Welcome Baby Madelyn!

Welcome baby Madelyn Ann Keyes

Born Wednesday, March 2nd 

at 7:13 PM

Weighing 6 lb 6 oz, 19 inches long

We are so happy to welcome our beautiful healthy baby girl to our family. For a while we were worried that we would have a preemie baby. At 16 weeks I started getting weekly progesterone shots as a precaution to prevent a preterm labor. It was just a precaution since Mollie was born pre-term, and I didn't have any signs of labor with her. At 21 weeks I had a cerclage placed (a stitch that cinched my cervix shut), due to a very short cervix. Then at 24 weeks I was put on bed rest after my cerclage had torn and I started to dilate. So after 19 shots in the hip, one cerlcage, and 12 weeks of modified bedrest, our healthy baby is finally here!

  We were 99% certain that she was going to come on Feb. 17th, since that was the day I got my cerclage removed, at 36 weeks. When the doctor took out the stitch, I was dilated to a four, so we thought that labor would be very soon. Every night we were certain we'd be heading to labor and delivery, yet nothing ever happened. Then we were certain that at my next doctors appointment a week later I would be sent to labor and delivery, but at that appointment I was dilated to a 5 and pretty much 100% effaced, but since I was dilating slowly, my doctor wanted me to wait a little longer, but he gave us a really low threshold to go to the hospital, since I was really close to delivery he told us to go to the hospital when my contractions were 8 minutes apart.  So on Friday night I was having pretty significant contractions at 6-8 minutes apart, so we decided to go to the hospital. When they checked me, nothing had changed from my previous doctors appointment on Wednesday, so they sent us home! I was going crazy! After so much work to make sure this baby wouldn't come I was so surprised that she wasn't in any hurry in the end!

 Finally at my doctor's appointment last Wednesday, two weeks after my cerclage was removed,  I was dilated to a 6, and my doctor said we could have a baby that day! He called the hospital and told them the situation and asked when they wanted me to come in, and they said around 3:00, and I got home from my appointment around 1:45 so I had a little over an hour to get ready, and for Tyler to get home. He'd been working up here in Ogden so it wasn't a big deal for him to get off work.  I got home and put the girl's laundry away, and packed their bags for mama's and papa's house.  Tyler got home, and we sent the girls with my mom and then we took a nice casual drive to the hospital. I had Tyler stop off at Arby's on our way, so I could get something to eat! 

 We went into the hospital and got all hooked up.  The nurse was shocked at how close I was to delivering a baby when she checked me, baby's head was super low and ready to come. Once I got all hooked up to the monitors I was actually having contractions every 3-4 minutes. My doctor said he'd be to the hospital by six, so around five I got my epidural to be ready when the doctor got there. The doctor got there around 6:15, and they hooked me up to pitocin to get me to progress all the way, By seven I was ready to go, and they pulled the bed apart and had me push. In about one and a half pushes she was here! By looking at her, everyone thought she was going to be over seven pounds, but were surprised by her small size at less than six and a half pounds! I was grateful for a very seamless labor. We were so worried for weeks that we were going to be rushing to the hospital and having a baby in the car or delivering at home! We are so happy to have our healthy baby here!

A proud daddy!

 She's a little baldy on top, and she actually has a decent amount of light hair in the back.