Isabela Raquel Garcia was born on her due date, Wednesday, June 24, 2015 at 6:39 am. At birth she weighed 7 pounds 6 and measured 19 inches.
I went in for my 40 week appointment one day early. Everything was looking good. I was dilated to a three (a few weeks prior I had been at a two) and had been having minor contractions during the previous month or two. I had my membrane stripped (it was an evening appointment, so that happened a little before 6 pm) and went to a two hour Girls Camp meeting. Right when I got home I started having contractions that became more frequent and intensified until around 11 pm when we decided to go to the hospital. Before going to the hospital I took a nice, long, warm bath which really helped with those early contractions. When we decided to go to the hospital, I had only been having contractions every 5 minutes for about a half an hour, so I wasn't sure if I had progressed far enough/if they would send me home. Up to that point I was able to use breathing techniques to get through the contractions, but right after getting to the hospital I was moving toward some.... moaning techniques haha. I was at a 5 and I asked for an epidural right away. (Before getting the epidural, they put an IV in and I almost barfed, just in case you wanted to know that.) Then a few more moaning contractions and the effects of the epidural set in and I was feeling good! I was in awe of how effective the epidural was and I don't think I'll ever electively go without one again!
The process was quite a bit slower after that though. After quickly reaching a 6, I stayed there for the next four hours. Eventually they gave me some pitocin and within an hour or an hour and a half I had reached a 10 and was ready to push. I loved how I could still feel when I was having a contraction, but it didn't hurt. I definitely felt when baby and I were both ready to push, but my doctor didn't get there until 45 minutes later :/ So that was the only part that was a little annoying. Not annoying for my sake necessarily, but Baby's heart rate would drop to 70 and then go way up to 170 with each contraction. (I think normal is 120-140.) I felt like if I'm ready and baby is ready, then let another doctor come and deliver her! No need to make Baby go through all that trauma. Poor thing. Anyways, Doctor got there and after 10 minutes of pushing, Baby was born! Mario got to cut the umbilical cord and I got to do skin-to-skin right away for a few minutes. It was exactly what I had wanted/pictured for Dulce's birth as well, but this time it actually happened! Then the cleaned her, measured her, weighed her, and I got to breastfeed her. It was so perfect. She latched on right away and it was a wonderful bonding moment :) I got a first degree tear (much better than the almost-fourth with Dulce!) so they took care of that and got us up to the mother and baby section of the hospital. The only visitors I wanted/had were my mom and Dulce. Baby and I were both doing well enough and we went home the next day!
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| Skin-to-skin! |
Mario and I talked about a bunch of names, and filled out the birth certificate form with the name "Camila Isabela Garcia." But I really only referring to her as Isabela and Bela, so I called back the next day and had it officially changed to "Isabela Raquel Garcia." I call her Bela. Dulce calls her Isibela.
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| Checkin' out the new sis and her bow |
I feel so blessed because...
1) My mom is here til July 2 and has been helping out a TON. Specifically with Dulce who needs a lot of attention. My mom also cleans and cooks and just does whatever she can to be helpful.
2) My body is recovering so quickly! I feel mentally and physically better now, three days after Bela's birth, than I did six weeks after Dulce's birth. No joke.
3) Bela is breastfeeding really well. With Dulce that was a huge struggle. She didn't gain weight well and we had to supplement. Who knows what will happen this time, but it has started off much better so far! Bela's first night in the hospital, I said they could give her one bottle so I could get some sleep and then to wake me up for the next feeding. But they didn't do that and she just had formula the whole night :/ Then when I tried to breastfeed her in the morning she wouldn't for like 45 minutes and I felt frustrated. But we kept trying and it worked out and she's doing much, much better now.
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| My angel mother |
With Dulce, I remember feeling like having a newborn was the hardest thing ever, but this time I feel like having a newborn is the easiest thing ever! It's having a newborn and a 2.5 year old that's hard haha!
It might be because I'm not super sleep deprived (yet) but I really, really enjoy the time Bela and I have alone at night when she wakes up. I think she is just so precious and I love seeing her look around at everything. She wakes up every 2-3 hours during the night to feed, and when she does we are up for about an hour at time feeding, burping, changing diapers/clothes. I really treasure our time together at night :)
Dulce has been doing well, but I think the transition is hard for her too. It will be even harder once her playmate/roommate, Grandma, is gone :(
