Madison Elaine Blackhurst...

...Is our dream come true. We almost can't believe she is here! We are so in love!  Dad, Ben and James adore her and we couldn't feel more blessed.

I didn't want to take forever to share this post so I'm staying up for a minute-- probably to suffer later-- to share with you the experience we had as she came into this world. Saturday afternoon Will and I planned a date- before baby came. On the way over to dropping Ben and James at Jarom and Brittany's for a couple hours I felt what I thought was a contraction. I had another one while we were talking to Brittany. After I left another in the car and by the time we got to Costco we realized I was in labor. If I could tell you how sweet Will's look was when I told him- it wouldn't even do it justice. He was grinning ear to ear. We tried to at least "finish" a date but neither of us could focus. After getting our Costco supplies and ordering subway sandwich at Jimmy Johns, and then eating half of it Will decided it was high time to take off grab the boys and head on our way…. Long story short (so I can to sleep tonight before babe wakes up) we ran a ton of errands and dropped off the boys. Finally we ran one last errand for last minute groceries- bad idea. After dropping off the groceries I knew it was go time but I had no idea how fast "go time" would be.

By the time I got to the hospital I could barely make it out of the car. I stood frozen on the sidewalk in pain asking Will to warm me until my contraction passed. We finally made it to the fourth floor reception desk and were taken to our room. This is where things got complicated. For anyone who has gone natural - they would be embarrassed if they were in the room watching me. I was a mess. Screaming I can't do this and help me and where is the epideral. I told her I wet the bed she said it was my water breaking. I told her I was about to "poop" on the bed and she said that isn't poop. I was having a baby. Luckily I was still at an eight and we had time to get the epideral in.  The relief swept over me and the pain subsided and 20 minutes later when the doctor arrived the baby was born after three quick pushes.

I think they must have whispered around that the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck twice because I had no idea. All I knew was that she was not crying and they were not telling me how she was. Through it all Will was calm which made me calm. She was not placed in my arms until 20 mins later after she had been given oxygen and her color came back. After a brief time in my arms they took her to the special care nursery to monitor her and then gave her back to us 40 minutes later. She was fine. She had a little trouble breathing the next hour and some low blood sugar the next day but nothing too problematic.

Will and I felt so blessed that Madison came on Saturday (before the Monday induction date). We knew she would need to come early- even thought we didn't know why- we prayed that the Lord might bring her early so we would not have to be induced and he opened the windows of heaven and poured down the blessings. We are so grateful she is here with us. Our lives are forever changed. The Lord is mindful of all of his children and all of their prayers. As we exercise faith we are blessed. And right now our hearts are full of gratitude.