Who doesn't love a birthday?!?

So the blog may be a little slow as we're waiting for our FIRST product to review!!  For you now you just get to hear me gush about how adorable my kids are and how they're the most amazing kids in the world and all that fun stuff!

Today was a super special day!  My baby girl turned 2!!  My mom always told me growing up that the older you get the faster time goes and once you have kids you pretty much blink and they're starting school.  I thought there's no way time can go faster...that's just nuts.  Well, my mom was right (which more and more i'm realizing she's pretty much always been right, i was just stubborn a teenager who thought she knew nothing)

My daughter doesn't have the typical happy birth story where i went into labor, waited a bit to go to the hospital, pushed for 20 min, had a brand new baby plopped on my chest and bonded instantly.  I was scheduled for a repeat c section in March 2011.  I kind of liked that everything was "planned" and i knew when i'd be going in, i had time to prep and could spend my last couple weeks with my older daughter before her world was completely turned upside down.

Well....little miss Isabella had other plans.  On Feb. 24th i wasn't feeling good at all.  I was throwing up all night and my back was KILLING me.  I didn't go into labor with Emma, my older daughter.  She was breech so I ended up having a c section.  I had no clue what real contractions and labor actually felt like.  I was up pretty much all night cause I kept having horrible back pain and my stomach was tightening up.  By morning I realized that this was happening pretty much every 10 min so at 9:00, as soon as my dr's office opened up, I called them and explained what was going on and they told me to go to L&D.  My mom came over to watch Emma and I called my hubby since he was already at work and told him.  He said he had an apt at 11:30 ad he would meet me at home after that.  I figured that was fine so I jumped in the shower.  My mom FREAKED out yelling at me saying i needed to get to the hospital and i didn't need to curl my hair.  I told her "I know I don't need to curl it....i'm flat ironing it!"  My dr called me back and asked if I was at the hospital yet (it was now around 10:00).  I told her i would be there around 12 and she said to get there NOW.  So I called the hubby back and told him.

He rushed home, we got my bags and went to the hospital.  As we were walking in I remember us joking about how much they were going to charge us for a false alarm.  He even asked how long I thought we would be and if he was going to have to go back to work after.

So we get there, I get all hooked up to wires and they started an IV.  They figured I was just dehydrated from throwing up all night and gave me 2 bags of fluid.  I noticed my contractions getting more intense and by the end of the 2nd bag they were even closer.  My nurse (who was actually the same nurse that was in when I had Emma) called my dr. and they scheduled my c section right away.

As I was walking into the ER everything seemed so calm.  I couldn't believe I was going to have a baby that day!  They sat me down and Kris sat in a chair on the opposite side of the ER video taping me get my epidural.  I remember it taking what seemed like forever.  Finally they finished and they had me lay down so they could get me sterilized and prepped so I could meet my new baby girl.  The last thing I remember was laying down and my chest getting really really heavy.  The next thing I knew I opened my eyes and there were people running around everywhere in a panic.  I looked to the chair where Kris was and he was gone.  I heard alarms going off and thought for sure he had passed out and was so embarrassed for him.  All of a sudden I realized they were in a panic over me!  I had no clue what had just happened or why they were all franticly running around.  My dr. started screaming we can't find the baby, we've lost her on all the monitors.  Kris came running back in and the Dr. told the nurse to splash me, which is just a splash of soap pretty much so they could get the baby out as fast as possible.  They started doing the c section before they even had the sheet up so I could see everything they were doing.

Literally 5 min. later they had her out and the room was silent.  The Dr. yelled out the NICU staff that the cord was around her 3 times and up between her legs.  All I heard was the nurses yelling at her to breathe.  Kris kept telling me that everything was fine and she was perfect.  I actually believed him, I think that I was so drugged up I had no clue what was going on.  A nurse walked over and told us they were resuscitating the baby.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing.  I just closed my eyes and waited for what seemed like a life time.  Finally after 8 min I heard her 1st cry.  A babies cry had never heard so amazing to me.

They had Kris come over really quick and snip the end of her cord and they wrapped her up.  The nurse brought her over to me so I could see her for a second and they rushed her off the the NICU.  I told Kris to go with her so I just laid there with my eyes closed trying to absorb what happened while they finished sewing me back up.

After about 45 min they wheeled me back to my recovery room.  My dad came in teary eyed and I could tell he was trying to be strong but he was so overwhelmed with what had just happened.  After that, my best friend Jessie came in and they started explaining that I had pretty much died.  I code blued on the table and Isabella was code white, which is pretty much code blue but for a baby.  I was in shock!  I couldn't believe all that had happened!!  All I wanted to do was see my baby and see that she was ok.

Around 9:00pm they finally wheeled me to a room.  I asked to go to the NICU and they said I couldn't go because I wasn't allowed to stand up and there wasn't room for the bed in the room.  I pretty much told them that I was going to get over there one way or another so they either needed to figure it out or I would walk there myself.  Finally they brought me a wheel chair and wheeled me over there.

I saw my perfect tiny baby hooked up to tons of wires.  She was so sweet and looked so peaceful.  they propped up a pillow and handed her to me.  It was love at first sight.  Kris and I sat there for a few hours and just took turns passing her back and forth.  All of the NICU nurses were amazing explaining what everything was and telling us how the NICU worked.  Basically I could be in there as much as I wanted 24 hours a day.

                                   

Kris was originally supposed to go back home and stay with Emma so her routine wasn't to thrown off but after what happened we decided my mom would stay with her and he would stay with me.  I was glad to have him there.  I felt like after all the craziness we needed to be with each other.

The next few days went pretty smooth with the typical people visiting me.  I started pumping right away so I could get my milk to come in which happened surprisingly fast.  I pumped every 2 hours the whole week were there.  On the 3rd day they did let me try to start and breastfeed her.  It was a little rocky but I knew once we were both home and more comfortable and didn't have a nurse standing over us we would be just fine.

After a week in the hospital we were finally allowed to go home.  I was originally supposed to go home earlier but my dr. made sure I could stay so I didn't have to leave with out Isabella.  We packed up our stuff grabbed our girl and we were out of there and the rest is pretty much history!!

Isabella is one of the sweetest, silliest and loving kids i've ever seen.  She's so polite and is always there to offer a hug and runs up and gives me random kisses about 100 times a day.  I'm so thankful for my Dr. and all of the staff at West Hills Hospital for saving not only me, but her as well.  They were all amazing and every year on her birthday I can't help but think about all of them.

So...that's Isabella's birth story.  A little far from the norm, but we're both happy and healthy now and we couldn't imagine life with out our sweet spunky girl!