Delivery details and photo album

It is Friday morning and we've been home for 2 nights. Time is certainly blurring all together, but things are going really well. She is sleeping and eating a lot, but not necessarily at the "right" times. She is, however, barely 4 days old, so only time will bring on more of a routine. Nick and I are just sleeping when we can. She is a wonderful, beautiful baby and we are enjoying every minute of our time with her. We have a doctor's appointment today at 1:00 to check her weight and make sure she is doing fine. Here is a link to my dad's online photo album of Isabella pictures. She is lucky to have such a good photographer for a granddad! Although the only pictures on there right now are still from the hospital I think, he has taken many more and will be posting them soon, so be sure to check back. http://picasaweb.google.com/oxenfeb/IsabellaBabyPictures

In case you were interested, I wanted to share some of the details of her birthday (I'll spare you the gross ones though, but I'd be glad to share them with you in a less public forum!). We were scheduled for an induction at 6:30 Monday morning. As you probably know, I wasn't terribly thrilled about being induced, but she was 2 weeks overdue. Luckily, contractions started at 3:00 Monday morning! I woke up at 3, having to go pee so bad it hurt, but I realized that I was really starting contractions! I was excited! We still waited until 6:30 to go to the hospital. At that time, contractions were 7-10 minutes apart. The midwife broke my water at 8:30 am. That felt weird! From there, I decided to let labor progress on its own for a little while. Then, things got a little too painful for my liking, and I called in the troops! I got an epidural at 11:30. Nick was relieved to see me in less pain and for him to have to work a little less. He was so great at helping me get through all the pain of early labor. Shortly after the epidural kicked in (NICE!!!!), I was started on Pitosin. Oh, I'm having a contraction? I didn't even notice! It was so wonderful to just be able to rest comfortably all afternoon while my body was hard at work. I was checked at 6:00 pm and was 10 cm dialated! However, I wasn't feeling the urge to push. So then at 8:05 pm, I finally started pushing. The epidural had started to lose its effectiveness on my left side, so my back was killing me, but the midwife didn't want to adjust it because it might interfere with my pushing. So I pushed for an hour, with a LOT of help and support from my dear husband. And the nurse was fantastic! It hurt a lot, I'm not going to lie! But luckily I had been rested and pain free all day and I was able to handle it a little easier. She was finally born at 9:11 pm!! It was such a wonderful feeling to have given birth to this perfect little person. They had to take her immediately to the warmer so the pediatric team could suction out her lungs, but Nick did get to "ceremonially" cut her umbilical cord. And we fell in love immediately, and are so excited to begin our lives with this wonderful little girl.

So lots of details, but I know that some of you are interested. We are at home now and doing well. Please feel free to call at any time and if we don't answer, we'll call you back when we can.