Madison's Grand Entrance....

So our little bundle arrived on Tuesday October 2. She was born at 7:23 AM and weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 20.5 inches long. It all started off good but about an hour and a half into it she was having trouble breathing and keeping her blood oxygen level up. I wasn't able to see her all day and then when I finally got in to hold her that evening it really went down hill. I had only held her about 10 seconds when she started choking on fluid from her stomach and turning blue and stiffening up like a board. Needless to say it was probably the scariest experience of my life. The nurse pushed a button and about every doctor in the hospital was there in a matter of seconds. They finally got her stable but it was decided that she needed to be transferred to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) in Boise. Travis went with Madison while I was stuck in Caldwell. It was the longest night of my life!

At the NICU it was discovered that Madison had a whole bunch of air and fluid in her stomach and when she would try and spit it up she couldn't get it out of her throat and would choke on it and she would panic. She has a severe case of acid reflux and it wore her out so bad that she was just to tired to keep breathing. So that's why she has the astronaut helmet on. It is full of oxygen. Travis and I said that she got to go to space camp for a while and she was just practicing wearing her helmet.

But every day she got progressively better. She finally got off of the oxygen help on Thursday so that was a huge step forward for her. Then one by one we started getting rid of tubes and wires and she was looking healthier and healthier. Her big sister McKenna was sure proud and thought her little Madison was pretty wonderful. McKenna sang her "I am a child of God" while Madison was in the hospital and I know that it helped her. Then finally the on Saturday night at 9 PM they said that we could take her home. They made us take an infant CPR class and they put her on a monitor to keep track of her heart and her breathing. It's kind of a pain to carry around with us but that's OK. She is also on two medications. She takes one every twelve hours for her acid reflux and she also gets a tube of caffeine every morining to give her a little boost to keep her going. I think that's kind of funny. But now she is at home and we are enjoying every minute of it. She is so sweet and has a wonderful spirit. We got lucky when we got her.