Adventures in Child Birth…

As anyone will tell you, each and every pregnancy is different. This was no exception. Or was it?

This was, for all intents and purposes, our first normal pregnancy. The previous three have always resulted in hypertension / preeclampsia and the final show was the result of being induced to ensure that baby and mom wouldn't suffer lingering effects.

This time, there was no hypertension, no preeclampsia, no blood pressure issues at all. We managed to get to week 39 and it looked like we might manage to make it till week 40. Baby had other plans.

Late Wednesday evening...

As I sat staring at my computer screen reading what had happened in the world and preparing to catch up on sleep, I was slapped in the back by my adoring wife who abruptly stated, "I think my water just broke!" Being that I was already prepared to sleep, I wasn't exactly ready to just accept what she said.

"Are you sure? Did it really? Are you joking?" "Yes I'm sure! My water just broke!"

As I scrambled from room to room waking the other children from the slumber to which they had happily gone and trying to get dressed at the same time, my wife made her way downstairs and ensured that she had everything she needed. We managed to vacate the house within 10 minutes which is a record by any standard when you have three very sleepy kids in tow.

We live about 40 minutes from the hospital if all traffic laws are obeyed. We managed to make the drive in less than 30 minutes but I'll leave it up to you to figure out exactly which laws I chose to bend in my rush.

Eight and a half hours later, our fourth child was born. Many of those hours were spent trying to console my wife who wanted nothing more than Stadol with the exception of when the Stadol wore off during the last 30 minutes and she began screaming for an epidural. The anesthesiologist had been called into an emergency c-section and the only other available anesthesiologist was stuck in traffic en route to the hospital which meant that there would be no epidural.

Most everything is a blur in part due to a lack of sleep and due to the fact that so many things were happening at the same time.

The little angel came out with all her fingers and toes and summarized the entire affair with one little "Meh!" instead of the standard wailing scream. She was perfectly content to just be.

At eight pounds, one and a half ounces and nineteen inches long she is smaller than her big brother was but bigger than her big sisters were.

Welcome to the world Madison Riley.