The wait is over... Isabelle is finally here

The new love in our life is finally here...

Isabelle Siona D'Mello arrived on November 30, 2009 at 3:58pm CST at St. David's North Austin Medical Center. She was 6 pounds 14 ounces, 20 inches tall and just perfect! As cliche as it sounds... words can't describe how we felt when she entered this world. We felt relieved, overwhelmed, proud and unconditional love all at the same time...

Our time in the hospital is a blur... we checked in Nov 30 around 7:30am and I was ready to be induced by 8:30 or 9am. Once the pitocin started dripping, it didn't take long for the contractions to start. I'm uncertain what the timeline was, but it was within an hour. They started out mild, and then grew quite intense... I used breathing techniques and various positions (and a lot of hand holding with Sheldon and Mom) to get thru the contractions but then hit a point where it was almost unbearable. At that point, I gave in and asked for an epidural... and it was in the nick of time since the pain started to get much worse after that. After I finally got the epidural and they checked me, it turns out that I was fully dilated and ready to push! Wow, things were moving much quicker than I had imagined in my head. I think it was around 2:45 or 3pm. So after about an hour of pushing, Isabelle made her entrance... or outrance. I couldn't believe the hard part of the delivery was over so quickly... in my head, I had prepped myself to hunker in for a long day and night of labor. Shel was my rock through out the labor... he didn't flinch at any of the gross or painful stuff :) Much better than mom, who started to get really sad and sickly when I was pushing. She said she couldn't stand to see me in pain... even though I wasn't feeling much pain at that point due to the epidural. Anyway, so everyone told her she should leave the room to prevent her from fainting.

Isabelle was quickly whisked away to be cleaned and weighed and all the stuff they usually do. Shel watched in amazement and gave me updates on what was happening, while I was getting cleaned up myself. I had a 2nd degree tear, but Dr. Cutler said it was only the skin, not the tissues that tore. Either way, with the epidural, still in my system, I didn't feel much pain as I was getting stitched up.

I was finally able to hold her shortly after... by that time Mom had come back into the room as well. It felt unreal to be holding my baby girl for the first time. To think that just a short while ago she was inside me was crazy. I didn't think she'd so obviously look like either one of us, but she most certainly had a lot of Shel's features... the nose and eyes were the most prominent. Of course, she was puffy and her head was odd shaped like most newborns are. Anyway, there was a lot going on in the room... Shel calling and emailing the good news out to friends and family... my Mom doing the same... the nurses doing their thing and I was just lying there wondering what was next. When things settled down a bit, they whisked the baby to the nursery to run tests, give her shots and clean her up some more. Shel went with them... and we wouldn't see them again for a few hours after that. Thankfully Mom was with me so I wasn't alone.



They moved me into a post delivery room and I ordered food and tried to rest before the baby came back from the nursery. El and Valerie came to visit and soon after, Shel returned with Isabelle. After some gushing over little Izzy, it was time for her first breastfeeding session... which didn't go too well, but they say the first few days are the hardest and I just need to hang in there.



Life over the next couple of days in the hospital was strange and surreal. I felt relieved since we had lots of help around, but I also wanted to get the heck out of there asap. Our room was a decent size, but started to feel cramped after a while. Thankfully we only spent 2 nights there. The first night we were there, Isabelle decided she didn't want to sleep that night, so Shel got his first taste of the sleepless nights ahead. The nurse told him to take care of the baby while I slept for a few hours, and Izzy decided to keep Daddy awake for a couple of hours... he had to take her out into the hall and walk around with her the entire time...



Early on day 2, Isabelle was in the nursery for a while, where the pediatrician noticed a few alarming things. She came to our room to tell us that Izzy had to be taken to the NICU for observation. When she first told me, I started crying... Shel was taking the news decently well and was consoling me. As soon as the pediatrician left, Shel started getting really emotional and that lasted the whole day for both of us. Izzy spent the whole day in the NICU and it was really stressful for us. She was so uncomfortable there... and the poor thing was so hungry but it was hard to nurse her there. We were so relieved when they released her from the NICU and finally have her back in our room that evening. Turns out they didn't observe anything interesting there and just told us to keep an eye out for abnormal behavior.

Anyway, day 2 sucked overall.. we were so exhausted and drained emotionally. I was also feeling a ton of pressure to breastfeed her... we had to eventually give her a little formula since the poor darling was so hungry. Day 3 was better and we were happy to hear that we'd be getting released that day. By 4pm that day (Wednesday December 2) we were home... and then we wondered what to do next :)



Since then we've tried to settle into some kind of routine... though there is no regularity with a newborn. The first week was really hard, but things got better in the 2nd week and even better the 3rd week. Having my Mom here with us was immensely helpful. She was there to keep us fed and take care of the baby when we really needed to get some rest. She was great!

So, here we are now, three weeks after Isabelle entered our lives... We love her to pieces. Sometimes we just stare at her and can't believe how adorable she is... then inevitably she starts crying about something or another. She keeps us on our toes, and it's hard to find much time for ourselves these days, but we're enjoying our new roles in life... Mommy and Daddy.