Birth Day

Madeleine Loyce Cox
June 24, 2007

Our daughter Madeleine came into our lives a mere eighteen days ago. Since that time, she naturally has changed our world as we know it. She also has more nicknames than any other living creature I've encountered. "Tinykins" is my current favorite, hence the name of this blog. This is the story of her birth.

Madeleine was born on June 24, 2007 at Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Ironically enough, I, too, was born at Crawford Long in 1975. Given the number of places I've lived, I never thought I would have a child at the same hospital where I was born. I guess that makes both of us "native" Atlantans, which is actually a rarity in these parts.

I spent nearly the entire span of labor (which lasted 24 hours, 33 hours, or 4 weeks, depending on how you count it) without drugs or any medical interventions. I started having contractions around 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 23, while at a family birthday party. The contractions had become intense around midnight, and I did not really sleep that evening. Then, my water broke at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 24, and we knew that it was showtime for sure. It was a relief to know that we were going to the hospital for the actual delivery this time, for I already had endured four weeks of prodromal, or "false," labor that had been very draining.

Labor was rather slow going, and I was in my own world for much of the time. I had a great support team consisting of my husband, Don, and my doula, Ayla, who tirelessly helped me through each contraction. They even spent over two hours pouring water on my belly in the too-shallow hospital tub. Our labor and delivery nurses were great as well. First, we had Janet, who basically left us to do our own thing so long as we came back and hooked up to the fetal monitor every hour or two. Then, Natalie came on board after the shift change. She was studying to be a midwife and was very supportive of the natural childbirth process, even allowing us to monitor the baby by Doppler when I was in the tub. I couldn't have asked for better support during my labor.

Despite the wonderful encouragement I received, after 22 hours of very painful contractions, I found myself completely exhausted and both physically and emotionally drained. Since I wanted to have some energy left for when the baby arrived, I requested a paracervical block, which essentially is a novocaine shot to the cervix. Soon thereafter, our baby started experiencing late heart decelerations, which the doctor later attributed to the fact that the umbilical cord was wrapped not once but twice around her body. With the decelerations, our relatively intervention-free birth experience immediately was turned on its head. I received an IV, oxygen, an internal fetal monitor and an amnioinfusion all at once, and then was left to study the faces of the medical team as they scrutinized the fetal heart tracings. There were some very tense and scary moments, and I was grateful for the paracervical block as it allowed the doctor to work some magic without my feeling anything.

Just as a C-Section suddenly looked like a distinct possibility, our baby started to do well enough for a vaginal delivery to still be an option. Fortunately, our little girl was, indeed, quite tiny, and I was able to deliver her in six pushes, only four of which were "good ones," according to my obstetrician. And so, at 11:37 p.m. on June 24, 2007, our daughter made her grand entrance in to this world -- all 5 pounds, 9 ounces of her.

Once our baby girl was born, Don cut the umbilical cord and I gave her a quick kiss before she was whisked away to be suctioned, tested, poked and prodded. The 45-minute period during which they worked on her seemed like an absolute eternity. Don was able to watch the entire series of procedures, but I could only see the medical staff out of the corner of my eye, not the baby. Finally, the medical staff brought her over to me, and we were able to determine whether the name we had chosen actually fit her.

Madeleine Loyce Cox. It was nice to finally put a face with the name. We chose the French spelling of Madeleine as a nod to my French Canadian heritage, and selected Don's grandmother's name, Loyce, as her middle name. Don's middle name is Royce, and he was named after his grandmother's twin brother who was killed in World War II. Don's grandmother is a wonderful woman, both peaceful and kind, and we are thrilled that our daughter will share her name.

Madeleine's birth was an amazing experience, and we are very grateful to the team that guided us along the way:

From left to right: Bradley (Dr. Tate's medical student of the month), Ayla (our doula), Don (proud papa), me, Madeleine, and Dr. Tate.

Since Madeleine's birth, we've started living on a 24-hour schedule, showers have become a luxury, and coffee never smelled so good. I also never knew that a being so small could emit a sound so loud. Our dogs are quite confused and upset that they were not consulted about her arrival that I fear they may never forgive us:

I keep trying to point out to them that she is very cute and much smaller than they are, but I don't think they will fully appreciate her presence until she starts dropping food on the floor.

Here she is, quite overbundled in the first days of life:

And here we are relaxing on the couch the day after Madeleine came home from the hospital:

It's been a fun, wild ride so far. I will end this post with our first official family photo. We look forward to taking many more in the future.