It has only been 2 months, but the details are already beginning to blur. Life is Craaay-zy right now, all because of a (mostly) sweet little bundle of joy that joined our family on November 10, 2015. My due date was Nov. 22, but I was determined to get this girl here as soon as possible. The summer and Fall time in North Carolina is hot and humid. I was miserable and I was not sleeping a wink. I was so excited when the doctor said he would strip my membranes at 37 weeks. My water broke with Livi at 37 weeks after having my membranes stripped, so I was hoping for similar results this time around.
As many of you know, the last few weeks of pregnancy last an eternity. You feel as though you will be pregnant for the rest of your life, as though there is no end to the discomfort and misery of pregnancy. So, after having my membranes stripped, and thinking "this is it", I was in for the longest week of my life. I lost my plug, and was cramping miserably and bleeding for a whole week straight with no contractions. But, because of all the bleeding and cramping, I kept thinking that something was going to happen soon. Of course it didn't. I went to my next doctors appointment the following Monday. At my previous appointment I was dilated to 1 cm and not effaced at all. The doctor was not going to check me, but I needed to know that all the cramping and bleeding was doing something. I wanted him to tell me that I had at least progressed a little. So, as he was checking to see if I was dilated he was a quiet and didn't say much. I said "great, is it bad news? nothing has happened?" He said "no" and then left me hanging for a minute and then told me that I was at 4cm and needed to head over to the hospital (WakeMed in cary, NC). I was so excited! It was go time! I called Andy and he went to pick up the kids and take them over to the Smith's house. I checked in to the hospital at about 4:30pm and they started me on pitocin at about 6:30pm. After my experience with Noah coming so fast, I wanted to make sure that I got my epidural this time. I got the epidural at about 7:00pm and my blood pressure dropped really low. I almost fainted several times and felt miserable. I was so out of it. It was not fun ( If I didn't have to have the piton and I was in full labor on my own, looking back I would not have gotten the epidural and gone natural again). I closed my eyes and slept for a while. The nurse came in and I told her I was feeling some pressure. She didn't seem too concerned and said she would come check me in about 20 minutes. She came back in the room a few minutes later to give me some water and I told her I was feeling pressure again, so she decided to check me. She lifted the sheet up to find the baby was already half way out! She quickly told Andy to press the button and tell them to get the doctor in right away and get the room set up for the baby. The doctor and nurses all ran in to the room. The nurse helped Dr. Welch put on his gown and gloves as fast as possible and he turned around just in time to catch the baby. She came flying out, and I didn't even have to push once. She was perfect in every way! She weighed 6 pounds 9 oz and was 19.5 inches long with a perfect round little head! She is just beautiful and has a hint of red hair like her big sister Alivia!
We named her Isabelle Grace Ingersoll. And the best part? There was no question what her name was going to be. If you know mine and Andy's baby naming history, you know that this is a big accomplishment! So I guess I should write about how we decided on her name too.
Over the summer we went to Utah. One Sunday on the way home from church Andy decided to stop at the American Fork Cemetery and visit his great grandpa Ingersoll's grave. Andy has fond memories of his great grandpa but did not have the chance to get to know his great grandma but had heard stories about her. We saw her name on the grave next to grandpa's. Her name was Labelle. We started thinking that it would be fun to use part of her name as a middle name or something. We tossed around the idea of Isabelle on the car ride home. Come to find out, Great grandpa used to call her Isabelle as a nickname. Anyways, I liked the name, but wasn't loving it. But, every time I thought about baby names, the name Isabelle was present. A few examples are when we went to my parent's ward, there was a baby blessing. I thought to myself, "Let's see what they named the baby and maybe I can get some inspiration/ideas". The baby's name was Isabelle. Then we went to the St. George temple visitors center and watched a movie. Again I said to myself, let's see what the main characters' name is and maybe I can get some inspiration for the baby's name...it was Isabelle. Then the final straw came at the end of my pregnancy. Although we had not discussed any other names up to that point, I was not sold on it and was leaning towards not using Isabelle. I wanted to come up with another name. I went to the temple that night and again thought to myself "let's look for some baby name inspiration. Let's see what the temple worker's name is." As the temple worker walked towards me I looked at her name tag and guess what it said? Yep! Isabelle. I laughed and said "okay, I give up. I guess you really want your name to be Isabelle, so Isabelle it is!". And that is how she got her name. :) We also discovered that there is an Isabelle (or Isabella) on the Squires side as well as the Macdonald side. Her name means Devoted to God. Such a beautiful meaning and even better with it's tie to our ancestors.
We are so thankful for this sweet new addition to our family. Life with 5 kids is busy, and even more so with little Izzy. She is a bit colicky and super demanding. She HAS to be held 24-7. She is a light sleeper and cries whenever we put her down. I can not get anything done, but it is her way of making sure that I enjoy this sweet time in her life because it vanishes all too quickly. My house may be messy and dinner rarely gets made, but I am savoring these precious moments with my baby girl. She is sleeping on my chest as I type this and giggling in her sleep. Babies are a little piece of heaven!!
