Seriously....I can't believe my little girl is already 2 1/2 weeks old already. I didn't really believe people when they told me how quickly time would pass by once Isabella was here, but unfortunately, they were all right! :( I don't want her to get any bigger. I want her to stay my teeny tiny baby forever.
:::sigh:::
Ok, before I start sulking and forget about writing this post completely...here's Isabella's birth story:
It started off the day before her actual birthday...3/1/11. I had my last check-up that morning to see if
anything was going on with my body, and if labor was even close to happening on its own. Of course, it wasn't. The doctor saw no change, and told me that I had to go into the hospital that night to start the induction process. It had been long enough (I was 41 weeks 4 days along), and it was time to get this baby out! I was SO excited/scared out of my mind at the same time. I mean, I was going to have my baby in my arms by the end of the next day!! It seemed so surreal.
So, after hearing the news that morning, I went home and did what any normal pregnant woman would do after being told they were going to be in labor that night....absolutely nothing. ;-) I went home, laid in bed, watched tv and all my DVR'd shows, painted my nails, and basically just relaxed as much as possible. I knew it was my last day to do that, so why not take advantage of it while I could, right?!
Around 8pm that night, we arrived at the hospital and I got set up in my room for the night. Finally, around 10:30pm, one of the resident doctors (not one of my own OB's) came in to check me (honestly, one of the
worst internals I've had in my pregnancy thus far. I don't know WHAT she was doing up there, but OMG, the pain was awful!) and give me a little pill, Misoprostol, that was placed in me to soften my cervix and hopefully get contractions to start on their own. At this point, I was still only a fingertip dilated, and only about 50% effaced. By 5-6am, I was cramping so badly that I couldn't sleep or get comfortable at all, so I they gave me some morphine to take the edge off. Ahhh, sweet relief. And, surprisingly, that little shot of morphine kept me pain free until about 2pm the next day when I started having serious contractions from the pitocin! It was great.
At about 10:30am the next morning, I was taken down to the labor & delivery floor and got set up there to start pitocin and get my contractions moving along even more. Overnight, I had progressed to 2cm and about 75% effaced (Woohoo! Progress!) By 2-3pm, I was 3cm 90% effaced, and the pain was getting so bad that I had to get the epidural. I tried to breathe through them for as long as possible, but, with only being 3cm still, and knowing I was going to have a LONG day/night ahead of me, I knew I needed to save my strength for later, when it came time to push.
Now, the epidural...that's a whole other story. Ugh. Let's just say, the relief it gave me from the pain was
definitely worth it, but, having 6 or 7 holes poked into my back, and being hunched over while having contractions for an HOUR, was not fun. OMG. I couldn't believe how long it took them to find a 'good' spot in my back and get it to work correctly. I was honestly terrified that my body was going to reject the medicine, and I was going to have to go through labor feeling the pain the entire time. Thankfully, that was not the case, but it was pretty scary at the time!
FINALLY, the epidural was in, and I was able to breathe and relax for the rest of the day. And, I have to mention...I had one of the nicest/sweetest nurses with us the entire day while I was in labor. I don't think she left our room for more than 5 minutes the whole day. She was literally like a 'mom' to me (I don't have the greatest relationship with my mom, so she wasn't in the room with us the whole day. It was just James and me, and that's exactly how I wanted it.), and talked/helped me through every contraction and made me feel SO comfortable. It was so nice.
Now, to make a long story short (haha, so much for that), from about 3-4pm, when I got the epidural, until 10:30 or so that night, I never made it past 4cm. Over 6 hours in labor, with them bumping up the amount of pitocin they were giving me every half an hour, and I only dilated one freaking centimeter. Awesome. So, at that point, my doctor came in and told me it wasn't looking so good, and Isabella's heart rate was starting to spike a bit. That's all I had to hear. I was done, I was ready to meet my baby...let's get her outta there! So, I was prepped and taken to the OR for a c-section. And it's funny, throughout my entire pregnancy, I just had a 'feeling' that I was going to be late (Hello! Almost 42 weeks pregnant and still no baby. I swear she would've stayed in there until June if we let her!), that I was going to have to be induced, and that my induction was going to fail and I was going to end up with a c-section. I'll call it mother's intuition. ;-)
As much as I was
terrified of having a c-section (I had never been in the hospital in my life before, for anything, let alone major surgery!), it was so much easier and quicker than I imagined...and the recovery was definitely not as bad as I expected either. My doctor was awesome, and literally from the time I was wheeled into the OR, to the time I was wheeled into recovery with my baby in my arms, was 45 minutes long. I couldn't believe it. My baby was finally here!
Isabella Grace was born at 11:04pm on 3/2/11, weighing 8lbs 4 oz and 20 inches long. She was absolutely perfect.
Dad 'prepping' for surgery, with a beer of course!
Please excuse my face/chins...it was SO swollen from all the meds/fluids!
Our first family photo :-)
My little buritto baby
Love her sleepy/stretching face
Time to go home, finally!
Hanging out with mommy
Fozzie's watching over his lil sis :-)
