I wasn't even sure I was actually having contraction, they were so erratic, but by 3AM it was pretty obvious the baby Isabel would not make it to her due date. She is probably setting a precedant and me being so type A and needing to plan everything...I guess there are some changes coming in my future. Isn't that what your children are supposed to do? Change us for the better, right? Let's hope so!!
So here she is with her big brother, Isabel Sofia Ximena Jones, 7 pounds 7 ounces and 19 inches long, born on July 23rd at 8:53AM.
This is big brother Max with Isabel. Every single person who came into the room heard him say, "this is my baby sister." He absolutely LOVES her!
A little background on the whole birth process. Last Thursday I allowed my Doctor to "strip my membranes," at 2 cm dilated, in an effort to not go past my due date. I guess it encouraged a little forward momentum instead. The contractions started around midnight, Sunday night, Monday morning, but they were so erratic I wasn't even sure I was in labor. By 3AM I figured it out and we packed up and headed out to the hospital. At that point the contractions were 4 minutes apart and lasting about 2 minutes. We sped down to the hospital and were checked right in. I got ever so lucky...and had a nurse that had 4 children all naturally and felt that we should try for the same thing with this childbirth.
As the contractions got harder and I asked for an epidural, in my mind I knew there would be hesitation. By 7:30AM I told Terry I was ready for drugs and I am sure she "filed" the request. My doctor showed up shortly after and broke my water, as I hadn't done that yet. I was only dilated to 5 by then. I waited and waited for the anesthesiologist and he arrived somewhere around 8:30AM. I still felt EVERYTHING and kept asking when it would start to work. "Almost there" is what I kept hearing.
Waiting...waiting...waiting...OOOOOOUUUUUUCH!!!!! The contractions were becoming increasingly stronger and I was exhausted during the 30 seconds inbetween. By the time he finally got me wired up I had the uncontrollable urge to push and made it pretty clear that is what I was going to do. I had one involuntary push, heard the nurse say we needed the doctor and a baby nurse, and I knew something was happening. I shifted in the bed to the right position and pushed all while screaming bloody murder. Saw the doctor come in with a look of hurried panic, gown and glove up, and pushed again and she was out. HOLY CRAP!!! That really hurt! Where the hell was my epidural?
(Appearently in active labor it takes about 20 minutes for the drugs to have there desired effect. That is what the anesthesiologist told me this morning when he came by to apoligize for his losing his battle to mother nature. Awfully kind of him to acknowledge the boo boo. Does this mean we still have to pay him?)
So anyway, pretty much a natural child birth. She was ready!
So now here are a couple of fresh pictures.
This is my, wht aren't you cleaning her up before you give her to me, expression.
That, and pure exhaustion and delight!
This is me pushing out the placenta. I call it my Mick Jagger face. You will notice the "natural nazi" nurse turning off the epidural drip in the background! Thanks for nothing!!!
The rest are just great pictures of the last 2 days after Miss Isabel arrived.
A bathing beauty under the lights of the bassinet after her bath, finally. We can't get over how much she looks like Max did when he was born.
She even has Maxwell's bum! And look at that head of dark hair!!
Max with Aunty Joyce and Isabel. Joyce was amazing and came to the hospital at 4:30AM to pick up Max and watch him for us while we had Isabel. He had a blast with her and his doggy friend Hana. Thanks sooooo much Aunty Joyce. We love you!
Our new bigger, happier family.
Daddy and Miss Isabel having a much needed nap.
Max loving on his baby sister. I can not tell you how good he is with her right now. Hopefully it stays that way.
Giving her kisses for the millionth time!!
I wanted to end on one of Max's glory moments. As we have been doing really well with potty training, it is hard for me to leave Max in diapers for any length of time. The last 2 days have been a real test. I didn't want to have Aunty Joyce and the many distractions getting in the way of his experiencing everything. He has pretty consistently lived up to the challenge. He told Joyce several times that he needed to go potty and she happily obliged, stripping off the diaper and putting the dry diaper back on. He even proved what a big boy he was when he came back to the hospital this morning. He went into the bathroom by himself, stripped down and went potty!!
You go big brother!!
We are all home now. Safe and sound. Even Gramma is here so there will be lost of adventures to tell everyone about real soon! Thanks for all the well wishes and stay tuned.
