Isabella's Arrival!

I can't believe our little girl has been here for a week already! She is the most beautiful, precious, wonderful, amazing, sweetest, adorable thing ever and Stephen says I am going to spoil her rotten, but he is just as enamored with her as I am. Sorry for the delay in posting pictures; recovery has been rough and this is my first time online since Bella was born. Here's an update on what's happened in the past week!

Isabella was born on April 15th at 9:02 a.m., she weighed 6 lbs 9 oz and was 20.5 inches long. She has dark blue eyes and lots of brown hair. She did have a little trouble with breathing the first couple of days because of amniotic fluid left in her lungs, and she's had jaundice that we've had to monitor pretty closely, but these have not been major problems, and other than that she has been perfectly healthy so far and we are so grateful for that.

The Surgery

The C-section itself went just about as well as it could have. My nurses and doctor did an awesome job. We were all in great spirits and I didn't get nervous until I walked into the operating room and saw all of the instruments and machines... it was like a dentist's office times 10. I asked to have as little pain medication as possible because I wanted to be alert, and I was really surprised at how much pain there was from the pulling and pushing of the surgery, even with the spinal in. It was intense. But it was not long until Bella was out, and holding her was the best pain medication they could have given me!

Our nurses were very accommodating and went along with everything on our Birth Plan. They let me have my arms free during the surgery instead of strapping them down, they did all the newborn checks where I was able to see Bella from the operating table, Stephen and Isabella were able to stay in the operating room with me during the whole procedure, I was allowed to hold Isabella soon after her birth, we got to see the placenta that kept Bella healthy for so long and caused so much trouble in the end, and Stephen and the baby were able to stay in the recovery room with me, where Isabella ate for the first time and seemed to know exactly what to do to latch on!

Our last minutes as a twosome, just before going in the operating room.


Stephen holding Bella for the first time.


My first time to hold Bella, one of the happiest moments in my life!


Getting checked out in the nursery.


The happy grandparents holding Isabella for the first time.


She already has us wrapped around that little finger!


Checking out Bella's feet.


So happy to finally have my baby safe and in my arms!


The Recovery

Everything was great for the first few hours after birth, then something really stupid happened that threw a wrench into everything. There was a crack in my catheter, and instead of fixing it, the nurse (the only bad nurse I had in five days at the hospital) decided to take it out 12 hours after surgery, while fluids were still being pumped into me, and told me that I would definitely know when I needed to pee. Well, several hours went by without me feeling the urge to pee, and by the time I got up to go, I was hemorrhaging. Apparently my uterus wasn't able to contract like it needed to while I had a full bladder, so my uterus filled up with blood clots and within a few hours I lost as much blood as I'd lost earlier that day during the c-section. It was a total nightmare, with nurses coming in to push on my poor uterus all night, me passing huge clots and tons of blood, and trying to feed Isabella every couple of hours. That night resulted in my becoming temporarily anemic. Thankfully I didn't lose so much blood that I had to get a blood transfusion, and I got the choice of that or building my blood back up over time with the help of supplements.

Things have pretty much been a blur ever since then. I haven't been able to take Ibuprofen for pain because of all the blood I lost, so I've been on narcotics that make me feel awful. If I don't take the meds I hurt so bad that I can hardly move, but when I take the meds I feel so bad that I don't want to do anything. I've been on Percocet and I hate the way it makes me feel. I switched to Lortab today and am hoping it won't make me feel so bad. One of my doctors told me that I wouldn't be able to carry my baby for six weeks because of the danger of fainting while holding her (this advice has caused all kinds of breakdowns), and another doctor said I could carry her if I felt strong enough to. Being weak from anemia, the pain in my abdomen, and the pain medications have made recovery a lot harder than I was prepared for. That combined with the demands of feeding a newborn all night and day, and my hormones going CRAZY. It's like mega PMS, after all these months of no PMS. Bummer.

We stayed in the hospital four nights, five days, and I was actually sad to leave. It was so nice to have people around to take care of me and to check on the baby all the time. I loved being brought food three times a day, having a pediatrician available to check out Isabella every morning, and nurses to weigh her and bathe her every night. We only sent her to the nursery to be watched twice during the whole time we were there, and that was during the day after the hemorrhaging, so I could get some rest. I felt she needed to be with us all the time so we could learn how to take care of her before we left the hospital.

Our hospital has lactation consultants available 24/7, and I used them at least once every day. They were so helpful, and I have no idea how new mothers are able to breastfeed without their help. Breastfeeding is one thing that has gone really well so far, which I am so happy about, because I was worried that with her being born three weeks early she might not know how to latch on or suck well, but she has done great since the very beginning. We did have a bit of a scare when she had already lost 9.4% of her birth weight by the end of the second day, even though she was eating and pooping like crazy. A small miracle happened when my milk came in the next morning, only 48 hours after her birth, and she was able to start gaining her weight back. (Apparently milk normally takes much longer to come in after a c-section, and all the nurses were telling me how lucky I was to have it so early). For a couple of days there I looked like Dolly Parton, and discovered that it's extremely painful to look like Dolly!

Isabella's First Week

I can't believe how much Isabella has changed in a week. With every day, she looks more and more like Stephen did as a baby. She has his hairline, his chubby cheeks, and I'm pretty sure I've seen his dimples on her. She has been a super good baby so far, which I am so grateful for. She only cries when she's hungry, and she mostly just eats, sleeps, and poops (and luckily, breastfed baby poop really does not stink). When she is alert she loves to look around and check out her surroundings. She cracks us up with all the little facial expressions she makes. She's already been nicknamed "Turtle-neck" for the way she stretches her neck out, "Piglet" for the little grunts she makes, and "Monkey" for her long, strong, skinny arms and legs (and of course all the other nicknames like sweetie, darling, etc). Stephen loves to play with her, and has already made up a song about her, danced with her, and tried to introduce her to some toys and music. He is currently the official diaper changer since I'm not supposed to be carrying her to the changing table until I get stronger (the one perk of this anemia thing). It stinks to be woken up all night for feedings and changings, but we've gotten used to sleeping in thirty minute and one hour increments of time. And she is so cute that she still makes us laugh even at two in the morning when she's had a major blowout. All I've really gotten to do with her so far is feed her, hold her, kiss her, and love on her, but that's enough for now and I'm looking forward to when I'll be strong enough to do more. She is a doll and we love her to pieces.

Isabella's first time to wear clothes.


It didn't take long for Stephen to fall in love with this precious baby!


Isabella loves skin-to-skin time! (And so do I!)


Sticking out her long tongue, one of her favorite tricks!


Our angel.


Ready to go home from the hospital!


Proud Daddy bringing Isabella home.


Isabella napping while I ate breakfast in bed this morning.


I hope this super long blog makes up for the long wait! Hopefully I'll start posting more as I get to feeling better. Thanks again to all of you for your prayers! We have a safe and happy baby and we feel so blessed that she is finally here with us!