Isabella Eleanor is here!

I love looking back at Madison's arrival story so I knew that I would want to blog about Isabella's arrival too.  I've been meaning to do this post basically since we got home a little over a week or so ago, but my computer is at work and we've been using our phones and the ipad for internet needs - neither of which are easy to type on.
I finally broke out Ryan's laptop so  here goes!

Some of this might be TMI, but if you know me, you know that I don't hold back, and this post will be the same.

On Tuesday, May 29th I had been having contractions all night long and all weekend had been experiencing what I thought could be leaking of amniotic fluid.  I checked online and everything said that if your baby is still moving as usual, you should be fine.  But finally on Tuesday morning, I decided I should call the doctor's office and just see what they say.  Well, they told me to head to the hospital to be checked.  I called Ryan and he met me there.  Apparently there were multiple emergencies in the labor ward that day - so we waited a few hours before being seen.  Once we were seen they did a three part test to see if I was in fact leaking amniotic fluid.  All three tests showed that I was not.  So they sent me home.  On Wednesday morning, I had been experiencing contractions throughout the night but at about 8 minutes apart, they ceased.  However, when I woke up around 4:30am  I was bleeding.
I jumped the gun and called my parents asking my mom to head here.  Then called the doctor on call.  Well, I should have done the opposite and called the doctor first, because he stated that due to the exam the day before, the bleeding was pretty normal.  He stated that if it became constant and heavy, that is when I should come in.
So I called my parents back, apologized for waking them and was frustrated but headed back to bed.
Throughout the day I lost my mucous plug - but that can happen weeks prior to giving birth, so I couldn't get too excited about that either.
On Thursday I was determined to go to Zumba on my lunch break.  I've been doing Zumba every week for the past four or five months and I love it.  I made it to Zumba, and even though my movements were a little less emphatic than usual, I didn't experience any pain or anything.
Friday, June 1st, I woke up at 6:30am just as Ryan was leaving for work and there was a decent amount of blood.  I didn't want to worry Ryan, so I sent him off to work and said, I think it's just more of my plug.
Then I called my mom at about 7:30 who was coming to watch Madison for the day anyways and said, "you might want to bring an overnight bag" and explained the situation.
When my mom got there at about 9:00am, I called my doctor and stated, "I have my 39 week appointment at 10am, but I am bleeding so I didn't know if I should still come in or what I should do."  The receptionist said, "oh, Amanda, you should head straight to the hospital - I'll let them know you are coming".

So, I called Ryan at work (who was on a bike!- Long story short, it was "bike to school day" and he was just finishing the bike ride with all of his kids!)
He left work immediately, my mom drove me to the hospital so we'd only have one car there, and I kept apologizing to them saying, "if this isn't the real deal, I am so sorry".

We waited about 25 minutes and then were taken in to be seen.  The same woman who checked me earlier in the week was there and checked me this time.  After checking she said, "well, you're 3 cm dilated and 90 % effaced.  Are you ready to have this baby today?"
YES!
I was ready, so ready!!
Ryan and I were thrilled and I got teary eyed once it all hit me that this was really it...
At that point one of the nurses asked if I would be having an epidural - I said no and that was it.  She let me know that they have an anesthesiologist on site so there was no urgency to call someone in if I changed my mind, I could change it at any time.  But that was the only talk about pain medication - which was nice.  When I was in labor with Madison, they kept saying, "this is it for pain meds, if you want something, now's the time."  And over and over, I'd say no - but I was annoyed at that.

They moved us from the triage room into a labor and delivery room where they hooked me up to a monitor to monitor my contractions - which were about 4-5 minutes apart (but I was barely feeling them at that time).

I turned to Ryan at one point and said, "I think its a girl" and he agreed.  Something just made me feel that it was going to be a girl.  But only that day - all through my pregnancy, I had no idea and kept going back and forth.  But it seemed like everyone else was SURE I was having a boy...

I was such a baby about the IV. I knew I was not going to have any drugs, so I knew I wouldn't need the IV but it is pretty much their policy to give you an IV in case they need it - they don't want to waste time trying to get it in if there is an emergency. I HATE IVs and NEEDLES!
I made them slow the drip to almost nothing because it was bothering me so much. I was complaining about it a lot - I just hate IVs and I knew I could drink as much water as they needed me to in order to hydrate myself - but I do understand their reasoning for needing it in - and had there been an emergency, I would have been happy to have it - but at the time, it hurt and I was pissed I had to have it!

We walked the hallway a little after they put the IV in and I heard the charge nurse at the nurse station say to another woman, "I need you to call everyone that has ever done labor and ask them to please come in - we need as many people as we can get today". Come to find out - there were three c-sections going on and four of us in labor. However, you'd never have known that, had I not heard them - I never once felt like they were swamped or that I was one of many - I felt like they were catering to me the whole day.

At about noon, I made Ryan go get some food for himself - just thinking, I can't have him nauseous for this, and he gets crabby without food :) (really, who doesn't).
So at that point, I called my mom and told her it was the real deal and that I'd keep her posted. I also told my sister who was headed to New Jersey for a wedding. She was bummed that it was happening while she wouldn't be here - but clearly I understood.

When Ryan got back, the nurse came in and said that in a little bit they would break my water. So we just sat back and watched Law and Order SVU for a while while we waited. I kept having Ryan look at the monitor because I wanted to know if I was having contractions - which I was - but again, could barely feel them. At this point they were about 3 minutes apart and were pretty good (according to the monitor).

As in every room, there was a dry erase board where the nurses put their information up - well, Ryan decided that was a great board to play hangman on. So he was up putting words up there and I was guessing. Naturally, the words were 'birth', 'contraction', 'delivery' and other labor related words! It kept me distracted for a while!!

A little after 4pm, the nurse came in a broke my water and checked me again. I was only 4 cm dilated at that point - which was disheartening. She stated that the contractions should get better and we'd hope that I would dilate more. I asked if there was anything I could do to speed up the process, like sit on a yoga ball. They went and got me a ball to sit on and I leaned on the bed while bouncing on the ball.
Immediately the contractions picked up and I was soon clutching the bed about every minute or so. Ryan was great, holding my hand, massaging my back, and talking me through each contraction. The nurses were coming in and out and every time they did they were praising me "You're incredible, you're doing amazing, you're doing great!" That was so nice - it definitely helped me feel like I could continue.

At about 5:30ish, I needed to lay down as the contractions were really intense. At that point I asked Ryan to pray that the pain didn't get much worse. He leaned over my head, kissed my forehead and began to pray to God that I could handle the pain and the labor. Around 6:30pm, the nurses (Diane and Tami) came in and checked me again - I was 8cm. Diane said, "lets see what we can do with this next contraction" and basically did what needed to be done to get me to dilate more. She also joked that she would give me $5 if I could "get this done by 7pm" as that was what time she needed to leave to pick up her son.
I knew it was time to start pushing and told them, "I think I'm ready to push" and they said, "go right ahead - when you feel ready".

To be Continued...