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Monday, August 31, 2009

A Birth Story.................

Isabelle Grace Whalen has arrived! She is 8lbs 10oz and 21 inches long and she arrived on August 28th 2009 at 1:59pm

She is wonderful she has 10 fingers and 10 toes and she smells of sweet newborn baby. I am in love all over again. Her arrival into this world went smoothly, so smoothly that I would not rule out more kids. Give me a couple of weeks I may change my mind!!!!!!!!
Dan and I went to dinner alone on Thursday night before I was to check into the hospital it was strange having him all to myself for a meal. As we left I turned him and said so are you ready to be the Dad of 3 and he said "Bring it on!"

We checked in and they wasted no time getting me set up, they hooked me up to the monitors and found that I was contracting every 3 to 4 minutes and was about 1 to 2 cm dilated. They proceeded to hook up an IV line and give me the Cervidil. After about on hour on the monitors they took me off gave me a sleeping pill and called it a night. Dan and I slept from about midnight to 6am.

At 6:30am the day began, I was hooked up to the pitocine and after about 2 hours went from 1-2cm to 2 to 3cm. I was feeling the contractions but they weren't killing me, I asked about the epidural and when they thought I should have it and before I knew it the man with the magic syringe was there. With my first 2 kids I hated this part, I remember it being painful and very scary, not this time around! Sure it had a little pain associated with it but nothing like the first 2. Within 30 mins I could see the contractions but wasn't feeling them like before.

The morning progressed and I was a 7cm when the pain started to pick up but only on my right side. We could see that Miss Isabelle was hanging out totally on my right side and thought that might have something to do with why I had some pain. They gave me a bit more of the epidural and that still didn't seem to work it's magic. By 12noon I told them I was feeling pressure and they said they would wait for my Dr to check me but that there was nothing they could do about pressure pain. I was pretty certain that by this point I was 10 cm but I didn't insist they check me instead I hung out in a bit of pain waiting for my Dr. He arrived and looked at me sadly saying he was sorryI was in pain and that he would see what he could do. With that he checked me and sure enough I was 10cm, time to push. He asked me to try to push in order to be certain I still had some feeling after being epiduraled to the max and as soon as he knew I could told me to get ready to be a mom for the 3rd time in about 3 min. Man was he ever on the money. Within about 5 min I had baby Isabelle in my arms! As any of you that have kids know as soon as she was placed on my belly all the pain was gone. I was nothing but smiles!

We did have one scare but it was the kind of scare you are grateful not to have known about beforehand. Seems that Isabelle when she was a bit smaller tied her umbilical cord (which even the Dr sad was crazy long) into a knot. Thankfully that knot never got tight as it could have killed her by cutting off her lifeline to me. I was shocked when the Dr. showed me the evidence and relived that we had pressed to have her induced.

We were moved from the Labor room to a private room within about an hour. There I spent the next 2 days caring and bonding with Isabelle. I have never been a good breast feeder. I had a horrible experience with Lauren and with Jackson I only made it about 3 weeks and even that seemed to to be struggle. This time it has been different, Isabelle latches on easily and seems to get what she needs. I hope to continue for a while although I will need to assess once it is time to go back to work. A note about the nursing staff I had caring for me in the hospital they were awesome, I have to say this by far was the best experience in a medical environment I have ever had. It is not often that the medical field asks how they can make you more comfortable Dan kept calling this the "kiss your ass" way to have a child, these women got me whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and did it with a smile. By the time I left I felt as though I had bonded with them.

Last night was our first night home and Isabelle was a dream, she ate at 9:30 went to bed and didn't get up till 1:15 we fed until 2 and then she woke up again at 5:45. I won't hold my breath that it will happen 2 nights in a row but it was a nice homecoming.
Here are some pics of the last few days I hope to have some better pictures in the week to come. Thanks for all the well wishes from my Twitter and Facebook posts it was fun posting and reading the response as labor progressed.


Daddy and Isabelle
Isabelle Grace Whalen


The kids meeting Isabelle for the first time

Me all teary eyed

Mom and baby just after Delivery

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