Welcome Isabella Rose Mitchell

Well as I had been saying since about 33 weeks, I just knew my baby girl would come a few weeks early. And she did. My body had been showing the signs that labor was near and finally my constant cries of "I feel like this baby is going to show up any second" were answered. Wednesday it was 101 degrees out and I came home feeling a bit weathered. Then Carter was sleeping on the couch and he rolled over and I ran across the room to catch him and I strained my pelvic area. I was in a lot of pain all evening and the pain just got worse throughout the night. I had a doctor appt. scheduled for the following afternoon, but I had decided I would call my doctor first thing in the morning cause I could barely walk. But at about 4:45 in the morning I was laying on my back when I felt a pop in my stomach and a gush of fluid followed right after. I knew exactly what it was of course. I alerted Brett that my water had broke and told him to get me a towel as fast as he could. Before I moved an inch we had a towel underneath me and we successfully managed to not get a drop of fluid on our bed. Yes, I'm that good! I can't say the same for our floors. Apparently I carry around a lot of fluid.

At that point I called my parents' house and like I predicted, they didn't answer any of their phones, so I called my brother who still lives with them. Thank goodness he answered his phone. He then went in and woke up my dad and told him my water busted, in which my dad in his sleepy haze thought that meant the water pipes in my house burst. So his response was, why is she calling me? Why doesn't she tell Brett to fix it? Haha. Gotta love men. After a few seconds I think he realized what my brother was telling him and he woke my mom up.

While we waited for my dad to show up at my house, Brett and I got showered and finished packing for the hospital. I took the time to do my hair and makeup, because I know people get camera happy when babies are born and I didn't want to look like a pile of crap. After my dad arrived, we loaded up and headed to McDonalds. Yes, that's right, I said McDonalds not the hospital. I knew I wouldn't be allowed to eat for the entire duration of my labor, so I was going to get something in my stomach while I still had a chance. Obviously McDonalds was not the healthiest choice, but it was the closest and fastest. And while we sat in the drive through, I had a contraction which pushed a heck of a lot of fluid out and soaked everything in site. So I decided since we were so close to our house still, we would return so I could change clothes, because I didn't want to waddle into the hospital looking like I had peed all over myself.

For this reason, my mom actually beat us to the hospital and she got us checked in. By the time we got there, we were able to go right back. I actually got the last available room, so I didn't end up laboring in the hallway. Can you believe they just built a brand new hospital and they don't have enough labor and delivery rooms and they actually have women lined up in the hallways at times? Must have been a man that designed the labor and delivery floor. I got a tiny observation room, but was upgraded to a bigger room once one became available. My contractions were not starting off very strong or consistent, so I was put on petocin. Once I reached about 3-4 cm, they allowed me to get my epidural. My thought was that the pain wasn't that bad, but if I was planning on getting an epidural, I might as well do it before I was miserable. I was pretty nervous about getting one, because when I got mine with Carter, the guy putting it in was extremely mean because he had a hard time getting it in the right spot and my back muscle spasm when they're poked. And when someone is threading a wire in your spine, being still is very necessary. Well my nerves were not calmed when he couldn't find the spot with the first try and he had to pull out the wire and try again. The second time he got it in the right spot, but hit a blood vessel and a nerve and pain started shooting down my right leg. Need I mention every time he fished that dang thing down my back, it would cause more amniotic fluid to come rushing out? Gross. After he pulled the epidural out for the second time, I got really nervous and almost told him to forget it. But he tried for a third time and got it. I guess third time really is the charm.

So long story short, my labor lasted all day and I wasn't progressing very much. My contractions were off the chart, but it wasn't making me dilate much. The doctor actually manually progressed me from 5 cm to 7 cm at a time my epidural had worn off and as you can imagine, it was pretty painful. I don't think he realized I could feel it. They checked me again in a couple of hours and I was still at 7 cm. I was getting nervous at that point, because the talk of a C-section was being brought up. The nurse measured my contractions and they were way stronger than what they consider sufficient, so she talked to the doctor about a C-section. He told her he'd give me plenty of time to dilate, so that really calmed my nerves. After that, I progressed and was almost fully dilated shortly there after. It was then time to call the doctor and he was about 25 mins out. The nurse checked and it appeared that baby Bella was not going to wait for the doctor. She actually crowned on her own without a single push from me. So we called in the house doctor and got the show on the road. Unlike my delivery with Carter in which they had turned my epidural completely off for delivery, they allowed me to keep it turned up and I felt absolutely nothing. I was thrilled. I took about 2 contractions and 4 or 5 pushes and girlfriend made her entrance into the world. I couldn't believe it! Was it really that easy?! It was the polar opposite of my delivery with Carter. I took me almost an hour to push Carter out and by the time I was done with him, my eyes were swelled shut, I had to have a 2 to 3 degree episiotomy, and some other very unwelcome things showed up. None of that happened with this one. I didn't even break a sweat.

She made her arrival on August 4 at 7:04 p.m. She weighed in at 7lbs. 6oz. and was 20 inches long. Not baby for a baby that was actually considered a preemie. She was born 2 days shy of 37 weeks. Can you imagine how large she would have been if I had to wait until 40 weeks? Glad that didn't happen.

She was completely healthy and suffered no birth injuries. We are adjusting very well to having 2 children in our house and she has proven to be a very good sleeper so far. She sleeps for 3 to 4 hour stretches, eats, and goes right back to sleep without even needing to be rocked. Love her!!! I'm back in bed within 20 mins of her waking up.

Carter is adjusting to his little sister and is doing a pretty good job. Of course he's a rough and tough boy and doesn't understand why he can't squeeze her little hands and feet off or why he can't lay on top of her, but he's learning.

So here is a snapshot of our newest addition.