Finally here

Isabella is finally here, and we are all so excited. She is adorable, healthy and sweet as can be. Born Tuesday morning 3/24/09 at 8:58 am, weighing 8lbs, 20 1/4 inches long.
I went into labor Monday night with contractions every 7 minutes starting just before midnight. The kept getting closer and stronger but since Todd and Anthony were sleeping I decided to hold out as long as I could at home. Finally around 2:30 I decided I couldn't wait much longer, the pain was getting much worse with each contraction, and since it was the middle of the night I was very worried that if I showed up too late I might not get an epidural.
Todd has said many times since Anthony was born that he felt he missed out on the excitement of "rushing to the hospital" because I got induced with Anthony. Although when I woke him up at 2:30 in the morning he didn't seem super excited. In fact I think he said something along the lines of "are you serious? I am really tired and I've only been asleep for a couple hours." You can imagine my response was not very sympathetic since I had yet to go to sleep and was in quite a bit of pain. None the less he finally got up, got ready and as soon as his mom arrived to take care of Anthony we were on our way to the hospital. I think we got there shortly after 3am.
Usual procedure at the hospital is to check in at ER and they phone up to L&D that you are here, and then they take you up there. Since I work in ER I didn't really want everyone to know I was there so I snuck in the back way with my badge and walked up to L&D. I had my sister Rachael (who happened to be the OB doctor on call) call up there and tell them I was coming. When I got to the hospital the nurse said I was having contractions every 2.5 minutes and was 5-6 cm dilated. This made me panic slightly because I really wanted an epidural and I know there is a point where they say it's too late. I don't know what that point is, but I knew the nurse still had a lot to do (start an iv and get blood work from me) before she would even call in the anesthesiologist to put it in. Thankfully everything worked out in my favor and I got my epidural (which worked like a dream) in plenty of time. They gave me a little Stadol to hold me over until then, which by the way is a wonderful drug. Even though it didn't really take the pain away all that much, I loved the way it made me so sleepy and not care that I was in pain. Meanwhile my sisters Rachael and Francie and my friend Michelle showed up, so despite my sleepiness I stayed awake. I didn't think I could actually sleep much anyway.
I think it was around 8 or so when my nurse said I was complete and ready to push. We still had to wait for my cousin DeAnn to show up, who had agreed to come in and do my delivery for me, even though she wasn't on call. The rest of the details are kind of blurry to me, but what I do remember is that it all went really fast, I hardly felt any pain, and Isabella was born in about 20 minutes. Which is pretty much the exact opposite of my first labor experience with Tony. They say the second time is easier, but my two experiences were like night and day different. After I had Tony I told Todd to be thankful he got his son, cause I wasn't going through this again. (Obviously I had changed my mind, but that was for sure my initial thoughts after labor.) After I had Isabella I thought to myself, that wasn't so bad, I could do it again. (Of course just because I can, doesn't mean I will, that has yet to be decided.)
Anyway, here I am the next day sitting in the hospital and feeling like I could go home now. The pediatrician is checking out Isabella now in the nursery and I'm hoping she gives us the okay to leave later today. They aren't really doing anything for me or her that I can't do myself, so why not do it in the comfort of my own home. Plus the food here is terrible, I haven't ordered one thing that I'd consider good yet. Thankfully my sisters have been bringing me food so I'm not stuck eating the gross hospital food.
Anyway, considering I just had a baby yesterday and I was awake for about 36 hours straight, and didn't get much sleep last night either, I am a little tired, but otherwise I feel really quite good. Isabella is doing wonderful, she if finally getting the hang of nursing after a rough first day. She sleeps well, but seems to sleep better when being held than in the bassinet. This could be a slight problem once I get home, since Anthony likes to be held a lot too, especially if I am holding another baby. I don't think he really gets what is happening yet with the whole getting a sister thing. It will be interesting to see how things go once we are all home together. Meanwhile he has been with Grandma and Grandpa having a grand time I'm sure. Todd is supposed to bring him up to visit me later today. Hopefully I can get some good pictures of the two of them together. I actually have a lot of good pictures already from yesterday that I want to share, but I think I will wait till I get home and make a little slide show to put on the blog, rather than list each one individually. I know my free time will be very limited once I do get home, but my mom is on her way here now from NY to spend a week and a half with us to help out. Hopefully that will allow me to give some extra attention to Tony so he doesn't get too jealous of his new baby sister who will also be needing a lot of my attention.

P.S. if you want to see more pictures now, you can go visit my mom and sisters Rachael and Francie's blogs, they have all posted pictures and stories of their own about the newest member of the family.