How to break my heart:

These 2 give me butterflies

And I would just like to add...

I've lost 26 lbs. in 9 days.

I'm trying to hurry!

Everyday the past week I have thought, I have to blog, while everything is fresh... but it's been busy. They are coming though, I promise!

Day 7

**I meant for this to go up Sunday

So far in Isla's 7 days of life, this is what she has experienced:

• 4 heel pricks
• getting her stomach pumped
• blood drawn from inside her elbow
• an IV in her head
• about 10 other pokes on her body trying to find a vein so they don't have to put the IV in her head while we stood out in the hall and heard her scream for an hour and a half
• laying under bili lights for 24 hours and could only be held during strict half hour feedings every 3-4 hours
• 4 nights at the hospital
• ultrasound on her gallbladder and spine... to find out if she may need a liver transplant!

Needless to say, it's been a rough week on her, but she appears to have the memory of a goldfish and is doing just fine. Plus, each time they weighed her at the hospital she peed on the scale, so I told her, "That's my girl, way to show 'em who's boss."

Oh, and she doesn't need a liver transplant, we really appreciated the doctor telling us about that posssibility before he was more sure... it was a long 24 hours before the ultrasound was finally done.

It's funny how, each time she cried or each day that has gone by, or each time she had to be poked again, I love her more and more, and it's harder and harder on me. But, now we are enjoying life... and waiting for her to poo, it's been 3 days.

and Greg: I do LOVE the smell of it.

Labor Day

Labor was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and I'm not just talking about her actually arriving. We showed up at the hospital at 8:00 Sunday morning. Originally my doctor was gonna start me on the stuff that softens your cervix but when the nurse checked me that morning, my babies head was much lower; after she informed the doctor, they started me right on Pitocin. After about 2 hours the contractions were a couple minutes apart and a little uncomfortable but I didn't need the drugs put in my IV yet.

I was making slow progress, each time the nurse checked, up until 3:30 pm I was a "one but getting thinner". The nurse flipped me on to my side to see if that would help and I guess it did cause I would rate the pain of those contractions at at least an 8, and I took her up on an offer for IV drugs; at which point I was floating in the clouds. At 3:30 I insisted she check me again cause there had to be a reason for the pain. Yeah,well, I was still a one but so thin she accidently broke my water. By then the drugs wore off a lot and the contractions were excruciating and every minute. Trent was trying to help me by reading the ultrasounds and telling me when they had peaked. He was reading the wrong line, saying, "It's going down, this isn't even a bad one!" and I was like, "Oh this hurts so bad, it's getting worse, NO, it has not peaked, I KNOW because I can FEEL it!!" It was kinda funny later.

She said I had to put up with the pain for an hour then she would check me again and if I was at a 3-4 I could get the epidural. An hour later, she stretched me to a 3 so I could get it!

I was surprised to still be in a lot of pain! They say it's just pressure, but pressure hurts! Also, I had to go over to my right side and get on oxygen cause she wasn't doing well, with the contractions coming so close together her heart rate was dropping. Which also meant I could feel everything on my left side. They gave me a shot of something to slow down the contractions. My nurse later told me, once the baby was doing better, that she was really scared for a while there. When she came on the shift and saw our charts, she thought, "Please don't be my patient!"

At 6:30 or 7 I was checked again and although she was lower, I was only a 4. At 8:00 I told them to check me, the pain was different and I knew I had made progress. Sure enough, I was a 9! and her head was RIGHT THERE! at a Plus 2! WITHOUT pushing! The nurse called the doctor and we started practice pushes, we did 2 or 3 sets and she said to stop, she and Trent could both see the head. It took my doctor over a half hour to get there cause she was on call at another hospital and I was getting a little impatient. I seriously just wanted to push! She got there about 9:30 and Isla was out at 9:53. Well, that's what they said, but I think it was 9:48.



It just didn't seem real when she came out and was put on my stomach. Trent started video taping at that point and I think the look on my face was probably confusion, it was so crazy what had just happened, that I had pushed that out. I have told Trent a few times through out the pregnancy that I was most excited to feel that special love that you only have for your own child and I know that when they put her on my stomach I was waiting for that feeling to begin.

2 or 3 days later I wanted to do it all over again. I craved doing it all over again, and I still would if I could (and I'm assuming I probably will). My mom described it best, she said the next couple days is like Christmas morning, the anticipation gone.

I feel very strongly about epidurals now. I can't say that had I not gotten it, I wouldn't have savored the experience and look back at it wanting to do it all over again, as much as I do. I still felt a lot of pain but I was very aware of what was going on and enjoying myself to an extent. Except the oxygen mask, I hated the oxygen mask.


She was wide awake for at least 2 hours after, very alert and has at least one period a day of just looking around for an hour or two now. She also can roll over onto her side and almost her stomach... impressive, I know! But, kinda scary too. I haven't had the baby blues too bad, I had them more last week and this weekend with the hospital stay. I tried keeping them in all last week until Thursday night, I was just holding her sitting up and she was just looking at me and I just started bawling. Trent came in the room and asked what was wrong and I was just like, "I just love her so much, I just want her to be happy!" It's so weird!

Anyway, things are all good now. She weighed in at 7 lbs 6 oz and 20 inches long. She was spitting up everything she was eating and had to get her stomach pumped to get out all the amniotic fluid still in there and that helped a lot! She dropped down to 6 lbs 8 oz but is now back up at 7 lbs. But I'm thinking a few ounces has got to be poo cause she hasn't pooed in 3 days.

We love her a lot and I can't get enough holding her. Half the night is spent sleeping in her bassinet but the other half is on my chest.

Mr Bluebird on my Shoulder

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for your encouraging comments. I think it was just the hormones yesterday that made me really depressed by my doctor's visit, but I'm feeling much better today. We are so excited to be checking into the hospital in 38.5 hours! Although, since I have been retired, and have spent much of my time around the house, I have thought, "I don't know if this is as good as I thought it was going to be." and "Is all this cleaning and laundry and filling my time with random crap what my life is gonna be like from now on?" cause, I'm kinda bored.

What do you wish you had brought to the hospital or are so glad you had with you?

I'm Discouraged

I had my final doctor's appointment this afternoon. I am still being induced Sunday but due to the fact that I am still pretty thick and only dialated to a one, my doctor feels that this is gonna be a LONG labor, at least 24 hours. Then, she says that apparently my stupid pelvic bone is really thick and the baby's head may not be able to get past it... but, she is gonna let me try on my own before going for a c section. So, now I have it stuck in my head that I'm gonna have to have a c section and I really don't want to. Or, maybe I just wanna know what's gonna happen right now, I just wanna get it over with. I'm bummed.

38 weeks

Really, really not a cute picture.

9 days to go...

That's right, I'm getting induced on Sunday August 16th if it doesn't happen naturally before then... which I don't know that it will cause yesterday when she checked me I was "high and thick". Which is weird cause my uterus measured 34 which is much smaller than the week before. She checked to make sure there was enough fluid and put me on the heart rate monitor for a while and everything looks good so we have no idea why I am suddenly measuring smaller. I have done a lot of walking and am planning on doing everything I can cause I would rather not be induced if I can help it so we'll see!
As far as the tree... I wish the coloring was better, it seems darker in the picture. I chose a bunch of fabrics and cut out all the leaves and tree and decoupaged them on the wall with mod podge. It really only took a few hours total... I have a feeling it is gonna be as hard as wallpaper to get off though. Don't tell Trent, I told him it comes off easy cause he was hesitant ;)
We bought crown molding to put up... I was planning on painting the ceiling a color and painting the crown molding a shade darker but I have lost my motivation. I have never gone through that nesting phase, which i was excited for! I had ideas for stuff to hang on the walls and a neat idea for a book shelf and was planning on sewing the bedding. Luckily my dad made the quilt so that's done and I bought the dust ruffle so all I had to do is the bumper... well... I haven't even begun!

A Little Sneak Peak...

This is something we have done in the nursery...