Our angel!

Introducing Isabella Victoria!
Born 6.58pm July 3rd, 2008
8lbs 2 oz, 20.5 inches long

My labor started Wed early evening basically at the doctos office. Around 6pm my contractions were regular and lasting approx 1 min and were about 5 minutes apart. My doctor said we can stay at home until there were 3 minutes apart so I stayed home. Plus I wanted to see if this was it. Anyway, about at 10 pm my contractions were very strong and I started to use some of my hypnobirthing because they were strong enough to take my breath away. I told myself I wanted to wait as long as possible before entering the hospital so I gave myself a deadline of 5am. Well, those next 8 hours were the most intense hours of my life. I tried to rest as much as possible but with contractions 3 minutes apart sleep was not going to happen. Anyway, at 5.01am I woke up Christian and said "it's time" Christian just kinda looked at me and said "really...okay" I took a shower and we were off to the hospital. I arrived at Saddleback around 6am. Here is where it got ugly for me!

I went to admissions and got strapped up to a fetal monitor and a monitor that checked out my contractions. (see below). My contractions were registering at 3-4 mins apart so everyone expected me to be at least 5-6 cm dilated. They checked me and I had only progressed 1 cm since 3pm the following day! WHAT! I didn't want to stay unless I was at least 5 but my doctor wanted us to hang out and cruise the halls to see if anything progressed while I walked since I was a first time mom. Well, I walked around for 2 hours and dilated another 2 cm and then....well then that is when it stopped. My doctor (the fill in) came in after his c section to check me and see what was going on. When he did that he broke my water! I guess I was expecting some large event but nothing. He looked at me and said, "well, that should progress things along, expect you contractions to get stronger and closer together"...like WHAT! Christian and I didn't know or expect him to do this but not like we could change anything at that point. Now that my water was ruptured I needed to progress or I would need to take Potocin (labor inducing medication). Anyway, after about 1 hour of contractions that started coming about 2 min apart and that were flat lining the monitor Christian said, "baby, enough, it's been a long day and you need to sleep!" I knew there was no wayI could continue at this pace with no sleep. I decided to just get an epidural after 18 long hours. Once I did, I slept for 2 hours, the nurse came in and check me and said "good stuff things are moving along." Our family was all there and we started writing down some bets of what time she would come, how much she would weigh, and if she would have hair. (It was about 4pm at this time). All bets were in and then the nurse came back in (2 hours later) and asked "how you feeling" I told her I had some pressure but I could probably run a marathon if I could only feel my left leg! :) she checked me again and said, "well you are ready to go, let's do some practice pushes!" At this point, I looked at my mom and Christian and said..."oh hold on, I wasn't really prepared to push, I'm going to need a minute." You see, I was so focused on getting through the laboring processes that her actually being delivered was so far from reality that I never really prepared myself for it. I asked Christian for my Hypnobirthing CD to calm myself down about it all and that's all she wrote. About 3 "practice" pushes with the nurse and 2 with Dr B and Isabella was in my arms! (only after 28 hours of labor...okay 8 of those don't really count because I was really high!)...lol

The last few days have been amazing. I guess you just don't get it until they arrive. I stare at her all day and all night. The nurse kept telling me to send her to the nursery so I could get some sleep but I couldn't imagine letting her go. So I still haven't slept or napped since she was born and I'm sure that day will come but for now I am in absolute amazement of childbirth, becoming a parent, and watching my mini me smile and pout.

Contraction strip (christian didn't get any good ones on this tape)
Walking around trying to get stuff going (oh and looking sexy after no sleep and no makeup!) lol

My angel!

One of many first family photos! Isabella is amazing. She looks a lot like me with a beanie on, but without it, she is her father!