This is my journey through pregnancy, delivery and getting to know my beautiful baby girl, Isabelle.
February 2015, I peed on the stick. It came back with a very faint positive line. I was so overjoyed! Justin was at work, so I left my positive test on the table to see when he got home. He is a very quiet guy, so he didn't jump up and down like I may have, but he was still very excited! We told family and friends close to us, but waited until our first ultrasound to share the news with everyone else.
Shortly after I found out I was pregnant, I started getting my chest pains back. I went to get checkout at a hospital known for heart care. They ended up finding out my Pericarditis had returned. I was kept at this hospital for about a week, although I was eager to get out and just celebrate being pregnant.
I was referred to a high risk hospital, where baby would be closely monitored as well as my heart. I saw a cardiologist throughout my pregnancy, and had SO many ultrasounds.
I was taking high dose aspirin throughout my pregnancy for my heart issues, unfortunately this could have caused heart issues for baby. To stop your anxiety, baby was born completely healthy, I wish my anxiety could have been calmed during my pregnancy!
We decided to not find out the gender of baby, we love good surprises, and with all my health issues we really didn't care. We just wanted baby to be healthy.
I went through my entire pregnancy with no issues, but continuing to take my high dose aspirin daily.
A couple weeks before my due date, I was told by a doctor they are nervous for how my heart will react to labour. For this reason, we decided that I would be induced.
Justin and I traveled to the city the night before, and had one last night as a married couple with no children. I called the hospital the day of my induction to see what time to come. They told me to grab some breakfast and head to the hospital.
Once we got to the hospital, they hooked me up to IV and started some medication to get things started. They had their medicine up to the highest dose they could, and I was not able to get past 3 cm dilated. They broke my water, which felt insane, and were hopeful that would be get things moving. It didn't. 36 hours later, and I was still at 3cm. It was that moment they decided to do a c-section.
I never had a birth plan, as I know you cannot plan anything with children. However, this was not at all what I thought would happen. I was scared. Justin was scared.
They got me prepped, and wheeled me into a big, bright room. Justin had to wait outside until I was ready. They called him in, and we were ready to meet our baby.
This was a crazy experience, I knew what they were doing but thankfully couldn't feel anything. I tried to just talk to Justin beside me and ignore the fact they were cutting into me.
After a few minutes, we heard a beautiful cry. The doctor held baby up and asked me to announce the gender. I screamed out "Its a boy!" ...he told me to look again. In my defense, I did not have contacts in (because you can't) so everything was a blur. I announced the other option, "It's a girl!!" They wrapped up our sweet baby girl, and handed her to Justin. He held her and talked to her the entire time.
October 2015, our baby girl was born.
While he was doing that, I was in a very scary moment. Because they had me on the highest dose of medicine to get my uterus contracting, I was still contracting a lot after I had delivered. I was loosing a lot of blood. They had to act quickly and get my contractions to stop. Thankfully, they got it stopped. They stitched me up, and sent us to the recovery room.
After my c-section, I was feeling great. I thought I would have been in a lot of pain, but I really wasn't. I managed my pain with over the counter pain killers.
We both looked at our precious baby, and didn't know what to name her. We had two names picked out if we had a girl. Addison (because Grey's Anatomy) and Paisley (because Brad Paisley) Neither name suited her. So she was nameless for a day.
My mom and dad were at the hospital, eagerly awaiting the arrival of their third grand-baby. They came into the recovery room and met her for the first time. This was a special moment for me. Having my parents, who I love so dearly, holding my own baby girl. I will never forget this moment.
We made some phone calls to our family, to announce the birth and gender of our baby.
Justin's oldest brother and his boyfriend, live not far from where we had our baby. They came to meet her as soon as they could. Shortly after, Justin's mom and dad came to meet her. Seeing our little baby girl in Justin's dads big hands made her look like a little doll.
The day after her birth, we were sitting in our hospital room looking at baby names. We bounced a bunch off names off each other. None were right. Until Justin said Isabella. It wasn't quite right, but sure was close. It was that moment, we decided on Isabelle. It just made sense, she had this old, precious soul vibe to her. I also love beauty and the beast, so it just fit in so many ways.
We knew the middle names way before baby. If baby were to be a boy, middle names would have been Garrett John (after both of our parents) But, Isabelle was not a boy...aside from my initial blind gender announcement.
We went with Isabelle Maggie June. Maggie for my Aunt who passed away shortly after I found out I was pregnant, and June for Justin's great grandma who passed away just before our wedding.
We were so in loved.
It was time to leave the hospital and bring our new baby home. I have always said Isabelle is famous, because the day she left the hospital Rob Ford was leaving the same hospital, at the same time. The amount of film crews and paparazzi there was insane. So Justin and I always said it was to document her arrival. (I totally dodged all cameras to avoid being seen in my post c section attire)
That drive home was terrifying but also so amazing. I stared at Isabelle the entire ride home. When we got home, we had some family waiting with some balloons and empty hands waiting to be filled by our precious baby girl.
Fast forward to today, we have a total girly girl on our hands. Isabelle loves all things pink and glitter. She is sensitive, (like her mommy) shy, (like her daddy), imaginative, summer-loving, starburst lover, Barbie fan, fashion lover, big sister and very lovable little girl. She loves music, just like her mommy. Although she makes it very clear she does not like Hanson, she is lucky she's cute after that statement. If Isabelle could live on the beach, she would be the happiest little girl. Most of all, she is so loved.
Isabelle gave me the greatest title of all, mom.
I love you so much Izzy
xoxo
SS
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