In the beginning...there was Madison

My daughter, Brandy, decided she was ready to take the plunge and be a mother somewhere between years 4 and 5 of her marriage. We have our plans and God has His...God's plan wasn't for Brandy to become a mother--just yet. After trying for a while without any success, Brandy agreed to take a fertility drug. She took the drug for 3 months, then went back to Dr. B for a checkup. She had a pregnancy test which was negative. Dr. B told her that he was out of options and referred her to a fertility specialist. This was one of the darkest days of our lives...

Within a few days of that last checkup with Dr. B, Brandy began to experience strange symptoms. I did a little internet research, but kept my findings to myself. These symptoms went on for several days. One morning while I was getting dressed for work the phone rang. It was Brandy. She was distraught about the way that she had been feeling and wanted to know what I thought she should do. I confided in her that I suspected that she might be pregnant and that I thought she should go and get a pregnancy test. Call it Mama's intuition or just plain luck, but the next time Brandy called me she was crying saying that the test was positive!

Thus began a nine month roller coaster ride that none of the family had any idea was ahead of us...It was a complicated pregnancy. Brandy had things going on with her body that Dr. B couldn't figure out or explain. She had to give up her job and spent almost the entire pregnancy on bedrest, had to be hospitalized in July(on her wedding anniversary) for what we thought was amniotic fluid leakage, but never really figured out what it was..., and she and her husband had to move in with Ed and me from July until September so she could stay on complete bedrest. Then came the day a couple of weeks before Madison was due when Brandy went for a check up and ended up getting admitted to labor and delivery for an emergency c-section!

Oh, but nothing was easy with this pregnancy! After sending Brandy over to labor and delivery the doctor filling in for Dr. B changed his mind about doing the c-section because the baby's heart rate got better all of the sudden...Substitute Dr. thought that he was going to send Brandy home the following morning until he encountered me! I reminded him that I would personally hold him responsible if anything should happen to Brandy or her baby, so he decided to keep her in the hospital until Dr. B returned from his dad's funeral.

A lot of things happened during those days in the hospital while waiting for Dr. B to return. I spent 5 nights sleeping on the hospital floor (because they wouldn't give us another recliner), while some of the nurses seemed to find this amusing. Brandy was given the option to have an amniocentisis done to see if baby's lungs were developed, in which case Substitute Dr. would agree to do the c-section. She had the amnio done after agonizing a whole day over it, then the results showed the lungs were not mature and the c-section was canceled! Steroid shots were given to help the lungs. The baby's heart rate continued to go up and down the rest of the week. Finally, after a long and stressful day, on Monday, October 23,(Dr. B's first day back at work) Madison Elizabeth was delivered via emergency c-section that evening! I've never been so relieved to see a baby born in my entire life--all seven pounds of her--and she was healthy and perfect! The cord had been wrapped around her neck, causing the up and down heart rate. The amnio test was apparently wrong, because her lungs were developed and fine. All is well that ends well, thank you God for our precious Madison...