I
wanted to title this Madeline's Birth Story. I
wanted to write a post about the amazing experience of labor and delivery. I
wanted that to be the end, unfortunately for my little sweet heart, there's more to the story. But, I still think it's a pretty good story. Yes, I know she's (
almost) 9 months old, but when your life is my life you will understand why it takes (
almost) 9 months to get around to writing this story!
On May 7th, 2010 at 5am, I checked in to the hospital. I went straight to a room because i had a reservation. I was scheduled to be induced and was happy about it. I was also induced with Abigail and this worked our perfectly for our family visiting from Texas. My Dad and Step-Mom had flown in the day before.

I settled in to my bed in my home made "hospital" gown, with bright floral print made by my Grandma Frenzel. It was such a nice gift, and I hope to wear in for the remainder of my deliveries! Meanwhile my husband settled in to his recliner at my side, and fell fast asleep.
The nurse started my IV and hooked up all the monitors for my blood pressure, and the babies heart rate. We were good as gold. I had some minor blood pressure issues during my pregnancy but no trouble during delivery.
After a couple of hours we were well on our way to baby, every time the nurse came in to check my progress I was much further along then i expected.
When I was 3-4cm I decided to take a walk, the nurses switched my monitors to wireless, and off we went. The only trouble was he monitors didn't work. They tried to fix it a couple times by changing batteries to no avail. I waddled myself back to bed and its probably a good thing.
My water broke as soon as I sat down!
At this point I was about 5cm, and now bed bound. My husband woke up and tried to distract my with a little YouTube. I am forever indebted to the people who filmed there cats doing funny things because they were a great distraction. I specifically remember laughing through my contractions!
With minimal time passing I was 8cm and only 20minutes after that I was complete and ready to push...
Two pushes, and we had another baby girl.
I was shocked! I kept asking my doctor, "that's it?" "It's over?"
Don't get me wrong it was an intense 20 minutes from 8-10 and I was in incredible pain for those two pushes.
I give lots of credit to Abigail, having two children back to back isn't easy but my body knew what to do! An internal memory I guess!
There she was, in all her glory.
Madeline Piper Vedro
Born on May 7th, 2010
8lbs 2oz and 20inches long
perfect.


This is where the story should end, but doesn't.
Madeline was born perfectly healthy, She was full term, and 2 days. She was breathing great, screaming loud, seriously perfect.
Until about an hour or two later.
Stephen was holding Madeline, staring into her sweet newborn face. The nurse came over to do a little checkup, he continued to hold her as she pressed the stethoscope to her little chest. Her faced turned all kinds of awkward, and she announced that Maddie would need to go to the Nursery for observation. Shortly after she was whisked away we got a call that she was being transferred to the NICU.

Her heart was beating too fast. Way to fast.
A newborn babies heart rate is usually around 120-140. Madeline's was about 300.

She was admitted to the NICU and would spend the first three days of her life there. After three doses of adenisone Madeline's heart began to beat at a normal pace. She was also given digoxin. She has continued to take digoxin, twice a day, every day since she was born.
She has regular check ups with a pediatric cardiologist and they have no reason to suspect that she will have any other issues with her heart rate. They also plan to take her off of the digoxin after her first birthday.

Hopefully that will be the end of that story.
I still think she's pretty perfect.