Madeleine’s First Week Home

We came home Sunday to some welcome signs on the door and the counter from the boys.  They were still at Stake Conference with my mom, and they got home just a little bit after we did.  They were pretty excited to have their new sister home.  We spent most of the day and the week admiring her and holding her!

     

     

 

The boys always make sure she has plenty of stuffed animals to keep her company!

 

Asher was glad to have Grandma here all week to play with him since I was busy taking care of Madeleine.  She got pretty good at making some train tracks for him!

 

Madeleine’s Hospital Stay

The rest of our hospital stay was pretty uneventful.  Madeleine is a good little baby, and she caught on  quickly to breastfeeding.  She lost 10 ounces the first day, then another 4 the next day, but by the time we left Sunday morning she had gained those four ounces back and was doing great.  She had a little bit of a fussy period the first night, but that just made the next nights seem that much better. 

Each day, my mom and dad would bring up the boys to see and hold her.  They had to use a timer to make sure everyone got to hold her the same amount of time, and they each wanted to be the first one to hold her.  Asher loved pointing out her tiny hands, feet, and other features.  I felt better each day, and was able to get up and move around pretty good by the time we left on Sunday.

On Saturday, my mom came up after getting the boys to all their soccer games, and Shane and her switched duties.  She stayed with me at the hospital while Shane went to finish watching the soccer games and to take the boys to Precoa’s annual family picnic at Memorial Park. 

     

By Sunday we were ready to go home.  They said we could stay one more day but we were more than ready to be home.  We admired Madeleine a little bit more while waiting for them to finish up the discharge paperwork, remove my staples (half of them this time; the other half came off a week later), and get us all checked out.  Madeleine was not too excited when it was finally time to go in her car seat!  But she calmed down quickly for the drive home.  Goodbye hospital!

       

Introducing Madeleine Lee Malan

On September 10, 2015, we went in to the hospital at 6:30 a.m. for a scheduled c-section.  I had scheduled this day months ago.  My due date was the 15th, so I could have scheduled as early as the 8th, but that was the first day of school, so we decided the 10th would at least give us a day or two to get the kids started in school.

When we arrived at the hospital, they got me all hooked up to IV and ready to go.  We were scheduled for surgery to begin at 8:30, but our doctor was delivering twins just before our scheduled time, so we really didn’t make it into the operating room until almost 9:30.  With this being my fifth c-section, I knew what it would be like, so I wasn’t too apprehensive. 

Finally it came time for the delivery.  They took me back to start the spinal and get everything ready to go, then brought Shane in.  For the first time in all my c-sections, I didn’t have a huge wave of nausea come over me as soon I lay down after the spinal!  I’m not sure if the anesthesiologist did something different, or if I just reacted differently this time, but that was a nice bonus.  One of the most uncomfortable parts was the carpel tunnel that had been getting worse in both hands really bothered me during the c-section, and both my hands were basically numb throughout the entire procedure.  There are worse things though!

It is always nice once Shane comes in to talk to me and distract my thoughts from what is really going on.  It wasn’t long, however, before Shane told me it was close, and soon enough, we heard her little cry!  I was so glad to see them hold her up so I could see her little face – with Asher they whisked him away so quickly that I didn’t get to see him, even from a distance, until hours later.  She looks a lot like Davis and Asher at birth, and has a head full of dark hair.  She was a healthy 9lbs, 12oz, and 21 1/2 inches long, and once again the doctor and nurses couldn’t believe how big she was, saying they never would have guessed before going in.  They never seem to quite believe me on that until they see the baby.  :)

         

After some time stitching me up, we headed back to the recovery room for a couple of hours until they moved me upstairs to the room we’d be in the rest of the time.  I was able to nurse her, and then we got to just sit and hold her while we waited to be moved up.  It all still seemed pretty unreal that we had a baby girl!

 

   

  We finally moved upstairs in the mid afternoon.  I rested up while we held and admired little Madeleine.

   

My parents brought the boys up shortly after that to meet their new baby sister.  They brought them as soon as they got out of school.  They were beyond excited to finally meet her!  Grandma and Grandpa were pretty excited too. 

   

     

Our new family!