Welcome Isabella Rose!

It was January 20th, my due date and I went in and out of being discouraged that I was still pregnant to trying to turn my focus back on the Lord and praising Him for His goodness! I was starting to feel like she would never come on her own with all of the false labor I was having. Israel and I went to go check out the fresh coat of paint at our new house after dinner then I had to run to Home Depot. I was getting Israel out of the car seat when I began to suspect that my water broke, I wasn't real obvious so I went ahead and went in the store and when I got back to the car I decided to call the hospital. They said that I should come in so that they could run a test to tell me whether it was broke or not.....the more I thought about it the more I talked myself out of it being my water. Jeremiah was working on cleaning the floors at our new house cleaned so Zahn's could lay the carpet the next morning so he couldn't go with me. My mother and father-in-law came over to stay with Israel and my sister-in-law, Claudia, went with me to the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital, the nurse confirmed that my water had indeed broke....I was thrilled!! The nurse called the mid-wife who said I had until midnight to go into active labor and start to progress before they would have to put me on a pitocin drip in order to prevent any infections from occurring. I walked all around that hospital trying to get things going but it did nothing to start active labor....so around 12:15 I got the pitocin and almost immediately I went into active labor. I had been wanting to go 'all natural' so I was a bit disappointed that I had to have the pitocin...but I was still open to going without the epidural.

The mid-wife let me know that I had to let her know in plenty of time if I wanted the epi because the anesthesiologist would take an hour to get to the hospital with the road conditions that night. I quickly started to go into hard labor and decided I had better ask for the epi...she had just checked me and I was still at 5 cm so we all thought he would make it. After laboring a bit more, it was probably around 2:10 or so and I began to feel a lot of pressure. The mid-wife checked me and said I was ready to push.....I was so scared. It was too late to get the epi! I was terrified and felt out of control, the pushing was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life, by far!! The contractions were painful but nothing I couldn't manage with a lot of focus. The midwife and nurses were very good at telling me what to do and trying to keep me focused on getting her out. It only took 3 or 4 pushes and she was out. She was born at 2:28 a.m. My labor was only a little over 2 hours long....wow! I'm thinking that if there is a next time I will want to be induced so I can make sure and get the epidural, especially since my labor went so fast.

I cannot believe I delivered my baby girl without pain meds....I've had the experience, but definitely not something I would want to do again! Isabella Rose was 8 lb, 12 oz, 21 inches long and has beautiful chubby cheeks!! I love her so:) OH, and my hubby almost passed out twice....he isn't sure why b/c he was fine and he watched everything when Israel was born. He was dead asleep when I told him it was time to push and gets up to me screaming, shaking, and saying I can't do this...I am sure that must have been a bit much to wake up to:)

Did I mention I am IN LOVE with this little girl...oh, and her daddy and big brother are too:)

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