Grammy’s Visit

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Last week, Grammy came to meet Bella for the first time. It was a great week – each morning, (after very little sleep), I would hand Bella off to Grammy and they would walk through the yard giving me a break and chance to catch up on a little rest. Grammy would point out birds, flowers and squirrels and then swing with Bella on the rusty old porch swing in theΒ yard. Bella was putty in Grammy’s hands – and I’m pretty sure that she had Grammy wrapped around her tiny little fingers as well. πŸ™‚

We look forward to another visit soon!!


Bella’s First Close Up
3 Weeks Old

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Bella had her first close-up yesterday!! She was such a champ – I couldn’t believe how lucky we were she decided to stay awake for the entire sitting…not bad for just 3 weeks old. πŸ™‚

Check out the hook ’em horns in one of the pics…totally by accident and all by herself – I think she already knows she was born a longhorn!! HA!

Click on any image to see the full size.


Bella Grace Neill
Labor & Delivery

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Mom had come to visit a week before – but Bella was just not interested in coming out to join us! We all kept joking about how she would certainly decide to come on my Birthday (July 24) – so we would have to share it. πŸ™‚ Each day mom would work so hard, cleaning and cooking and getting the house ready for Bella (In fact, she hurt her back, and had to go see a chiropracter!! She was doing the nesting for the both of us!) After two doc visits since the due date, with no new news, Jeremy and I went in to visit the doc on Monday, July 21st. The ultrasound they took showed that the amniotic fluid was lower than needed for Bella, and Dr. Buchi announced to Jeremy and I that we would be having the baby today!!

What a moment…it was so surreal to be told we would be having our little girl finally…Jeremy and I grabbed a quick last bite to eat as a twosome, and headed home to grab our bags and my mom and head to the hospital.

After checking us in around 2 pm, they broke my water and started the Pitocin…I was just a centimeter dialated…so they said it would take a while…At the beginning, we all just kinda hung out – waiting patiently…I could feel tiny little contractions – but decided to wait a bit for an epidural. (Of course I planned to get one – I’m a total wimp when it comes to pain…I had no desire to be the hero!)

Time passed, and they kept checking me – and I was finally dialating a bit more – got just up to 3 cm…The contractions were starting to come quite a bit stronger – and I was getting more and more uncomfortable, and since there were two c-sections scheduled, the nurse suggested that I go ahead with the epidural, (or know that I’d have to wait a bit). I happily obliged.

All seemed to be going ok, my feet went numb…the edge was taken off for about an hour. Unfortunately, this is about where things all started to go down hill. Let me preface this by saying that alls well that ends well – and we were thrilled to have a healthy baby girl in the end…but for the record…I’ll tell the whole story.

Well…despite the epidural – I could still feel each and every contraction. The pain was lessened the first hour, but after that – each and every one came at full force. I waited a bit – thinking maybe it takes a while for the pain meds to kick in (i had never given birth – so what did I know?). After a few hours of “breathing” through the pain and making Jeremy help position me in new ways every so often to try to ease the pain at each contraction – I called for a nurse to ask to increase the dosage. We used up all of the meds in that epidural – and waited…but still no relief.

They decided to give me a booster (boli?) and see if that helped…it took the edge off for about 30 mins (although I could still feel the contractions – it just made my feet and thighs go numb) we waited….still no relief..:(. Throughout this I contracted some sort of bacterial infection that caused a fever and chills on top of the very painful contractions. They decided to try one more booster. Same result as the first. (So I had ALOT of pain medicine going into my body – but no pain relief!) The nurses said I had been dialated up to about 7 cm… One suggested that the epidural could possibly be repositioned to provide effective pain relief… they kept feeling for Bella – saying they could feel her head, and I should be moving along soon, though…

Up to that point – about 16 hours had passed and I was completely exhausted. Dr. Gafori came in to check me – and she disagreed with the nurses – said I was only about 5 cm, and that she could feel Bella’s head and that she was stuck, and not coming out. Since I hadn’t progressed at all over that past few hours – she recommended a C-Section. Exhausted and in pain, I agreed quickly.

Well – somewhere in the rush and prep for the C-Sec, the idea of repositioning the epidural got lost…SO…they whisked me off to the OR, and administered the new anesthesia for the C-Sec in the same ol’ epidural…My fever had returned so I was shaking uncontrollably on the table again – and Jeremy was worried, and right by my side. They decided to get started…Oh no, I could feel them CUTTING into me. I screamed, and they did a few tests to see what I could feel. They determined that they couldn’t replace the epidural at this point (or give me any more pain meds that way anyhow) – so Jeremy was promptly kicked out, and I was knocked out with general anesthesia. (One of the nurses was nice enough to grab the camera from Jeremy – and take a bunch of pics of the delivery for us).

Bella made it into the world safe and sound! πŸ™‚ After they cleaned her up, they brought her to Jeremy and he had some sweet initial moments bonding with her. Worried about me too, they told him he could see me if he rushed as they took me to recovery…unfortunately, I was still out when he got to me right before they took me away on the elevator.

An hour or so later, I awoke, alone, in a recovery room….”Hello”…I said…A nurse popped her head around the curtain and said, “Oh – your awake…”. “Is my baby ok?” I asked. “Everything is just fine” she replied. Relieved, but also scared, I asked, “What about my husband and mom – where are they?” (The last thing I remember before being knocked out is Jeremy saying he will be right by my side when I wake up.) The nurse replied, “They are in the nursery with your daughter.” I asked her to call them, and have one of them come and be with me. “I’m sorry” she replied…”We have to observe you for an hour or so after you wake up – standard procedure for general anesthesia..” Talk about adding insult to injury…BUT – finally, after an hour or so, they brought me up to the recovery room, and handed me my beautiful little girl – and I was instantly in love, and the whole ordeal seemed to melt into a funny little memory – and crazy story I could tell later…:)


Bella Grace Neill
Born 7-22-08

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Since Jeremy wasn’t allowed to stay in the room during the birth (hospital policy if they have to knock you out) – one of the nurses was nice enough to come and grab the camera and take a bunch of pics of Bella being born…

Click on the pics for full sizes.

Warning: Some of these pics are kinda graphic! πŸ™‚