin to make a list of all the things we had to do before the baby came. Danny's family helped set up the crib that he and all his sisters used, and Brittney received a much needed priesthood blessing from Danny's dad, Phil.
11:30 pm
Brittney gets Danny out of bed, and they go out and get a large pizza to celebrate their last night of freedom with a bang.

Tuesday, July 27th
With a list of necessities compiled, and two willing grandmothers-to-be, we gathered anything and everything than anyone could possibly need for a baby. Danny paced through the house at least 49 times, making sure that everything was absolutely perfect for the arrival of his princess. We played cards and wrote thank you notes to help pass the time.
6:00 pm
We went into the stake offices to renew our temple recommends which expire at the end of July. Some of the people there thought it was strange that we chose to worry about temple recommend interviews at a time like this. Whatever, get out of our faces.
Our final stop before the hospital was Danny's parent's house. We had dinner, washed our clothes, and watched parts of Sherlock Holmes to help calm our nervousness, which was becoming more and more palpable by the minute.
8:45 pm
We got into the car, looked at each other, sighed a very big sigh, and said a prayer together before leaving for the hospital. When we arrived the nurses were all very kind and personable. They took us to one of their nicer rooms (Danny made sure to request the absolute best). The nurse had Brittney change, and then prepared to take her blood and place her IV. Danny decided that he was going to be strong and watch all of the upcoming events. Before Danny knew it, the nurse whipped out a needle the size of a pencil and jammed it into his sweet wife's arm. Blood everywhere. Danny was this close to karate chopping the nurse in the back of her head. The next nurse entered and vigorously placed the cervidil in Brittney to soften the cervix. The room had a nice little fold-out couch for Danny, so we laid down to attempt sleep. Danny got a whole 5 hours of sleep in, while Brittney only got an hour of sleep.

Wednesday July 28th, 6:00 am
The nurse who had been monitoring Brittney's blood pressure and the baby's heart rate came in and began taking out the cervidil. Since Brittney didn't sleep very well, she knew what was going on. It took Danny a few minutes to rub his dry contacts into shape and try to swallow the fact that he would welcome his daughter into the world this day. Doctor Harward had told us to expect him around noon to come and break Brittney's water, but at around 7 am he walked in and, in his same slow motion voice, said, "Let's go ahead and break your water, which will be the point of no return." He then broke her water (a surprisingly simple task) and the nurse began Brittney's pitocin.
7:30 am
Brittney's contractions begin. They quickly morph from, "Oh wow, that is a hard contraction." to a "Are you kidding me?" and "Why did I decide to do this again?" type of contraction. We were told beforehand by experienced "birthers" that we should get Brittney the epidural right when she starts the pitocin. Whoops. Brittney finally buckles and decides to ask for her epidural before being told that the anesthesiologist is busy with a c-section happening a few rooms over. The next hour was by far the most stressful of the day. Danny speaking: I believe there are only two types of people that can understand labor pain, women who have given birth, and men who have had to watch their sweet wives go through that pain. I don't care what anybody says, I was right there hurting with her. Fin. We are pretty sure Danny walked a good sized crease into the hospital floor. Brittney's mom, Wendie, was already at the hospital, but Danny decided to call his mom, Julie, and she quickly came.
8:30 am
The anesthesiologist finally enters the room. Danny is tempted to kiss her right on the face because she is the bearer of comfort, but he restrains himself. She prepares quickly and sticks a needle the length of a baby down Brittney's spine. Almost instantly Brittney comes down from her mountain of pain, and she begins to want to cuddle with everybody and everything. She first asks Danny to come and hold her hand, then she asks for her mother to come and hug her. Then she makes eye contact with Danny again and makes him come give her a big hug. I'm not sure but I think I heard her ask to hug the lady who came in to change our garbage bags. Needless to say, she calmed right down. This-in turn- calmed Danny right down. So much, in fact, that he laid down and decided to take a nap. (He wasn't being negligent, we were told to expect many many hours in labor.)
10:30 am
"Danny, wake up! You better wake up, your wife is dilated to a 10. You are going to have a baby." Danny's mom Julie wakes him up. Oh goodness. After being informed of the amazingly quick progress Brittney has made, the doctor tells the nurse to have her wait for an hour or so, so that the delivery will be a quick one. We begin to, not so patiently, play the waiting game.
Noon
Dr. Harward enters the room and says he wants to see Brittney give a few pushes, just to see how she is doing. On the very first contraction, Brittney pushes with all her might, and Dr. Harward calls Danny over to look at the baby's head. After two contractions, the Doctor has seen enough. He tells the nurses to get Brittney all saddled up, and he has one nurse hold one leg, and Wendie hold the other leg. Dr. Harward stood right in front of Brittney (where else?) and Danny looked over his shoulder. Good thing he's tall. And Julie stood next to Danny.
12:30 pm
Nine pushes. That's all it took. Nine pushes later, Madison Nicole Welch was alive and kickin'. It was incredible to see how dependent she was on her mother for her life, and then, in an instant her entire body kicked into gear and knew exactly how to function all on its own. We will never forget holding her together for the first time. Incredible.
1:00 pm
We finally get a good look at her. We think she may have curly red hair. What the....
6:00 pm
She gets her first bath. Thank heavens, she has light brown (almost blonde) hair. Not that we have anything against red hair, Danny was just beginning to ask questions.
Later
After everyone had gone home and it was just Madi, Mommy, and Daddy. She opened her precious little eyes and look up at us. Brittney and I gave each other the rock (you know, we busted it) and said, "Yeah, we did pretty good. She can stay." After Brittney climbed into bed, Madi gave her Daddy a wink and said, "You did it, Dad." Nice, Madison.

PS For those of you who have read our previous posts, Isaac says that she is a Democrat. Sarah, it looks like she will need to come to your house to be straightened out.

PPS The Welch family blog is not affiliated with, and does not support, any particular party.