The Birth of Isabelle Lorraine

Isabelle Lorraine was born on September 16th at 16:41.

She weighed 6 lbs 7.3 oz, was 17.75 inches long.

 

Here is a short summary of her birth.

Due to being diagnosed with a mild case of Gestational Diabetes, my doctor informed me somewhere around 34 weeks that we would not go past 39 weeks. As each week passed, we continued to discuss what that meant (though he was hopeful that she would come on her own). At 38@ weeks (well 37 and 6 days), I had my next to last appointment. The game plan was that I would come in for my normal appointment (exactly one week from then) and based on my progression, we would induce Thursday or Friday.

On Thursday, September 15th, I headed to the doctor's office. I had progressed more than I had last week, but still need a little more time. Based on that, he scheduled me to arrive at The hospital Thursday night at 8 to begin "prep work" for the induction (which would take place on Friday morning). I came home with my mom who was here for the fun and we just spent that afternoon doing what we do best - shopping and walking.

After pizza for dinner, we arrived at the hospital around 8. I was admitted and taken to my room (2312). There they did the normal admission stuff and started me on the prep work (i.e. Cervadil). The Hubs hung around while mom headed home for the night. They also gave me an Ambien to try to help me sleep. Around 3:30 AM, they had to remove the cervadil as I began to have regular contractions (I think they were less than 5 minutes apart...).

At 6:30, we started the induction with the pitocin drip. The doctor came in at 7:30 to check on progression (I was 2-3 cm and 90% effaced). At that point he tried a couple of times to break my water. It didn't go do well, but the nurse suggested giving the epidural first. Insert long complicated story of my adventure with the epidural. The long and short is two people attempted to give me an epidural (a CRNA and the anesthesiologist) and combined they had to do it at least 3 times (pretty sure it was 4, though) and in the end, it didnt take properly. This took a couple of hours to sort out and try to fix... In the mean time, Dr. Jones came back and my water finally broke.

By noon, things had progressed to where I was 5 cm dialated and making good progress. They were still playing with the epidural. They upped the pitocin to the final amount thinkingnthat would help progress me to delivery point. At 2, there was no change in dilation, so we began to change positions to try to help. But at 4, again therenwas no change. Based on this information, Dr. Jones recommended a C-section. By this time, I was exhausted due to the lack of pain medicine (and I was in ALOT of pain) and the fact that it appeared that I wasn't progressing, so we agreed with the doctor. They began prepping me for surgery and took me to the OR around 4:15. (I did get a spinal in the OR, which did work!) The Hubs and mom came in the OR once everything was ready and stood by me in anticipation of the birth of our little angel.

At 4:41, our world changed forever as Miss Bella entered it. She was (and still is) the most beautiful sight. We got yo hold her and see her before they took her to run tests. Eventually, both mom and baby made it back in the room. Mom, dad, and baby had some alone time while my parents and little sister went to grab a bite to eat. (My dad and sister arrived while I was coming out of surgery.) When they returned, we introduced them to Bella.