One Month

I can't believe Bella is one month already! This month has really flown by! It's been quite a crazy month with all the hospital visits and all. Bella had her appointment with the pediatric urologist yesterday. He said that it's not too common for really young babies to get UTI's, so they do want to do the other test (VCUG) to test for urine reflux. He said it's possible that she did just get the UTI from having a dirty diaper, but they need to do the test because it could affect her kidneys in the long term.

So, the first available time at the hospital was on June 24th- my birthday. Happy Birthday to me!! We have to be there at 8:00am, and then afterwards, we will go directly over to the doctor's office and go over the results. In the meantime, he gave us another antibiotic prescription to keep her on until after she has the test. Once again, we've had troubles getting the prescription because no one seems to carry it. Publix said they would call the physician to verify the dosage, and if they have to order it, hopefully they'll have it by tomorrow.

The doctor said if Bella has the urinary reflux then I believe he said Taylor would have a 30% chance of having it, too. If she does have it, I don't know if he'll want to go ahead and test Taylor for it or not since she's never had any problems before.

Bella has been doing really well since being in the hospital. No fevers or any other problems. She sleeps a lot better than Taylor so far. Last night was a great night. I put her to bed at 10:00pm, and then she didn't wake up until 3:00am and then went back to sleep until 7:00am. That's not an every night thing though. Right now, for instance, it's 10:30pm, and we're still having trouble getting her to go to sleep. She keeps dozing off and then waking up after a few minutes. She's still pretty much just eating and sleeping. When we hold her over our shoulder, she does really well at trying to hold up her head. At the doctor's office yesterday, she was up to 9.5lbs, and she's starting to get little rolls on her arms and puffy cheeks.

Taylor is doing a lot better with Bella. She wants to give her kisses and hugs, and she helps throw away dirty diapers. She even hands me wipes while I'm changing Bella's "shoo shoo." Sometimes first thing in the morning, Bella will still be sleeping, but Taylor is already up, so I will go lay on the couch with Taylor and doze off, and she will wake me up whenever Bella wakes up and starts crying. Overall, she's a good big sister, but she does do some things that make me nervous. When I have Bella in the baby swing, sometimes she will give her an extra push that's just a little too hard, or like this morning, Taylor was eating a biscuit, and I found a little tiny piece of it on Bella's lip. Apparently, Taylor felt she needed some, too. Then, this afternoon, Taylor was eating pretzels and started holding one up to Bella. I told her that she didn't eat them, but the next thing I know, she has shoved the whole pretzel into Bella's mouth. Bella started crying (a painful cry), so I ran over to her, and I could just barely see the pretzel sticking out of her mouth. I pulled some out, but it had broken in half, and the other part was in the bottom of her mouth up under her tongue. I was afraid she'd end up choking.

The hard part is not getting really mad at Taylor when she does stuff that hurts Bella because she doesn't understand. I've got to learn to teach her why she shouldn't do those things because she's not purposely trying to hurt her. It's really hard though especially since Taylor's terrible two's are in full force, and we are really clashing right now. She really is very good for everyone else but me. She pretty much doesn't listen to anything I tell her, and it doesn't matter what I do- yell at her, spank her, put her in time out, etc.- she really doesn't care. Today, we had a great day visiting with family over at Alisha's for Garden Club, but as soon as we got home and I tried to put her down for a nap, she had a meltdown. That's the stem of most of our battles. I really, really cherish naptime, and it about makes me go insane when she fights taking a nap. She was screaming and crying and pitching a fit, and then Bella started crying. It was just too much. I ended up taking Bella in her room and sitting in the rocking chair until Taylor cried herself to sleep. Then, she started crying as soon as she woke up which was around 5:00pm or so and did not stop crying and whining until after Jared got home which was around 6:15pm. Yeah, I had definitely had enough. Of course she calmed down after Jared got home. It's just so not fair.

It's times like these that make you wish that you could rationalize with little kids. I mean, I know you would like to stay up and play, but if you just take a little nap without a fight every day, then mommy would be a whole lot happier, and then you would be a whole lot happier. It's funny because just a couple of months ago I was posting about how much I LOVE Taylor- and I do but there are times these days when I really wish that I could just get away!!!!! It's a good thing Jared bought me those Keith Urban concert tickets for Saturday night! :-) It'll be the first time that I've been away from Bella though so I hope I'm not stressed the whole time. I remember the first time I was away from Taylor when she was little I was really stressed and anxious the whole time.

So... we're all doing well physically right now. I'm just not so sure about my mental state... haha

She's Too Little for This!

The past several days have been quite busy for us. Wednesday night, Jared went to play basketball at the church, and I told him while he was gone I got my first experience of what it is truly like to have two kids. Until that point, things had gone very smoothly, but that particular night, both girls decided to scream and cry at the same time. Taylor had spent the whole day with her Aunt Say-say (how are you supposed to spell that?). She had a great time, of course, and I enjoyed having a little break. I imagined getting tons and tons of stuff done, but of course, Bella decided to demand a little more attention than usual, so I didn't get quite as much done as I had hoped. Thank you, Sarah, for stealing her away and for dinner! I know you have your hands full as it is! Anyway, Taylor didn't have a nap that day, so shortly after Jared left for basketball, I tried to put Taylor in bed. I figured she would be so tired that she wouldn't put up a fight, but I was wrong. She was screaming and crying the whole time I was changing her diaper and putting on her pajamas to get her ready for bed. Then, Bella starts crying. I take Taylor back to her room where she continues to scream and cry. I sit in the rocking chair with her. She finally calms down, but by this point, Bella is screaming as loud as she can. I finally get Taylor in bed, and by the time I was done, Bella had cried herself to sleep. It was pretty stressful for a little bit, but it's something I have to get used to, I guess. When Taylor was a baby, I could never just let her cry. It just broke my heart. I am quickly learning that sometimes you just have to let them cry. Otherwise, you will go crazy. It still tugs at my heart if Bella is crying but I'm having to do something with Taylor, but she tends to only cry for a little while and then calms down and falls asleep.


So... I thought Wednesday night was a bit stressful, but I had no idea what was coming.... Thursday morning, I thought Bella felt pretty hot when she woke up, but I thought maybe it was just because she had been bundled up in blankets all night. We have a thermometer somewhere in our house, but every time I find it, Taylor gets a hold of it and hides it somewhere else. So, I didn't know where our thermometer was, but we were going over to Cari's house for GC, so I stuck some Tylenol in my purse and decided I would just take her temp at Cari's. When we got there, I handed Bella to Misty and asked if she felt warm to her, and she said yes. So, we took her temp, and it was 101.1. I almost started crying that very second because I had a pretty good suspicion of what was coming, but I tried to be calm, and I gave her some Tylenol and went and called our doctor's office. Our family doctor happened to be out of town, so we made an appointment with one of his partners. The appointment wasn't until 2:30, so I was very anxious all morning. Gratefully, Cari offered to watch Taylor while I took Bella to the doctor.

By the time we got to the doctor's office, her temp was about down to normal, but she still felt warm to me, and the nurse there said she felt warm to her, too. When the doctor came in the room, I told him what her temp was, and before he even examined her, he looked at me and said, "She's going to have to go into the hospital." I immediately started crying because my fears had been confirmed. He apologized for being so blunt, but I said it was okay because I was pretty much expecting it; I was just hoping I was wrong. He was going to have her directly admitted to the hospital, but in order to speed up the process and get all of her tests started right away, he sent us over to the Pediatric ER.

When they first checked her temp at the ER, it was 100.5, so it was starting to go back up. They started an IV, drew blood work and blood cultures, did a cath urine, did a chest x-ray, and did a spinal tap. Basically, babies that young don't usually show a lot of symptoms when they're sick, so they have to test them for everything imaginable. I told Bella that at least her big sister waited two years before she had to go to the hospital. Bella only waited two weeks!




While we were waiting to be admitted, Jared went home to pack our bags and take stuff to Cari for Taylor to spend the night. They finally got us upstairs to a room around 9:00pm, I guess. I fed Taylor at 10:00pm, but she ended up throwing everything up. She did the same thing the previous Monday night, but it was just one time, so we didn't think anything of it. When she did it this time, I was afraid it might have something to do with her being sick, so we told the nurse, and the nurse said to hold off feeding her for a couple of hours and then give her some Pedialyte. Around midnight, I gave her some Pedialyte, and at first, she started chugging the whole bottle. Then, she would push away from it but still be fussy. Around 1:00am, I gave her another little Pedialyte bottle. The nurse came back in and asked how she was doing. I told her that she took the Pedialyte but was being pretty fussy. She said she would come back and check on her in another hour, and if she was still being fussy, she would call the doctor. We could just tell that she was hungry, but Pedialyte was NOT what she wanted. Finally, around 2:00am, I decided to go ahead and feed her. She kept everything down fine and finally fell asleep. It was a very rough night- not to mention they only had one very small, very uncomfortable couch that would stretch out so ONE person could sleep on it, and Jared and I both tried to squeeze on there.


The next morning, I noticed a tiny spot of bright red blood in her diaper. If she had actually been bleeding from her intestinal tract, then it would not have been bright red blood, but I showed it to the doctor, and he asked a GI doctor to come see her. The GI doctor came and talked to us for a few minutes but said that he really didn't think he was needed and didn't like to do tests just for the sake of doing tests. My mom was so sweet to come and stay with me all day while Jared was at work. I tried to nap here and there, but every time I would doze off, the nurse or someone else would come in the room.

Jared is taking online classes, and he had a research paper and two finals due that same weekend, so he decided that he would spend the night at home Friday night so he could work on all of that. Taylor spent the night with my brother and his family. They have two boys, so my sis-in-law Sarah was loving having a girl to play with. The doctor called our hospital room late that afternoon and told me Bella's blood cultures had come back fine (all of the tests up to this point were normal), but her urine culture came back positive for E. coli and he was going to order an ultrasound of her kidneys and ask a urologist to come see her. He asked if I had any questions, but all I could think to ask him was if we would still be able to go home the next day as we were originally told or if it would depend on the ultrasound. Of course, he said it would depend on the ultrasound.

I called Jared to tell him what the doctor had said, and we both started to get pretty worried. I mean, everything you usually hear about E. coli is really serious, and we weren't sure how she had gotten it. My mom called one of her brothers who is an anesthesiologist, and he basically told her that we shouldn't worry because this was something that's actually pretty common and it wasn't the same E. coli like with food poisoning-- it was basically just a UTI. So, we all felt a little relieved after hearing that.

Jared and my mom had brought some movies up to the hospital for me to watch so I wasn't too incredibly bored. I watched The Secret Life of Bees and Bedtime Stories which were both good. They did the ultrasound right in our room around 7:00 or 8:00 pm. The nurse said the doctor told her to call him that night if the results showed something abnormal- but he did not expect that- otherwise he said he would just be by in the morning. Once again, I didn't get any sleep between waking up to feed Bella and the nurse and tech coming in and out of the room.

The nurse came in at 5:00am to draw some blood work and then I fed Bella. Just as I had gotten her back to sleep around 6:00am, the tech came in to weigh her, so of course she had to get her all unwrapped and everything. (She was 8 lbs 4 oz, by the way!) I got her back to sleep and didn't have long to sleep myself before the doctor came in. One of our family doctor's other partners was on call the next day, so when he came in, he said the urine culture was positive for gram negative bacteria (which I guess they were just assuming was E. coli at the time), so they wanted to wait another day until they identified the specific bacteria (best to be on the cautious side of everything- if the infection were to spread to her bloodstream, she could get really sick, really fast). Great- another day in the hospital! I asked him if this was something that maybe she had gotten from her stool getting in/on/near her urethra (that's pretty common for little girls). He said that was possible, but also, E. coli is one of the natural bacteria on our bodies. Usually when we urinate, we flush it out of our system, but it could be that it just didn't get flushed out so it caused her to have a urinary tract infection. He reassured me that there was nothing I could have done differently. He said it was just bad luck- some babies could sit in a dirty diaper for hours and never get a UTI. He was really great about explaining things. He explained that there are valves between the kidneys and the bladder that allow urine to go from the kidneys to the bladder but are supposed to keep the urine from refluxing from the bladder back up into the kidneys. He said the urologist may want to do an additional test-a VCUG- that would test the functioning of the urinary tract and make sure those valves are working correctly.

The doctor also said that her potassium had come back really high, but he believed that it was only because the nurse had to work hard at squeezing her heel to get the blood to come out and the blood had probably hemolyzed. If her potassium had actually been that high, it would have caused heart arrythmias. However, he said that it would be bad for it to actually be high and not do anything to treat it. I understood that they would have to redraw the blood just to be sure, so the day shift nurse came in later to redraw the blood, and it came back much better.

The urologist came in shortly after the family doctor was there. The on call urologist was not the pediatric urologist. He said they may do the VCUG, but they would have to wait until the infection was cleared up before they did it. He said at this point they would just want the ultrasound to make sure everything looked good with the kidneys, and everything did. So, he just told us to call on Monday to make an appointment with his partner, the pediatric urologist.

Jared got up that morning and worked on his paper some more, and then he came up to the hospital later that afternoon. My mom also came first thing that morning to keep me company again. Neal and Sarah brought Taylor up that afternoon to visit. When Taylor saw Bella's arm and how they had it wrapped up where her IV was, she said, "It hurt. It hurt." She kept getting Oreos from Grandma and crawling under Bella's bed. If we had lowered the rail on the other side of the bed, she would have been trapped in there like she was in a cage.


She also got some good use out of a little car that she could sit in and "drive" that they had available there on the pediatric floor. Really, she gave Grandma a good work out pushing that car up and down the hallways. After that, she clearly needed a nap- Taylor, not Grandma, although Grandma may have wanted one too after all that... haha- because she was being incredibly fussy so Neal and Sarah took her back to their house, and she spent the night with them again. Jared stayed the night at the hospital that night. The tech found us a recliner, but it ended up being worse than the couch, so Jared ended up putting a bunch of pillows on the floor, which believe it or not, he said was more comfortable than the couch.

Sunday morning, the doctor came in and asked if we were ready to go home!! Of course! The culture definitely came back as E. coli. He wrote us a prescription for antibiotics to give her at home, and we were discharged between 10:30 and 11:00 am. We were so happy to get out of there. I took Bella home, and Jared went to get Taylor. I was going to drop off the prescription at a pharmacy near our house, and Jared was going to pick it up on his way home. The two pharmacies near our house were not open at the time that I went by, so I figured we could just go by there later. Jared went later that afternoon and was told that the antibiotic that was prescribed was not a common one, and they didn't have it in stock. We then called around to just about every pharmacy in town that we could think of, and no one had that specific antibiotic in stock. So we had to call the doctor's office's answering service and have them page the doctor, and the doctor called in a different prescription for us, but he didn't call it in to one of the pharmacies close to our house because by this time they were about to close for the day, so he called it into a pharmacy in town that he knew stayed open late. Luckily, some friends of ours from church offered to bring us dinner that night, so that was one less thing we had to worry about.

Bella is doing very well now. She's had no fever since the hospital, and she never really acted sick in the first place. She takes her antibiotic very well especially if we give it to her when she's really hungry ;-) Taylor, on the other hand, does not like it when I give Bella the antibiotic. The first time she saw me, she said, "Ewww... no mommy! no!!" and then hit me on the head... haha She's being protective of her little sister already. She has actually started to get very sweet with Bella and likes to give her hugs and kisses.

Since our stay in the hospital, I have been trying to get caught up on some rest. Being sleep deprived comes with the terrority of having a newborn, and the hospital stay just really added to that. Speaking of sleep... I've been trying to finish this post for a few days, and I'm up way too late trying to get it done, and now Bella is crying, so I'm off.....

Please VOTE

My sister-in-law Misty is one of three finalists to receive a "Mom package" for Mother's Day from Give Away Today. My other sil Cari entered her into the contest. Go to this link: http://cnc-noahsark.blogspot.com/2009/04/my-big-sis.html to see the original email that she sent and go to http://giveawaytoday.blogspot.com/ tomorrow, May 7th, to vote. Voting will be on May 7th only and the contest winner will be announced on May 8th. So, please vote for Misty. She truly deserves to have something special done for her!! Thanks!

Photo shoots

I LOVE pictures! I have always loved taking pictures and capturing all the great moments in life with my friends and family. I have always been the one taking pictures, and I am by no means a professional photographer nor do I really know any of the real techniques of photography. I am very blessed to have friends and family who are, however, very good at taking pictures and editing them to look like real professional photos. Recently, my sister-in-law Alisha and my friend Rachel have both blessed me with their talents. They both took some maternity pictures shortly before Bella was born, and on Monday, Rachel came by and took some pictures of Bella. She loves taking newborn pictures, and we were happy to let her test some new things out on us. Well, I guess Bella didn't really have a choice in the matter.. haha This weekend, Alisha is going to take some more pictures for us, and I am very excited to see how they turn out! If my girls want to be models when they grow up, they will already have tons of experience ;-)

Here is Rachel's website: http://picsbyricks.blogspot.com/2009/05/perfect.html She has already posted one picture of Bella, and it took my breath away.

Here are links to the maternity pics she posted and some pics of Taylor: http://picsbyricks.blogspot.com/2009/04/such-beautiful-little-girl.html

http://picsbyricks.blogspot.com/2009/04/caution-baby-bump-ahead.html

and here are some additional pictures that she didn't post:

Here are links to the pictures Alisha took and posted on her blog:

http://mayfield-6.blogspot.com/2009/04/taylor-anticipates.html

http://mayfield-6.blogspot.com/2009/04/debbie-and-her-baby-bump.html

I will post again soon when all the newborn pics are done. I can't wait!! Thank you, Alisha and Rachel!

One Week Old

Bella is one week old today, and this week has gone surprisingly well. So far, Bella is a much better sleeper and much less high-maintenance than Taylor was. Of course, that could change at any moment so I hope I'm not jinxing myself ;-)

She's going about 3-4 hours in between feedings at night, so I've actually been able to get decent sleep. We had a couple of nights where I would feed her around 8:00, then we would put her to bed, then she'd wake up around 10:30- right when we're getting ready to go to bed-, I'd feed her, and then she'd decide that she's wide awake, and it would take her until 12:30 or 1:00 before she finally fell asleep. Once she was asleep, she would sleep great the rest of the night.

Yesterday she had a doctor's appointment to check her weight. She was 6 lbs 10 oz at birth, and by the time we left the hospital, she was 6 lbs 3 oz. At the doctor's office, they said she was up to 7 lbs 8 oz. I am sure that she has gained weight because it took less time for my milk to come in this time, and she has been eating really well, but I find it really hard to believe that she has gained almost a pound and a half in just a few days. Of course, this was using two different scales, so that may have something to do with it.

Taylor is starting to warm up to Bella. She will smile and laugh more when she sees her and will even ask "Where's baby?" if she doesn't see her. I tried taking pictures of one of the rare moments when Taylor was looking at Bella and talking to her. Of course, she didn't really like the fact that I was taking a picture of that.

She still has her moments of jealousy though and will tell us to put the baby down if she doesn't want us holding her and wants us to do something with her instead. We got out the baby swing which Taylor has claimed ownership of. We tried telling her that she was too big for it for the first couple of hours, but she insisted that she get to "wee" so we let her swing in it now as long as she doesn't turn it on. It's quite cute actually because she'll grab onto the front bars and pull herself forward to make herself swing.

We haven't really left the house since we've been home from the hospital except to go to Bella's doctor's appointment yesterday, so my biggest concern right now is figuring out how I will get a shower on days that we have to go somewhere when Jared is at work. I suppose I can bring Bella in the bathroom with me and lock Taylor out, or I'll have to start showering at night or something. Of course, there's the stress of having to work around Bella's feeding schedule and then packing a diaper bag for two kids now, so I guess I've had it pretty easy so far by just sticking around the house.

I am so in love with both of my girls. I keep looking at Bella and just can't believe that she's mine. I know I felt the same way with Taylor, too. I wonder if I will always have that feeling every time no matter how many kids I have. I know it's only been a week, but so far, things are going so much more smoothly this time around than they did with Taylor. I don't know if it's because Bella is a much easier baby or because I'm just getting more sleep or because I have a better idea of what I'm doing this time-- or maybe a combination of all of them-- but my mood is so much better, and I am so happy right now. I remember feeling a lot more stressed- and depressed even- after Taylor was born. I don't know if it was just exhaustion or postpartum stuff that I mistook for exhaustion. Heavenly Father knew I needed a break after Taylor. I hope things continue to go this way. If so, it probably won't be long before Bella is sleeping through the night, and THAT makes me very, very happy :-)

Warning: Long post below!

Just wanted to warn you all that I posted below about Bella's birth, but it is a VERY long one!! I gave a lot of detail about the labor and delivery process and how things have been going since then, so I can always go back and read it to remember things. If you're not interested in all that, then feel free to just look at the pictures :-)

She's Here!!!

Yay! She's finally here! Isabella Grace Mayfield was born on April 28th at 7:05am. She weighed 6 lbs 10 oz and was 19.5 inches long.

Here's a link to the hospital webpage: http://www.infantxpress.com/nursery2.php?orgID=20070 (If that doesn't work, go to www.huntsvillehospital.org, click on baby pictures, put in April 28, and then click on my name).

I must say that her birth went just as well- if not better- than Taylor's. My doctor wanted me to go into the hospital Monday night to go ahead and start the induction process. I was very nervous about going in overnight because I had heard of some not-so-good things that had happened to other people, so I asked if I could just come in the next morning. He said he would want me there by 5:00am if I did that. I am sooo not a morning person, so that didn't sound very appealing at all, and I knew I would get absolutely no sleep if I had to get up that early in the morning, so I decided to go ahead and go in Monday night.

My doctor said to arrive at the hospital sometime after dinner, like around 8 or 9pm. Taylor and I met Jared after work and got some dinner, and then we dropped Taylor off at his sister Dawn's house. Taylor LOVES being at Dawn's because she can pretty much stay outside all day long, and there is endless entertainment. Dawn has all kinds of animals- dogs, cats, chickens, goats, donkeys- and Taylor can't get enough, so needless to say, she wasn't sad in the least to see us go.

We arrived at Huntsville Hospital around 8:15pm. For some reason, they had me on the schedule to come in the following night, so we had to sit around while they paged my doctor to get orders from him. We waited for about an hour and a half before they got us in a room. They got me checked in and had the Pitocin started probably by 10:15 or 10:30. Dr. Nix had said the plan would be that they would start the Pit, I would labor overnight, they could give me a sleeping pill to help me sleep, and then he would come in in the morning to break my water. While the nurses were checking me in, they mentioned how fast my first delivery had gone and said maybe this one would go fast, too. So, Jared and I were thinking great- they want to get this done and over with so I probably won't get any sleep at all. Then, the nurse kept coming in and bumping up my Pitocin until finally she said, "Does Dr. Nix plan on coming in in the middle of the night to deliver this baby?" I said, "No, I don't think so. I think he was just planning on coming in the morning," and she said, "Yeah, that's what I thought." So, at least then we knew that she was on the same page as us.

I never felt any of my contractions with Taylor until after Dr. Nix broke my water- or I assumed that was what caused me to feel them, but he broke my water very shortly after they had started the Pitocin. Apparently, it was the Pitocin that made me feel the contractions. I started feeling the contractions pretty good around 11:30 or so and got my epidural around midnight. I really didn't remember my epidural hurting that much with Taylor, but this time, I definitely felt it. It sure kicked in quick though, and I didn't feel a single contraction after that. I was able to get a little bit of sleep once I got my epidural.

With Taylor, the epidural was absolutely perfect. I felt no pain at all, but I could still move my legs pretty well. This time, my legs were pretty much dead. My right leg was a lot worse than my left. Also, I don't know if it was because I was lying down or what, but the epidural felt like it was spreading halfway up my back so it was even hard to sit up. I kept waking up in the middle of the night thinking that my legs felt so cold. I then realized that my right foot was hanging out from under the sheet, so I tried moving my leg back under the sheet but couldn't. So, I tried to sit up to pull the sheet back over my foot but couldn't. It was quite frustrating. I think I finally managed to get it covered up but still my legs continued to feel extremely cold.

The nurse came in at about 2:45am to check me and said I was about 3.5-4 cm, maybe a 5 when having a contraction, so there was a little bit of progress. Jared and I were both kind of awake by 5:00, and he asked if we should go ahead and call my mom to let her know what was going on. I said yes, so we called, and I told my mom, "oh, the nurse just came in a couple of hours ago, and I was only about a 4. Dr. Nix probably won't be coming in for another couple of hours to break my water, so you have plenty of time to get here." Well, shortly after I got off the phone with my mom, the nurse came in to check me again. She then said, "You're about a 7 or 8, and.... (as I felt a little something wet) your water just broke." Jared immediately called my mom back and said, "Ok... so her water just broke, and she's 8 cm!" which I think may have put my mom into a little bit of a panic because she was afraid she wouldn't get to the hospital in time.

Shortly after that, the nurse came back in and said that the baby's heart rate was dropping when I had a contraction, so she propped me up on my side and said she wanted to check me again to see if I had had a significant change in the last few minutes. Sure enough, I was like 9.5cm, so she said if I started feeling any pressure to let her know. I didn't feel it right away, but called her back in a little later to let her know that I was feeling some pressure, and she basically said that they were waiting on Dr. Nix and to just let her know if the pressure got a lot worse. At this point, it was very similar to Taylor's birth. I was fully dilated and had to wait around on Dr. Nix to get there so we could deliver the baby. Of course, this was all happening right at shift change, which I figured the nurses must have enjoyed, and I was just trying to fight off the urge to push. I think with Taylor we waited about 20 minutes for Dr. Nix. This time, I seriously think we waited at least 45 minutes. I'm sure my mom is grateful though because it gave her plenty of time to get there before she was born :-) By the time he got there, they put me in the stirrups, I pushed about 2.5-3 times, and she was out. Fortunately, I didn't tear or anything- what a blessing! I pushed for about 15 minutes with Taylor which I thought was fast, but that was nothing compared to Bella. Dr. Nix said to the nurse, "You weren't kidding when you said she was ready to go." haha For some reason, he just doesn't seem to get it when the nurses tell him "if you don't get here, this baby is coming out on its own!!" Hey- it all worked out though. I would actually much rather do it that way than to have to push for a really long time and get myself even more exhausted.

With Taylor, I felt pretty lightheaded and woozy from the epidural, so I don't know if it was because of that or just the complete shock of having my first baby, but I just didn't know what to think when they handed her to me when she first came out. It was just all surreal, but with Bella, the second I saw her, I remember thinking how beautiful she was- even with all of the nasty gook still on her. I know I posted before about how I was nervous about having a second baby and how I didn't know how I could love another baby as much as I love Taylor. Well, I think maybe it's because of my love for Taylor that allowed me to feel that immediate love for Bella. I knew right away how much happiness she would bring into our lives.

Bella picked up on the breastfeeding right away. She pretty much came out rooting around and ready to eat. She latched on right away (Taylor had to work at it- it helps when I have a better idea of what I'm doing, too) and has been eating nonstop since then.. haha The first night in the hospital, she didn't sleep well at all. I would feed her and then give her to Jared, and she would keep rooting around like she was still hungry and would cry and cry pretty much until it was time to eat again. Then, the next day, she barely got any sleep because every time Jared would just get her to sleep they came to check her vital signs or take her picture or test her hearing or the doctor came- there was constantly something. Well, she slept MUCH better the next night because the poor thing was so exhausted.

It took my epidural a lot longer to wear off this time. Before they moved me out of the delivery room, the nurse asked if I felt like I could get up and walk to the bathroom. I said I would try, but she could tell my hesitation and said she has had patients fall on top of her before and was not about to let that happen again. So, needless to say, I didn't get up to walk which turned out to be a good decision because just trying to stand up to get into the wheelchair before we left the room, my right leg was already giving out. I would have never made it to the bathroom. My legs continued to feel numb and really cold for several hours afterwards. (With Taylor, I walked to the bathroom with assistance just minutes after delivering). I finally could move my legs well enough to get up and walk on my own by around 5 or 6pm, so I decided I would try to get a shower. Just a few short minutes into the shower, my back was hurting so bad that I had to hold on to the sides of the shower just to keep my legs from giving out. I realized then that I really needed to take it easy. My back is gradually getting better but is still sore and aches a lot which is a huge difference from the first time. I don't know if it's because I've had an epidural before, or like Jared says, maybe the first anesthesiologist was just a lot better than this one.

Dawn brought Taylor to the hospital just a few hours after Bella was born after they had taken us to our new room. I must say that Taylor was not impressed at all with the new baby. She smiled really big when she first walked in the room and saw us, and then she noticed the little baby lying beside me, and everything changed. Normally, Taylor loves little babies, but this time, she could tell something was different. She would cut her eyes at me and then Bella and then me over and over and didn't crack a smile once. We had just gotten breakfast, and Grandma sat on the floor with her and tried to get her to eat. She refused but then grabbed a biscuit while she thought no one was looking, sat in the corner, and turned her back to all of us. She was just letting us know that she was NOT happy. Dawn made a cute post about this experience.

Dawn brought Taylor back later that afternoon, and she warmed up a little bit and would pat her on the head. She is doing much better now that we are home but is still pretty indifferent to her. I can tell that she is going to be a good big sister. She is already helping get diapers and wipes when Bella has a "shoo-shoo" and will throw the diapers in the trash. I was afraid Taylor would want to be touching Bella all the time and trying to hold her, but so far, that has not been the case. She is usually happy to see her but doesn't mess with her much. There is obviously still some jealousy there. She will try to tell us to put Bella down or will try to get as close to me as she possibly can even if Bella is right there. I wasn't sure how she would react to me breastfeeding either. She hasn't paid much attention to that either except a couple of times she has told Bella "no bite! no bite!" and I've had to reassure her that she's not biting me.. haha

My mom and Jared got me a laptop (which I'm using right now) for my birthday. My mom is pretty big on wanting to have a present that you can actually open ON your birthday, so I don't think she knew he was planning on doing this, but he gave the laptop to me early so we could use it in the hospital to update people about Bella's birth and post pictures. He surprised me with it as soon as we had gotten into the delivery room and checked in and everything. He figured I would want to be posting on my blog right away, but I was pretty lazy. He used the computer more than I did and was uploading pictures and emailing them and posting them on Facebook as soon as she was born. I don't think he was very proud of his new baby girl at all ;-)

We were discharged from the hospital on Thursday. We were anxious and ready to get out of there by about 7:30am but ended up having to wait on Dr. Nix (AGAIN). He ended up having a surgery run long that morning and then had to get to his office, so I guess he had a good excuse ;-), so he didn't get there until noon. Once we were discharged, Jared went to pick up Taylor, and Bella and I headed home. It feels so good to be home! We've been very lucky to have friends bring us dinner the last couple of nights so we haven't had to worry about anything but adjusting to our new addition.

We've been trying to make sure to give Taylor plenty of love and attention. It's hard because we also have to make sure that we are disciplining her just like we normally would and not letting her get away with stuff just because we don't want her to feel like we're showing Bella special attention or whatever. As small as Taylor is, she suddenly looks huge to us, and to me, she seems to weigh like a ton of bricks now (my sore back may be adding to that, too). She seems so much like a big girl now. Jared keeps joking and saying that Dawn turned her into a genius while she was with her. It must be that homeschool teacher in her ;-) I was already noticing before that Taylor was saying more and more new stuff each day, but now that we have a newborn baby again, it just surprises us even more when she does and says new stuff.

The thing that I was most worried about with having a newborn again was being sleep deprived. Taylor woke up every two hours for a long, long time and never slept through the night until after she was a year old. It was absolutely miserable, and I thought I was going to go insane at times. So far, Bella has been much better, and I pray that it stays that way. She eats very often during the day. She'll go maybe 2 hours between feedings, but so far at night, it's been about every 3-4 hours which is absolutely amazing. Last night, Taylor, for whatever reason, woke up around 1:15 am. Bella was still asleep, and it had been 4 hours since she had eaten, so I had to wake her up to get her to eat. I'm just hoping that she doesn't suddenly change and start waking up all the time whenever Jared has to go back to work next week. Speaking of Jared, he has been awesome. He has been such a big help with everything and such a great dad. I am so grateful to have such an amazing husband!

Well, I think maybe I've posted enough for now, but we will keep you all updated on our progress :-)