Welcome My Sweet, Sweet Baby Girl...

So in love...

She has only been in our lives for a little over one week, but I feel like my heart has had a place for her forever.

On Wednesday, July 17th at 8:31AM, Isabelle made her debut weighing in at 7 pounds 8 ounces and 20 inches long. We were all instantly smitten.

In my last post, I shared that I would be heading in to be induced. I had a great induction experience and labor with Natey, but I was still nervous going in this time around. The usual plan for induction - if you haven't really dilated (I hadn't) - is to get something called cervidil for the first 12 hours to make your cervix more favorable for labor and then to start pitocin - a synthetic version of oxytocin that gets the strong contractions going. That was the order of events last time and the planned order of events this time around...

Well, that night I got the cervidil around 7PM. By 9PM I was having pretty regular, strong, and PAINFUL contractions. It wasn't until I caved and asked for pain medicine around 1AM that I was able to fall asleep for a few hours - it was more like a loopy, drugged stupor but the fact that I was able to not think about the pain made it a success in my book.

Anyway, by around 5 or 6AM it was time for the cervidil to come out and I was only 2.5/3cm dilated. This totally bummed me out to the point of tears considering the cervidil had basically pushed me into active labor contractions through the night. I have so much respect for women who achieve natural childbirth because the pain was so much more intense than I remembered with Natey. I was miserable and mean to my poor hubby who tried to take my mind off of things. I didn't get an epidural until 4cm with Natey, but there was no way I was waiting any longer, so we called the anesthesiologist. And after I got the epidural I. WAS. GOLDEN.

My OB came to check me and said I was about a 3. The nurse suggested that since I was already contracting pretty strongly, that we didn't start the pitocin and just see what I could do on my own. So my doc broke my water, ran to do a c-section (which usually take about 45 minutes from start to finish), and said she would be back right after to see how things are going. Well, before she could make it back, baby's heart rate was decreasing a bit - the nurse said that this happens sometimes when there is a lot of cervical change in a little bit of time - so my nurse decided to check me and immediately said that we needed to call the doctor because I was complete. We were in disbelief. I went from 3cm to 10cm in less than 45 minutes - that is a personal best for me haha!

When my OB ran in she agreed that it was time to push. I gave my first push and she said, "believe it or not the head is out!" There was one more big push and we had our baby girl.

It was one of the best days of my life.

Our first family photo as 4

"I'm ready to hold her, Daddy, but I'm not ready to carry her..."

Immediately, Natey took his big brother role extremely seriously. He lets everyone know how they should hold the baby, what to do if she cries (give her back to his mommy), and how they need to be quiet so they don't disturb her. I'm so proud of him and I know that he is going to be her lifetime protector. And I cannot begin to tell you how gone my husband is. As soon as he saw her for the first time, he has had that love struck look on his face. He is such an amazing dad, and I am so blessed to be on this parenting journey with him. I already know she is going to be a Daddy's girl. There is so much love in my heart and in our house it brings me to tears to think about.

God is so good.

Our little Miss Isabelle