Oh BABY!

So BIG NEWS! Madeline Grace Hayes was born exactly a week ago on December 28th at 5:31 p.m.

Our sweet girl weighed in at 7 pounds and 3 ounces and 20 and 3/4 inches

It is safe to say that most of the weight I have been carrying around these past couple of months was not due to her.

This picture was taken while I was in labor and moments away from starting to push. As far as labor went, We went into the hospital at around 8pm on Tuesday night and spent the night there. The nurses monitored me and kept an eye on my blood pressure. At 5 am the nurse came into start prepping me for my induction, at 6:45 a.m I was given the pitocin and at 7 am my water broke. After being in labor for almost 10 hours, the doctor came in and decided it was time to push, after pushing for just around 30 minutes we were able to meet our beautiful daughter.

This is our first meeting. The moment was unreal. I couldn't believe that Mike and I had made something that seemed so perfect... and so hairy! We were both in love instantly and it was an extremely emotional moment for Mommy, Daddy, and Madeline. Our first meeting was pretty brief however, because Madeline's breathing was not exactly  perfect and she was whisked away to the NICU to be monitored. Luckily it was nothing major and we were reunited with our sweet girl about 4 LONG hours later. Both of our parents were able to be at the hospital and welcome Madeline into the world. 

As the week has progressed I have absolutely loved watching Mike interact with our daughter. It is unreal the amount of love he has for her. She has only been around for a 7 days and already has him wrapped so tightly around her tiny little fingers. I am so excited to see what an amazing dad he is going to be.

Finally around 8 p.m on Friday night our little family was released and we were able to go home and settle into our new life style... we are still settling in.

After spending a little time at home, it was time for Madeline to go to her first pediatrician visit. It didn't go so well. She was given a shot and also had to have blood drawn. Seeing her cry so much really upset me and I almost started crying, but I didn't. What stopped me from crying you ask? Well, our little girl started farting uncontrollably from crying so hard and it was too funny not to laugh. Don't worry, we hugged her and loved on her immediately after. The results came back from the doctor and her bilirubin levels were so high, so the doctors recommended that we keep her in a UV bed at all times unless she is feeding or being changed. This has been really hard for us, because it is almost impossible to look at this sweet little girl and not go over and sweep her up in your arms, but we are dealing with it. She will be in the bed until Friday and hopefully after that I can report that we have an extremely healthy and happy baby.

This past week has been a very emotional and rewarding week for us. As much as I hated being pregnant, I wouldn't take back a minute of it, because the love that I have for this little girl is unreal. I never knew I could love someone this much, and I never knew I could love Michael more than I did, but I do. We are so excited to see Madeline grow. We look forward to sharing this little journey with everyone else.