Happy Birthday Bella!

To celebrate Bella's first birthday, here is her birth story.

It is very sad not having her daddy here to share it because he did catch her after all. He was the very first person to touch her. He loves that.

Bella’s Birth Story
　
October 1, 2009 - 41w 4d
My thoughts this day are - I am never having this baby. No seriously I am NEVER having this baby. She will graduate from high school in my belly. Ugh. I have been having contractions since 35 weeks, and I don’t mean the practice “oh there is a no pain contraction” ones. I mean the 4-5 hours of strong contractions ever 3-5 minutes that actually hurt a little. We get all excited that maybe we will have a baby, and then nothing. I sit up in the living room, all alone, late this night and cry and cry and cry. I try to be ok with the fact that I am going to have to go to the hospital, be induced and not have the birth I am wanting. Selfish? Maybe, but I just want to have this baby at home, safely.
　
October 2, 2009 - 41w 5d
I wake up early to head to my parent’s house. I slept good, which is unusual My uncle is in town from Ohio. We are all excited to get out of the house. I get in the shower and have a contraction. I get angry that this keeps happening. Sounds silly now to get mad at my own body, but you just had to be in my shoes.

I get out of the shower and I have another contraction. Contraction = ignored. I get ready and we get into the truck. The truck has been a pain for a while. Getting into it is troublesome, and I always have contractions in there. I am pretty quiet all the way to my parent’s house. I have contractions but nothing hurts.

I don’t really remember when I started paying attention to the contractions as something that might be real. I know we had lunch, and I ate a great lunch. We all sat and played outside all day. Michael started noticing that my breathing would change a little every once in a while. I asked my mom for a stop watch and I started timing everything. 5-7 minutes apart lasting for 45-60 seconds. Still no pain. They get stronger when I go to the bathroom. I try to avoid the bathroom. J
Sometime that evening Michael and I decide to leave earlier than planned. Johnathon’s soccer game was in the morning and our nephew’s birthday party is the next day. Michael’s parents agree to keep the boys over night just in case I actually go into labor. I have contractions all the way to their house, but nothing that hurts too bad. My mom gives me a coke for the road.

We get to my in-law’s house and get the boys all settled. I go to the bathroom and immediately decide that I no longer want to be there. I want to be home . . . NOW!
Michael and I head out. The contractions get much stronger in the truck on the way home. When we get home, Michael starts cleaning up a little and I go to the bathroom again. I sit down and literally hear my water break. I think I am crazy. I get up and as I am walking away I realize that I am not crazy. My water has broken at 11:50pm, 5 minutes after we get home. Talk about timing.
We notice there is meconium. We get very nervous. After much prayer, reading and checking on the baby we decide to stay home. Baby girl has a strong heartbeat, that changes as we would hope with movement and contractions.
　
October 3, 2009 - 41w 6d
Hard contractions start right after my water breaks. These are serious, no fun at all contractions. I am not always nice to my husband during these contractions. I hadn’t ever been mean to him in labor before. I usually just go into “labor land” and check out. This time I tried to stay moving. Movement is good during labor right???

Movement is not good for me in labor. I tried walking, swaying, hands and knees, laying down . . . Everything to stay upright and moving. Nothing worked. I was in great pain.
Michael was wonderful. Checking on the baby as needed, giving me water (which I would usually fight and ask for the coke. I was nauseous and it helped), rubbing my back . . . He did everything he could to help. He tried to put on my music that I had spent hours on getting together, but I didn’t want it on. He was wonderful.

At one point while I was standing in front of our changing table, rocking back and forth, I felt her move into a better position. I had always thought that she was a bit crooked in there, and I believe this is when she straightened up to a better position. It was painful, but it also made me feel better because I knew that my body was doing what it was supposed to do to let me deliver her.
　
October 3, 2009 - 41w 6d (continued)
Michael had fallen asleep while I was in the bathroom. Bless his heart he was exhausted. Apparently he had been doing this for a while, and every time I would flush the potty he would wake up. I didn’t flush this time. J I finally, at about 4am, decided to sit down on the bed. Michael was asleep next to me and I got into the position that had worked for me to labor with both my other births. I sat straight up in bed, legs crossed and I rocked back and forth. I realized after sitting down that I was tensing up, hard, when I would have a contraction.
　
I relaxed everything that I could, closed my eyes and finally found labor land.
I don’t remember anything from closing my eyes until I realized I was pushing. I woke Michael up, he put his glasses on and got everything ready.

After about 5 minutes, and 4 pushes later, Michael caught our precious baby girl. She pinked up immediately and started sucking her hand. She was looking around and just as content as could be.
She never cried. Michael suctioned her (because of the meconium) but nothing came out. We tried messing with her feet and everything to get her to cry, but she was always happy. She started eating right away. It was wonderful.

I finished up everything on my end, got cleaned up and we cleaned up Bella and put clothes on her. It was amazing to be in our own home with our own stuff.

Recovery for me was not always fun, but it was totally worth it all to have her the way that we wanted. Michael took the best care of us and for that I will always be thankful for.
Pregnancy was intense but worth every moment.

Choosing the way our baby would be birthed was intense but brought us closer together.
Labor was really, really intense but brought the delivery we had always dreamed about.
Isabella is intense but she is our gift from God.

Isabella Elizabeth Qualls
8lbs 21inches born on October 3, 2009 at 6:01am into her daddy’s hands

Happy birthday sweet baby girl. We love you more than you could ever imagine.