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 :-)