Isla's birth story

   Our New Year's baby, Isla Renee, is one month old today!

Before the hospital. Nimitz remained stoic in the face of becoming second fiddle. 

Isla was born 8 days early which was a surprise in itself.We went in New Year's Eve for the ultrasound  (if you ask and ask and ask, you shall receive) and saw a doctor that I had only briefly met. He humored me and said that he would talk to us after our ultrasound but he promised me the baby wasn't big. First thing the ultrasound tech said to us was, "whelp, you baby is big AND she is breech"

suiting up after the nurse's speech

I appreciate someone who doesn't beat around the bush, but this doctor really takes the cake. He says they would call to tell me when they would do the inversion (try to flip the baby) and possibly a c section for sometime next week. But, oh you know, he checked his schedule  and at 4 pm on New Year's Eve he called to tell us that we needed to check into the hospital first thing in the morning. At this point, Craig is starting to clean the house and I am yelling that I need a mani, pedi, a blow out, and a snack (and let's be honest a valium and possibly tequila). I ate my snack (an apple), contemplated my life, appreciated that my parents got on the road in less than a hour, and booked my mani/pedi. After my appointment, I promptly had a meltdown about how everything was happening so fast and I didn't want a c section. Of course, Craig had the answer- a glass of wine and a walk with my two favorite guys.

hello!

The next morning was actually pretty awesome. For being such a hot mess throughout my pregnancy emotionally, I woke up SO ready to meet my baby by any means possible. I should stop now and say that nurses and anyone that can administer epidurals should earn medals.

 I walked in and got an epidural within a hour. This was my major win of pregnancy, no labor, no pain! My anastealogist was an Alabama fan but I forgave him because he had drugs. They tried to flip her three times, much to Craig's dismay. It's pretty awful; imagine a grown man pressing on your stomach as hard as they can while watching your husband trying not to puke. Well, it didn't work so we were on to a c section. I moved myself onto the operating table, the nurses joked that I could probably move myself so I did and struck up a lively conversation about how Auburn was better than Alabama. I was so happy that I was going to meet our little one, that I had no time to be scared. The nurse brought Craig in, gave him a stern talking to about not passing out or throwing up, and told us in 30 minutes we would meet my baby.  The whole thing is pretty comical. Craig and I are having a normal conversation with a nurse, broken up with information about how someone is pulling a baby out of my stomach. 30 minutes later, Isla was here! When they dropped the curtain all I could see was lots of hair and bright red lips (and a lot of confusion on her face, so cute!) 8lbs 3 ounces of pure joy. SO much happens in your life but that single moment turned our lives inside out and upside down and you can't believe you ever lived without that tiny little person.

We made our families wait 2 hours (because we have no shame) to meet her AND tell the gender! We managed to keep it a secret from everyone which was the best part of the whole pregnancy. We felt especially lucky that both our parents and my brother (who deployed to Afghanistan the following week) made it down to meet her. We laughed and took lots of pictures while trying to be kind and share. A month later it is hard to believe that we get to keep her.

inspecting her bow.