Bella's birth story ...

this post has been a long time coming! i'm just finally going through the hundreds of pictures i have from the past few months! so just a forewarning ... there's still lots of pictures and a pretty long recap ... more for my journaling than anything so endulge me :)

i felt more ready with having this baby than with the other 2 and i was a little impatient when she was holding out on me ... i had been dilated to a 3-4 for almost 4 weeks and kept thinking "today is the day" and it would come and go without baby! cindy and arlin came down to help out with the kids and i knew my last day would be april 27th wether i was induced or she came all by herself. the night of the 26th i started having consistent contractions but kept waiting it out because i didn't want to get sent home from the hospital ... i called my dr on the 27th when i woke up and talked to his nurse and she said i could go up or labor at home as long as i wanted since i might be more comfortable at home for a bit longer and then i got a call back from the dr about 1 and he told me i needed to go get checked in and started on the antibiotic i needed {i was group b positive} ... since that takes 4 hours to go through my system to the baby he wanted me to get started on that. my dad and mom came over before we headed up and tone and my dad gave me a blessing to put me at ease with everything. so we checked in a little after 3pm and got settled in around 4. my mom and jess came up with lots of treats and games and oils for my much needed foot and back rubs :) and we were ready for a long night. i didn't progress too fast but by 7:30pm my contractions were to a painful point that i was ready for the epidural. the dr got up to the hospital around 9 and i hadn't progressed too much still so we kept playing games and enjoying the visits from the nurses ... mom made me the cutest hospital gown and we had lots of visiters to see her handiwork! ... mom and jess decided to go get some food around 10 because it looked like we had a while to go still and my nurse came back in to check on me at 10:40ish because she had another patient that was getting close and she probably wouldn't be back for a while ... luckily she checked though because i was ready to go ... bella decided she wanted to come right then and the nurse told me to hold my breath so i didn't accidently push her out while she set up and got the dr back. tone was just going to get jess and mom when they got back ... they barely got in the room and we were just waiting for the dr to come in and deliver this babe. with a push, she was here and had lots and lots of black hair! miss bella elizabeth was born at 11:04pm, was 8lbs 4oz and 20 1/2 inches long. she was a little angel and was so alert ... we were all a little tired but so glad to have her here safe and sound. dad got to the hospital just a few minutes after she was born. we had a great first night and cindy and arlin got up with baylee and boston first thing in the morning. they were so excited to see their new sister. boston had a bit of a runny nose so he had to wear a mask and baylee drew her some beautiful pictures. we had lots of visitors that day and it was good because the next morning we found out her bilirubin was really high and she had to go right under the lights. after being in there all day and doing great at eating and pooping, she hadn't dropped much {at the time we didn't know that was actually good because they usually spike even higher so to stay the same was actally progress} ... we were a little discouraged and had a game plan with the nurses there so that i could board in the same room we were in and she was able to stay in there with me in her incubator. through the next 24 hours she still hadn't changed much and tone came up with arlin to give her a blessing. we felt at peace that things would be good just not as fast as we'd like them to. that night the nurses came in to check on her and were really worried about the color of her tummy {it had turned gray because of the lights} ... they took her to the nursery to watch her close and run all sorts of tests. everything came back perfect but they wanted to do an ekg on saturday morning just to be sure. it was a very trying night for me and if she had been crying and upset in the light box i don't know if i could have made it ... she was an angel! she just layed there and slept except when i took her out to feed her and then she never cried and would just go right back under the lights. i was so glad to have tone there to help me out emotionally. {even though the sleep he got in the lovely chairs they had and the hardwood floor were not that great!} i felt so torn to not be home with bay and bos and felt so helpless in helping bella get better. nothing was seeming to work. luckily for us time was on our side. the more hours she was alive, the better her bilirubin score was even if it wasn't dropping much. finally, saturday afternoon they got the results back from her ekg and said we could go home with lights and just have her tested until her levels were back to normal. it was soooo nice to get home! cindy and arlin had the house clean and the kids so well taken care of and that was a huge relief being gone for 5 days! bella had to be on the lights until that following wednesday but is healthy and happy and the most peaceful little angel! we are so blessed to have her in our family and we all love her so much!

welcome to the world little bella!