A Bella Story

Isabella Nicole Clayton
6 lbs. 8 oz. 19 in.
Born 7:06 pm on August 25th.

Tuesday night before going to bed we prepared everything so that when we received the phone call from the hospital we could head in, no matter how early. Wednesday morning we woke up at 8:00 am and we had not heard from hospital. I decided to call and see where I was on the list. I was second but they had no beds available and said if I had not heard from them by Noon to give them another call. 12:30 pm, I still had not heard from them. I called and the nurse said they were cleaning up and preparing some rooms and that it wouldn't be any later than 2 pm. 2 pm came and I still had not heard from them. I decided to give them until 3 pm and then to call again. 2:30 pm we got the call saying they had a room available! We were very excited. I called my friend Kristi, who was so kind as to watch Hannah for us so Dan's mom could be there to see the birth. We arrived and got checked in at 3:15 pm. The nurse checked me and said I was 3 1/2 cm dilated, 90% effaced. My blood pressure was still elevated and the nurse mentioned that's why I was second on the list which was lucky because they had to reschedule several inductions for the next day. They decided to do some blood work and then the nurse said they would start the pitocin. After seeing that I was having contractions 2-3 min. apart all on my own she said she would talk to the doctor about just breaking my water and seeing if that would start things. So about 4:30 pm the doctor came in and broke my water. The nurse told me that if I planned to get an epidural I should get it the moment I had a hard time breathing through the contractions. About 5:15 pm, they started becoming difficult to breath through so I asked for the epidural. The anesthesiologist arrived around 5:45 and gave me the epidural. Receiving the epidural was almost as painful as the contractions by this point. At about 6:00 pm the epidural began to take effect and the nurse checked me to see that I had dilated to 5 1/2 cm and the baby had started to descend. The nurse said she would be back into check and see how things were going at 6:45 pm. At about 6:30 I started feeling pressure in my pelvic region and was debating rather to call the nurse or just wait until she came. Dan convinced me to call her and she came in to check and sure enough, I was ready to deliver a baby. So they started preparing everything and the Dr. came in with a a Resident (who had previously introduced himself) who would be delivering the baby. After pushing for about 15 min. a beautiful little girl was born. I received 2 stitches for what they called an "artificial" tare. It was such a blessing that I was induced because it went so fast. I am so thankful to the Lord for his many blessings and for watching over both Bella and I.