The Best Day of My Life Take Two: Birth Story of Isla Jane Rose

This one has been a long time coming!

Isla Jane Rose was born on May 11th, 2017 at 10:02 AM. She was a perfect 7 pounds 8 ounces, 19 inches long. To us, she felt so darn tiny! Compared to her brother, she is just a petite little thing and sometimes I still can't believe she is ours.

You all know how this one starts, our Isla was a complete surprise and finding out we were pregnant with her was the biggest, happiest shock of our lives. It was so different to finding out we were pregnant with Sawyer, I was already 7 weeks along when I saw those 2 pink lines!

The following 8 months were rough, but they sped by. At my 37 week appointment, I was already 3cm dilated, 85% effaced, and by 39 weeks, I was 4.5 100% effaced. My doctor said each week "if your water breaks or you even have consistent cramping, you need to get to the hospital FAST! This baby will come quick."

So, I had this huge worry those last few weeks that my water would break and I would have Isla in the back of our mini van. However, because my body doesn't like to let go, we made it all the way to our induction date, May 11th, and at my first dilation check I was almost 5cm dilated so we thought we might be lucky enough to have a baby by lunch time. I was hopeful, too, because I was too nervous for breakfast and absolutely starving!

My last bump picture!

I'm going to break the day down by hours just as I did in Sawyer's Birth Story in hopes I don't leave anything out. I'll warn you, though, this lady was here so quickly if you blink you might miss it!

6:30 AM: We arrived around 4:00 AM, however after paperwork, check in, and shift change of our nurses, no action really started until then. We had a lovely nurse who I really liked, but boy did she wreck my arm trying to put in my IV. I still have sensitivity on that side almost 4 weeks later because of how hard she was digging around! After multiple failed attempts, they finally just put the IV in my hand since my arm veins weren't cooperating. They started a bag of fluids and honestly, things were feeling exciting, but no action was happening. She did my initial dilation check, and I was disappointed to find out I had barely moved from the week before, but I was almost fully effaced and just about 5cm dilated so I guess I can't complain too much!

7:30 Pitocin started on the lowest dose, but I still didn't feel too much! Some light cramping, but we could see on the contraction monitor that things were moving along and I was falling into a nice labor pattern. Jake laid down to get a little rest, and although I tried I was far too excited about meeting our girl and I could not sleep for the life of me! It was rough, too, since I barely slept the night before and we had to be up around 2:30 AM to get ready to leave for the hospital.

8:00 My amazing doctor arrived to break my water, and I was so happy to see her! Right about the same time my dad came by on his way to work to check on us, and we had to kick him out pretty quick. I know the guy used to change my diapers, but there was no way he needed to witness my doctor breaking my water!! Contractions were still very mild at this point, but my doctor suggested we put in the order for my epidural because she thought things were going to move very quick. Just like last time, I felt like this was too soon and I was barely in any pain, but thank GOD we listened, because things went from 0-100 very fast after this.

8:45 The anesthesiologist arrived, and I was having incredibly painful contractions every 2 minutes. I'm talking grip the bed, moan like a cow, come out of my body pain. I was a little embarrassed because I thought surely I wasn't dilated to more than a 6-7 at this point and I was in such an incredible amount of pain. The epidural is a really easy process in general, but the contractions were speeding up so much at this point and they were so incredibly intense that I was sobbing the entire time I got my epidural. Our nurse, Alyssa, was my favorite person of our entire hospital stay. She was an angel on earth, I tell you. One of the sweetest humans and since Jake couldn't hold my hand during the epidural she let me squeeze her during contractions and she counted down with me through each one. I felt so bad because during each contraction I would gush amniotic fluid, and it would get all over her scrubs. I kept apologizing and she assured us she would just change and that a little amniotic fluid didn't scare her ;)

Jake calls this my "oh shit that was bad" face, right at the end of a particularly brutal contraction ;)

9:15 My epidural was placed, and of course because nothing is easy with me, it was only taking on one side. I kept pressing my dosage button every chance I had because the pain on my left side was starting to make me feel like I would roll over and die. Alyssa rolled me onto my side in hopes that we could make the medicine travel to that side. I knew it was going to be a really long day if I wasn't distracted, so I sent Jake out to go pick up a movie to distract us for a few hours. He got "Why Him" and it was absolutely hysterical, by the way (when we finally got to watch it, a week later!) While he was out, I had that "out of my body" experience where I violently shaking, and in so much pain on my left side.

9:45 Jake arrived back and I was not in good shape. I asked him to get Alyssa because we needed to page the anesthesiologist to redo this epidural. I had this intense urge to um...go #2, but to be honest, I had some "excitarrhea" all morning so I thought that was all I was experiencing...not! Alyssa came in and decided to check me for dilation since it had been about an hour and a half, and she promptly said "well, no need to page the anesthesiologist, you're complete!" I screamed "what are you even talking about!?" and instantly started sobbing. This meant, during my epidural I was probably already in transition, which would explain the horrific pain I was experiencing. All of a sudden, I didn't feel ready for all of this to happen! She told me to bare down and try a practice push, and as soon as I did she shouted "stop! stop! no practice pushing!!" and they called my doctor and told her to haul booty because I was having this baby. It was pouring rain at this point, and although my doctors clinic is less than a mile from the hospital, the torrential downpour caused her some delays so by the time she arrived, it was go time. Jake was pacing back and forth in shock at this point, he was so glad that he didn't stop for food on his way back or he might have missed it!

9:58 My doctor arrived and gave me a hard time for making her rush over in the rain! We laughed about it, because I like to think of myself as the worlds easiest patient, and this was my one pain in the ass moment from the pregnancy! Since I still had a ton of feeling in my left side, I could feel when a contraction came on, so when I felt it, I pushed with all of my might, and out came her head. One more push and the rest of her came out and we were absolutely thrilled. She was perfect. She came SO fast, and we were just in shock at how the whole thing happened.

10:02 AM They placed my daughter on my chest and all of the fears I had about being a mother of 2 disappeared. My heart grew 10 sizes and I instantly felt bonded to this sweet girl who I knew belonged with us.

I was lucky to have barely torn with how quick she came, and I felt so good almost immediately. It took about an hour for my epidural to wear off completely, so she laid on my chest, I nursed her, and Jake got some skin to skin cuddles before all of our visitors arrived.

I felt guilty saying this, but I could not stop talking about how easy her birth was. It was a few hours of intense pain, sure, but it was SO QUICK! I was only in active labor for about 2 hours. This sweet baby knew how hungry mama was, so she came in time for a late breakfast ;) I ordered strawberry shortcake, pizza, chocolate ice cream, and dr. pepper from the hospital room service and devoured it like someone who had never seen food before.

We were transferred to our recovery room, which we like to refer to as moving from Beverly Hills to Compton ;) and my mother in law brought Sawyer in to meet his baby sister, which was my favorite part of the entire day.

When Sawyer arrived I could not stop crying! It was so wonderful to see my two babies together. He was a little unsure at first, he touched her face and really didn't like that his mama was holding another baby, but I'm happy to say he has warmed up in the last few weeks and he gives her constant kisses and only occasionally bashes her head or steals the paci right from her mouth ;)

This time our hospital stay was much different. We had so much family there to visit and share in our joy! It was perfect. I kept thinking I wouldn't have much to write about for Isla's birth story, but things took a turn after a few hours in recovery and we learned that Isla would have to go to the NICU. This was freaking torture. 4 weeks later and i'm still not over our time there, but i'm going to share that story another day. All that matters is that she never needed to be there in the first place and that she is as healthy as they come!

Isla completes our family in the best way. We are so tired, but so grateful and I can't help but count my blessings and thank God for this beautiful family he has given me the privilege of raising.

To read Sawyer's birth story, click here, to read my pregnancy updates click here! We took some footage of her birth, but it's a bit more graphic than i'm comfortable sharing...so if I can figure out how to edit it a bit I will put together a birth video just like I did with Sawyer and share ASAP!

Thank you for following along this journey with us. :)

Until Next Time,