Two weeks ago today my precious second baby daughter was born! Here is her birth story:
So before Isla was born, I had mentioned casually to a few people how cool it would be to have all three of my babies born on a Sunday. I guess God heard me and decided to honor my whim because that's what happened! Two Sundays ago it was conference weekend. I had finished my last day of work the Wednesday before and my mom had been here for about a week. We had been much slower getting everything ready for baby than we were with Levi or Emery but we had finally gotten a new car seat, washed all the baby clothes and blankets and burp cloths and towels and stuff, set up the pack n play and got some diapers. And I was soooo done being pregnant. I was so much more uncomfortable this time around. I think partially because I wasn't walking or doing the prenatal yoga but I had finally reached the full-on waddle stage of pregnancy. My pubic symphysis was killing me and I just felt huge, awkward and just uncomfortable! So I was ready to have my baby, but I was only having a couple of contractions a day so I was feeling a little disheartened.
On Wednesday (my due date 9/29), I had a non-stress test and ultrasound of baby Isla. She was looking great and rocked the non-stress test so that was reassuring. But I was still only 3 cm dilated which is what I had been for the last 2 weeks or so so that was discouraging. That whole week any time I went anywhere, people kept looking at me slightly concerned like "oh my gosh are you going to have that baby right here?!" It was getting old.
Anyway, that weekend was General Conference weekend. Levi and Emery actually were really good and mostly just played together upstairs and let us actually watch conference which was nice! Sunday morning I had a couple contractions but things didn't really start happening until the Sunday afternoon session when finally, finally, the contractions started coming semi-regularly and I started timing them. About halfway through the Sunday afternoon session I asked Eric if he had his hospital bag packed (he didn't haha) so I told him I thought baby was probably coming today and he went and packed it.
I was nervous because Emery's birth progressed so quickly so I didn't want to wait too long to go to the hospital. So as soon as we finished dinner my contractions were between 3 and 7 minutes apart and we decided to go. The drive to the hospital was sooo much more pleasant than it had been with either Levi or Emery! I actually felt a little worried they would send me away or something because my contractions weren't really painful yet and they were about 7 minutes apart on the drive. But looking back, I am so glad we went when we did.
We checked into the hospital and were able to get settled into the L&D room and I was still relatively comfortable. They did the fetal monitoring and tracked my contractions and I was able to talk and answer my own medical history questions haha. We just paused for contractions as needed. Anyway, the nurse checked my cervix and I was dilated to 5-6 cm she said so Eric and I thought, "ok well maybe we'll be here for a while before things get interesting." Nope! After we had been there for I don't know, an hour and 15 minutes or so, I went to the bathroom and my water broke! And after that, things got real, really fast. My contractions picked up speed and intensity exponentially. I walked around the room a little bit and swayed with Eric and sat on the birthing ball and swayed through the contractions. I feel like a did a pretty good job managing my breathing and staying calm but man, I hated it haha. After not very long (maybe 20 minutes or so), I had Eric call the nurse in because I was like "screw this I think I'll get an epidural." By that time I was sweating and my contractions felt right on top of each other. But when the nurse checked me I was fully dilated! So she quick called in some people for the delivery. The OB on call from my OB's office (Dr. Robert - who happens to be my least favorite of the lot) wasn't there yet so the nurse was like, "This is the hospitalist just in case you can't wait for your OB." and I was like "I'm not waiting for anyone!" And then I pushed out my baby. Haha. Three pushes and sweet Isla Sage was here at 8:57 pm! She came face up just like her sister. And holy cow it was intense but kind of awesome to do it totally natural again! They had to suction out her mouth a couple times but then she started yelling and turned all nice and pink and they put her on my chest. I had a little tear again that needed stitches and I was shaking like crazy again from all the adrenaline but thankfully this time I didn't bleed too much! I was a huge baby about the stitches again and totally almost had a panic attack about letting the hospitalist stitch me up. The poor hospitalist seemed annoyed with me, but Eric did a good job of trying to get me to just focus on him and Isla and the nurse kept trying to reassure me and we made it through. I swear the stitching is the worst part of the birth experience every time! When that was over, I breathed a huge sigh of relief and was finally able to relax and just be with Eric and Isla. Isla was rooting all over my chest and latched right on when I guided her to the breast and then proceeded to want to nurse for the next three hours straight!
So yeah, that's how Isla Sage came into the world. She is so beautiful and I am just soooo happy to not be pregnant anymore. I love being able to snuggle her and be able to hand her to Daddy or Grandma too! Levi and Emery LOVE Isla and Emery especially is constantly wanting to hold her or help her with her binkie. Isla has been struggling kind of a lot with gas pain and reflux. She doesn't actually spit up much because she swallows it back down but she does a ton of squirming, grunting, gagging, coughing, etc. She gets the hiccups multiple times a day and just seems genuinely uncomfortable when she lays on her back, especially at night which has been a BIG challenge. I have gotten pretty sleep deprived and have had a few days when I feel completely like a zombie. Thank goodness my mom is here because she has been a HUGE help with Emery and taking care of things around the house. I feel like I've done nothing but nurse Isla and try to burp her (a challenge). I know this stage won't last forever, but I wish there was more I knew to do to help poor little miss out. She is actually a pretty good sleeper and good-natured when she's not uncomfortable. We've been giving her probiotics and simethicone and I've tried to limit dairy but nothing has been super helpful yet. I think her digestive system just needs to mature a bit. Fingers crossed it happens soon!
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