8/21/08 - Madison went for a 9-month anemia test. It could not be performed due to the appointment running late. Madison weighed 20 pounds 4 ounces and is 27 inches long. She started crawling on her 9 month birthday and is trying to stand up on everything. She also got her first cold this week. Not taking pumping out her nose very well.

5/24/08 - We had our 6 month appointment with her Ped. She weighs 17.6 pounds and is 25.75" inches. She had 4 shots and 1 oral today. She did extremely well and started to cry when she got the 3rd shot. She has handled this round of shots very well. Dr. Leone has agreed to let us stop using the monitor after telling him how much we dislike the Pulmonary doctor. He said by now she is definitely cured of her premature sleep apnea. Jerry and I have decided not to have her sleep study done to confirm since she only alarmed twice right when she came home from NICU. No alarms in over 6 months.

3/24/08 - Madison had her 3rd appointment with the Pulmonary doctor. He is allowing us to take her off the caffeine. She has not alarmed since being off of the caffeine which is good news for us. She is to see the doctor again in May. She weighed 14 pounds. Keep your fingers crossed for having her monitor removed by July.

3/12/08 - Madison had her 4 month shots today. She took them like a trooper. She now weighs 13.13 pounds. Doctor gave us the go ahead for solid food. Carrots seem to be her favorite at the moment.

2/11/08 - Madison had her 2nd appointment with the Pulmonary specialist regarding her sleep apnea. She is going to be on caffeine for 6 more weeks and if she can go these next 6 weeks with no episodes he will schedule her sleep study to confirm if she truly needs her monitor anymore. She weighed 12.8 pounds.

2/6/08 - Madison is 3 months old today, 6 weeks old adjusted. She has recently started smiling. She still has not started to coo yet. She is holding her head up very well now, but still hates to be on her stomach. Within the last week, she has started sleeping longer stretches to 6-7 hours, but still only taking 4 ounces of formula. I am very thankful for that since my husband is going back on tour with Linkin Park for a month. She has her check up with the Pulmonary doctor next week with hopes of news of improvement. She has also out grown newborn clothes and now is in 0-3 months.

1/4/08 - Madison had her 2 month old shots today. She cried and so did I. She got 5 shots in her thighs and one by mouth. We have discovered she has some raised little strawberries on her back. Doctor says that they will be her birth marks. We also asked about her developmental skills since she was preemie. I got the answer I really didn't want. She is to go by the due date and not her actual birth date. It was a little disappointing because she is still on a 3 hour feeding schedule. You could almost time her with a watch. I was hoping she would start sleeping a little longer, but no hope yet. I'm going back to work in three days and my husband is going to Europe for his tour with Linkin Park. I won't make it on my own with her waking every three hours all by myself - UGHHHHH! She weighed in at 10 pounds 4 ounces. She's my little sack of potatos now.

8 Weeks Old - 10 Pounds

12/06/07 - Madison has her first doctors appointment with the doctor my husband and I picked out. She was seeing the NICU doctor, but I was very unhappy with his practice. Her new doctor asks me how I like her monitor? Well of course, I hate it. I goes off everytime you pick her up and everytime she would start to cry. This thing is so loud that I am pretty sure my neighbors heard it. So, doc says just put it on her when you are not watching her. I was so happy that he said I can do that. She has an appointment with a pulmanary specialist in January to get her sleep study redone to see if her Apnea is gone. She weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces at her one month check up.

Madison born 11/06/07 stayed in the NICU for two weeks. She was released from the hospital on 11/17/07. She was diagnosed with sleep apnea. She was sent home with a monitor that is strapped around her chest 24/7 and a daily dose of caffeine. This monitor goes off if she stops breathing for a certain period of time. The monitor is the loudest machine I have ever heard. She is discharged weighing 5 pounds 3 ounces.

BIRTH STORY........

Monday morning (11/5/07) I woke up around 2 in the morning with horrible stomach ache. I thought whatever I ate Sunday didn't agree with me. So, I kept trying to go back to sleep. The stomach pain kept coming every thirty minutes, so i decided around 4:00 I would just go soak in a tub of water thinking that I was having Braxton Hicks again. I woke my husband up and told him what I was doing and If that didn't work I want to go to the hospital. I soaked in the tub for about 30 minutes and then got out the tub to discover I was bleeding, but it was brownish pink. That's actually what made us go to the hospital.

We checked into the hospital around 5:30 to discover that the ward was completely full and 15 other women were in labor. They hooked me up to the fetal monitor then came back 45 minutes later and the nurse says "look at all those contractions". The nurse did a internal exam to find that I was dialated 1 cm. It was false labor, but still having contractions. They called my doctor and the doctor told them to give me three injections of Terbulaine to stop the contractions. Injection one seemed like it was working. Injection two started them up again. Injection three didn't do anything. Still having them. They then did a urine test to check to see if I had a Urinary Tract Infection. Two hours later they tell me that it came back positive and thats the reason why I was having contractions. They gave a round of antiboitics through IV and told me that I would have to have another round in 12 hours. At 10:00 pm they gave me the other round of antiboitics. Tuesday morning came and guess what.... still having contractions. Nurse informs the doctor and the doctor tells the nurse that if I was to go into active labor from this point on that they would let me go since I was past 34 week mark.

Around noon nurse checks me and says that I am now 2 cm and wanting to know if I would like something for pain. I held off as much as I could, but I was contracting every five minutes since early that morning. I caved and finally got a shot of staydol & phenergan. Slept through till about 2:00 to be woken up by much stronger contractions. Finally in real labor!!! At this point the pain meds stopped working all together. My doctor finally makes it to me around 4:00 pm to discover I was 4 cm dialted. He breaks my water and I get my epidural. At 5:45 I am 10 cm dialated and ready to push. It took three contractions and baby Madison arrives at 6:05 PM weighing 5 pounds 11 ounces. Breathing on her own, but somewhat retracking.

They take her to NICU and gave her oxygen for a little under an hour. Doctor says she looks great! She is responding very well to all antibiotic treatments and all blood work has come back negative. She will be able to come home next week if all is well.

Just to let everyone know that giving birth was nothing compared to what followed....the hemmroids! I thought just having heartburn was bad, but these things are much worst than anything I had to indure in the last couple of days.

My name is Rachel and I am 27 years old. I live in New Orleans, LA. I am married to the man of my dreams. This was a planned pregnancy. It only took us 3 months after being on the pill for 10 years. I have a step-son who is 7 years old. He was hoping for a baby brother, but according to the ultrasound tech - We're having a girl. I think he will be very disappointed, but on the other hand my husband is really excited to be having a girl.

My first trimester was very rocky and very painful. I was rushed to the emergency room twice for unexplained bleeding and I was in bed almost every day after work with extreme pains in my lower abdomen. I was told that was growing pains and they would eventually go away. The good part about the first trimester was that I never got sick - thank goodness.

My second trimester seems to be going very well. My abdomen pain has finally subsided. My doctor says that everything with the baby is progressing very well and my weight gain of 8 pounds is perfect. I started feeling the baby kick around the 16th week. Very strange feeling at first. It didn't feel like flutters - It felt like somebody plucking me in my lower belly.