The House of Payne: Life since the first (and only) post

Okay, so Ian and I are officially lame. We say we are going to start a blog and then don't tell anybody or post anything for almost a month. He will say that is my fault because it was "my turn." Maybe it is my fault. Anyways, he said that I had to tell about the labor, so I guess I will start with that, in case anyone is interested.

My water broke at about 1 o'clock in the morning on May 15. We went in to the hospital at 2 o'clock. My labor wasn't progressing very fast and they told me we would wait for a couple hours and then maybe induce contractions. After a couple hours, they said it was going fast enough so we would not have to induce (it wasn't going fast enough for me). At 6 o'clock in the morning they told me that there were lots of women having babies so if I wanted an epidural then I should tell them and I would be put on the list. I probably could have gone a little longer without it but I didn't want to get stuck waiting forever when the pain was really bad. Even with the epidural, it was still pretty painful. By the way...Ian was asleep for most of the night...lucky. At about 8 o'clock a.m. the nurse checked my cervix and it still appeared that I would have a long time to wait. However, at ten she told me I was ready to start pushing. She taught me to push and was surprised that the baby was ready to come out. She told me not to push and she would go find the doctor. I only had to push for 20 minutes and at 10:51 Madeline was born. She weighed 8 pounds and was 20.5 inches long. Overall, I can't complain. A 10 hour labor with 20 minutes of pushing for the first child is pretty good in my opinion.

My mom was able to come a week after Madeline was born and stayed for a week. Ian's mom also came after my mom left. It was nice to have them here and help me. It was really great to have them here to stay up with Madeline at night so I could sleep.

Thanks Grandmas! We love you!

At Madeline's two week appointment she was really healthy. The goal is for the baby to weigh the same or more than they weighed at birth (they usually lose weight the first week). She weighed 8 lbs 15 ounces and was 21 inches long. Now we are all doing really well. Madeline turned a month old on Monday. She is getting so much bigger. She is a good baby, although we are still working on getting her to stay awake during the day so we don't have to go to bed a 3 o'clock in the morning every night. Ian and I are getting used to being parents. Here are a few more pictures of Madeline...