Happy Birthday Madeleine Sue!!

Today is my Madie Moo's birthday. My oldest is 8 years old now!!! It's so hard for me to believe that. It literally feels like it was only a few months ago that she was born. The first of our brood. I had been induced on a Tues morning at 8am and had contractions most of the day, but nothing too major. By 11 or 12 that night they had stopped. So, the next morning at 8am, they broke my bag of water. I continued to have contractions, these getting more uncomfortable but when they checked me at 6 pm that night, I was only at a 2. Great. Two days, 2 cm. So, they gave me the epidural and some pitocen on top of that. I was living the high life for about 2 hours, then started feeling the contractions come back. After another hour, the epidural had worn off and I was in MAJOR pain. Then I started getting a fever and just becoming a mess, so they decided at midnight to do a c-section. I was so glad it was finally going to be over. We were going on day 3 and I wanted to meet my baby. We had no idea if it was a boy or a girl, so we were excited to find out. Well, when they wheeled me back, they tried to give me more epidural medicine to numb me, but I could feel them cutting, so they wisked Pete out of the room and put me to sleep. The first memory I have when I woke up was a nurse saying, "You had a girl" :-) I was happy, but still so groggy and out of it, that I just kind of smiled and went back to sleep. They woke me up to show her to me through the nursery window as they rolled me to my room. She was screaming like a crazy person, so I was like, "oh." and fell back asleep again. It wasn't until around 8 that morning I woke up for real and was anxious to meet my little girl. Pete rolled her in and I couldn't believe how much she looked like me! It was like that moment I finally realized my dream and that dream was to be a mom.



This is one of the first picture I have with her. You can tell that because of my "writhing hair". That's what I call that mess of knots and tangles in the back of my head. I was rolling around and groaning those last few hours and my hair showed my battle wounds!!

Madie was such a good baby. So sweet and cuddly. I didn't want her out of my sight. Something clicked in me when she was born and I didn't want to be apart from her. Not even for a moment. I was fiercely protective of her. I looked forward to when she'd wake up in the middle of the night to nurse, just so I could spend more time with her. And, we'd spend hours in her room trying on outfits. I loved it!

After she turned one, we moved into our house here. She had it all to herself and she really loved it. It was shortly after she turned one that we got pregnant with Noah.

She didn't really know what to make of being a big sister at first, but as he grew, they became best buddies. She loved to play with him and was always a good sister to him. Noah would follow her around and do everything she did and she loved being his little teacher.

Madie has always been my girly-girl. She went through a phase from about 2-4 where she would dress up every single day. Most days she was Blue from Blues Clues and other days she was a princess. She loved putting on necklaces and crowns and wearing pretty dresses. Look at all those beautiful curls!!

When she was 4, she entered preschool. I was pregnant by this time with Olivia and since she was older, she was sooooo excited to have the baby come!

This is Madie on her first day of kindergarten. She was a little nervous to go to a big school, because she's always been a bit on the shy and quiet side. But, she enjoyed going and was such a good reader, she was going to reading classes with the 1st graders that year.

Madie got her glasses in 1st grade, when we noticed she couldn't read the print on the tv. And, she got her ears pierced when she turned 7 last year. She's grown up so much!! Still the littlest in her class, just a little 40 lb thing, but that doesn't stop her. She's such a cute girl, with a fun personality. She loves to laugh and will laugh like all of us Drexlers - long and loud! She's got a best friend now for the first time and they are inseparable. And, she's still a very smart little girl. She now reads at a 5th grade level and is in advanced math. I continued to be impressed by her selflessness and her kind spirit. Yes, she can be like any other girl - full of drama and mouthliness - but, most of the time, she's laughing and having fun and teaching her brother and sister something new. Can't believe how quickly these 8 yrs have passed. She changed my life when she was born. Changed it in ways I can't begin to explain. When she entered our lives, it's like my life finally began. I have loved her deeply since that first moment in the hospital when I held her and looked into a face that looked just like my own. Happy Birthday Madie!! We love you soooo much!!!