The Person Family: Isabella Marie's Birthday!

After 41 long weeks, we welcomed our beautiful baby girl into the world! Bella arrived on February 17th at 7:46 AM! I was scheduled to be induced on February 17th at 7:30 AM, however Miss Bella had some plans of her own. All day on the 16th I was feeling kind of crampy and had some lower back pain. I didn't really think too much of it, since I was going to be induced the next day. I was trying to enjoy the day seeing that I was going to be in labor all of that next day. I decided I should go get a haircut, so I did that and then wrapped on a few last minute errands for our little girl's arrival. Fran, Mimi and I went to dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant where we live that evening. We enjoyed our favorite meals! After dinner, Dad and Gina got to town so we went and met them. They hadn't eaten so we went with them while they had dinner and I enjoyed a huge brownie sundae. It was delicious! After a long fun day, I tried to go to bed and get some rest. Well that didn't really happen. Around midnight, I started having contractions and they were pretty uncomfortable. I tried laying there as long as I could. Around 1:30 I decided to call the doctor to see what they thought. The doctor called me back about 1 hour later and I told him I had been having contractions for around 2 hours and he said "Okay see you at the hospital." It was funny, he was so casual about it, so anyway Fran and I got ready (bags were already in the car) and we were on our way to GW. We arrived at GW around 3:30 AM and they already had my room ready for me.

So I got decked out in the all so fabulous hospital gown and they hooked me up to the machines and all that good stuff. The doctor came in to check me and I was 3 CM but fully effaced, so good progress. I told him I wanted an epidural and he called for anesthesia right away. I got my epidural around 4:30 PM. It didn't hurt at all and I was feeling good after that. My legs were all tingly and stuff! I felt pretty good for about 1 hour and I was going to try and get some rest, but then all of a sudden my contractions got significantly worse and much closer together. Needless to say I had gone from 3 cm to 7 cm really quickly! And my water broke and I didn't even know it. By 7:15 ish I was at 10 cm and ready to push! It all happened so fast. So after pushing for 30 minutes, Miss Bella made her grand entrance!

She immediately cried, which was the best sound I have ever heard! It was the sweetest little cry. The doctors then put her on my chest and I couldn't get over how much hair she had and how big she was. She was beautiful! Of course all I could do was cry, because I was so happy and so nice to finally be holding our baby in my arms. I waited 10 months to meet her and it was the most amazing feeling in the world!

I am writing this blogpost now from the hospital. We get to go home tomorrow, yay!! I am watching Fran walk around with Bella now and just love on her. He has been amazing throughout this whole process and I could not have done it without him. He is the best daddy! We have so enjoyed spending these past couple days with our sweet baby and we can't wait to go home tomorrow.

Here are just a few pictures from Bella's birthday! Believe me, there will be many more!