She has finally arrived....

**Madison Grace Conkle**

Date of Birth: April 21st, 2009
Time of Birth: 9:21 pm

Weight: 8 lbs 8.2 ounces

Length: 21.25 inches

and here is how it all happened.....

After one false alarm and a week of eary labor, my doctor scheduled me for an induction on April 21st. I had my final appointment on Monday the 20th @ 2:00 pm, where after finding out that I had made no more progress on my own, was told to be at the hospital by 8:00 pm that evening to get started on some medication that should help me begin dilating overnight. The next few hours became frantic as we made phone calls, packed bags and got things ready for our trip to the hospital. I am actually glad that it all happened so fast because it didn't give me a chance to get too nervous..... that would come much later!!

We arrived at the hospital only a few minutes late and they immediately set us up in a labor & delivery room. It was sooo weird to already be in the room where our daughter was going to be born, they even already had the little baby warmer over in the corner ready to go! I was given the cervadil, which is used to soften the cervix, and told to get some rest. Um... yeah right!

Fast forward to around 9:00 am... I am started on a medication called pitocin, which gets the contractions rolling to speed up labor. Luckily, they gave me some pain medicine along with the pitocin, so things were going pretty well. It was nice to be able to have such a great support team throughout the day. All of the grandparents were able to be there, along with my best friend Jessica (who was also present for Maddie's actual birth) and of course Matt.

I received the epidural around 2:00 pm, I was scared to death, but it was actually quite painless! I was shocked by the feeling you get from it though - the numbness in your legs is ... well...numbing! :o) Let's just say that I highly recommend it to any mommas-to-be!!

When the doctor broke my water, I couldn't even feel it! I did have a moment of panic once my water was broken because I knew that things to start moving quickly after that!

So, there we were, around 4:00 -4:30... I was only dialated to 4cm and was feeling slight contractions but nothing too major (loving that epidural).... so I sent Matt and David home to check on the dogs and also to just give Matt a chance to take a breather before things started getting crazy. It took a lot of convincing, but they finally left..... if only I had known.....

Not long after they left, all of us (Matt's mom, my mom, Jessica, Wendy and my dad were just hanging out and talking...when all of a sudden I felt the most pain/pressure I have ever felt in my life!!! I started yelling for someone to get the nurse because I felt like I needed to PUSH!! Yes.... PUSH! I also started screaming for my dad to get out of the room (which I later apologized for) because I was in so much pain that I was rolling around and was thinking my hoo-ha was probably showing! Poor guy!

When Nurse Mary came in to check me.... she said.... "how's 8-9 centimeters???"

Whoa!!!! What???!!!!

This of course got me totally upset because I had just sent Matt away and was convinced that he was now going to miss everything! Everyone started calling him and telling him to hurry up and get back to the hospital.... he told me later that there was a very scary driving situation with him passing cars in turn lanes... apparently David got the ride of his life!

Matt finally arrived and the room cleared out except for him, Jessica, the nurses and Dr.Lindner. I got into position and started to push..... and cotinued to push... and push and push... for almost TWO HOURS!!! I then heard Dr. Lindner tell me the scariest thing I have ever heard... he said that Maddie's heartrate was dropping and that he would need to try to use the vaccuum to get her out... and if he couldn't get her out that way I was going to be rushed for an emergency c-section! Talk about being scared!!! Luckily, the vaccuum worked and at 9:21 pm, Matt and I became parents to the most beautiful baby girl I have ever seen!! I can't explain how precious that moment was! Matt and Jessica were great coaches... I couldn't have done it without either one of them... Auntie Jessica even got to cut the cord!!!

We are so in love with this little miracle and thank our lucky stars every day!!!

I can't imagine loving anyone or anything more than my sweet cupcake Maddie!!!!!!!!