Madison's First Big Adventure

Well, what started out as a little drive around town in order to get out of the house a bit turned into Madison's first big adventure.  We ended up heading north on Highway 61 and decided to stop at Maquoketa to grab a bite to eat.  After picking up some drive-thru we headed to the Maquoketa Caves State Park to eat at one of the picnic tables.

Madison forgot to bring her flashlight so we didn't go into any of the caves this time, but we snapped a few pictures at the top of the stairs that lead down into one of the big ones.  As you can tell by the bottom picture, she absolutely enjoyed being outdoors.  She actually did really good on the drive there and back, but when we picked her up for pictures she got a bit fussy.  She was ready to do some good eating and I think she realized she wasn't going to get anything right then. 

Homecoming

We made it home yesterday (June 18th) around 2:00 in the afternoon.  We had to stick around the hospital for a while longer than we originally thought for some more blood tests due to some scares we had the night before, but everything looked better and we were able to take her home.  We had a dress, shorts and a hat picked out for her but she was NOT liking the dress we put on her so we took it back off and let her wear her white hospital shirt.  She's not one for fancy things, I guess.

We put her in the car carrier up in the hospital room and she started wailing again!  I had fears that it was going to be a very stressful ride home with her crying and me already nervous about any other driver within two blocks of me.  Luckily as soon as I picked her up to carry her out she immediately stopped crying and was just wide-eyed and loved it when I swung her a bit in her carrier. 

We got her strapped up in the car and she was absolutely loving it.  Jenny rode in the back seat next to her to keep an eye on her and said she was looking around the whole time and just soaking it all in.

Mom and Dad and Lucas were still around to greet her and of course take some good photos!  We got her settled into the MDM (Mommy-Daddy-Maddie) Grand and she was content with even more visitors all day. 

Madison Marie

Hello everyone! Meet Madison Marie Brinkmeyer!

It's been a fun/hectic day and a half. Jenny woke me up at about 1:30AM on Saturday June 16th and told me she thought her water broke. Sure enough it had. The contractions she'd had off and on over the last few days picked up in intensity so we called the midwife. We were OK enough to stay at home and attempt to get some rest. I think I got a bit more than Jenny, but that still wasn't much. After eating half of a breakfast things really started picking up and we frantically threw way more stuff than we needed into our already stuffed Go-bags (yes, plural).

We got to the emergency room (because it was a weekend) and were admitted around 9:30AM. Lots of forms and checkups in the triage and we eventually made it to our labor room. Things were pretty calm for a while until I just had to mention that it was peaceful. As the "ful" left my lips, it sounded like a siren fired up but it was just a woman giving birth to what sounded like had to be a Mac truck. It was scary and sounded like it was in the room next to us but we found out later she was four rooms away.

Eventually we got to the point where it was time to meet our little one, and Jenny, who was so terrified earlier, was as cool as the cucumbers she has growing in the backyard. My worst fear I put on the forms was that I would pass out or something during labor, and I intended to sort of hang/hide out behind Jenny once it got to the actual birth. That wasn't the case when it came to the crunch time. Not only did I assist with her and cut the umbilical cord (which I was planning on doing anyway), but I got right in there and helped the midwife pull our girl out and I set her on Jenny's belly while they wiped her down!

Pretty awesome experience!

She was officially born at 8:45 PM on June 16th and was a very healthy 9 pounds 5 ounces and measured 20 inches. She's had a lot of tests and things so far and everything has been VERY positive. APGAR scores of 8 and 9, sugar levels good, hearing tests good, etc. etc.

Happy father's day to me! I couldn't be any prouder of Jenny. She did an outstanding job and made the whole process look extremely easy although I'm not discrediting anything she did! She's just one tough mama!

Here are some pictures for now, but we can't wait to show you her in person!

I'm gonna go hold her now.