She's here!

Isla Yelena was born on 21 Nov 2018 at 929am via caesarian section :) She is considered a preemie at about 36 weeks and 5 days. She weighed 7lbs and 8oz at birth and with an 8.9 apgar score. The picture above is one of her more famous pictures from that day because CHEEKS! haha :D They're not as big now - they settled down as the day went by and newborns typically lose a bit of weight after being born (she lost the textbook amount by the time we were discharged). But she's still cheek-y :)

We headed to the hospital at about 130am early Wednesday after tracking consistent contractions for about an hour. Both Reg and I were able to take full showers before going in because doc asked for an hour's worth of tracking. Unlike the two previous pregnancies, I was definitely feeling pain along with the stomach hardening so it was a really uncomfortable time. I had been lying in bed, going through social media and watching random videos waiting for Reg to arrive when I realised I was feeling contractions pretty often. I think I missed about 3 sets before I decided to track. I was of course surprised with what I saw. I had ranges of 2-6minute gaps between contractions. Then I'd get a break where only my stomach would harden. I had one or two sets that had an 8-min gap. About half an hour before the hour was up, we started getting ready to leave. Also because my mom didn't want me to wait for the hour :D

When we got to the hospital, they hooked me up to track the contractions. After about 20minutes, they did the most painful IE I've ever had (she was really high up and it was hard to reach). I was 3cm at 228am and was officially admitted. We were able to get a birthing room thank goodness! There are only two and the first one was already taken. We ended up in the room that was converted into the water birthing suite so there was a huge tub. I was hoping we would get the first room because then that would mean I had given birth in the same place for all three haha :D

At 4am I was at 5cm. The doc said to check again in an hour. After an hour, I was still 5cm. An hour or so after that though, I was at 6-7cm and they decided to rupture my bag of waters, especially since I already an epidural by then. They couldn't rupture it completely because it was tough (had the sam experience with Tala and Kael) but they were able to nick it. Doc also told me that all my IEs would have hurt without the epidural because it was still really hard to reach (she was still super high!) Speaking of the epidural, I had to wait about an hour or two before the doc was able to get to me and suffered through some pretty heavy contractions. I was so glad when I got it because I finally got some sleep.

At around 9am, the team comes back and does another IE check. I hadn't progressed. Doc then said that at this point, our only option now is really to go CS. It was a combination of how high she still was, how I hadn't progressed plus her size. We readily agreed, I had already been in labor for about 7-8 hours by then and already knew that CS was in my cards anyway. The doc knew that this would be my first CS and assured me not to worry because everything will be done in a controlled environment and they will have everything under control.

Then everything happened really quickly. They told Reg they would call him as soon as they were done prepping me. I was moved to the operating room in the delivery pavilion. I learned that there was really no dignity in pregnancy and in giving birth - I couldn't see because of the cloth in front of me but I knew they had my gown pulled up to my chest haha. I was cleaned up, I knew a catheter was placed in (minimal feeling because of the epidural) and I didn't know that they required you to have your arms outstretched. Through all this, I was kept occupied by my anesthesiologist who would ask me questions about the medicine - if I could feel cold liquid down my back, how my legs were feeling, etc.

Then Reg came in and he was sat in a chair just next to my head (but I think he had a view, if he just stretched his neck) and doc asked the anesthesiologist if I was ready and they nodded and I felt something prick me. I felt it. I said, ow! And the anesthesiologist said: WAIT! and to me: did you feel that? I said, "did someone pinch me?" and he asked, "did it feel sharp?" and I said, "yes". So he told the team to wait a little while he increased my epidural :D A few minutes later, doc asked if they could try again and this time all I felt was some hard pulling.

I swear, in about 20 minutes, everything was done. There was hard pulling, then doc said, "she's out!" then we heard her cry. He then said to give them a minute (I think to clamp and cut her cord) then in exactly a minute, he lifted her to show us and announced, "it's a girl! Congratulations!"

It was amazing.

Then she was transferred next to me for the pedia team to do checks while Reg watched this. Then they took her over to me and we got our first family picture. Then she was brought to the nursery with Reg following along. They finished me up and I fell asleep waiting. I woke up again when they were about to move me to the birthing room to recover. By lunchtime, I was in my room.

We went home on Saturday and Isla is a week old as of yesterday! We have been exclusively breastfeeding since then. It's quite the journey but I think we're both getting better at it as the days go by. I hope that our doctor check up next week will validate it!

So now we are a family of 5. She is the cutest thing and we love her to bits!