Sophie Elizabeth Bell

Sophie made her entrance into the world yesterday, June 12th at 2:25 pm. She weighed in at 6 lbs. 12 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long.

I was only in labor for about 6 hours and could not have asked for a better labor and delivery. We came in at 6:30 for the induction. My paperwork was done and my room was all ready. I had my blood drawn and put on the gorgeous hospital gown. All set and ready to roll, just waiting for the doctor to give the word. Around 8:00 or so they started me on pitocin to get things rolling. I was already having some mild contractions before the pitocin so it didn't take long for me to feel contractions. A little before 8:30 or so the doctor came in and checked me out, I was still about 2-3 cm, and then broke my water. As the morning went on the contractions started getting more intense but I could still carry on conversation, my pain level was about a 3 or so. Well, as they upped the pitocin contractions got much more intense and with the water broke, that really set things off. No longer could carry on conversation and was really having to breath my way through the contractions. I must say you hear about how painful labor is, and they're right, it HURTS!!!!!

So the nurse, who was AWESOME by the way, came in and told me that the anesthesiologist was in with the Dr. doing a c-section and it would be about an hour before I could get the epidural. The doctor came in after the c-section, checked me out, and I was dilated to 4 cm (he was super happy with the progress I had made, it was about 11:15 at that point). A little after 11:30 I got the epidural, which was not the horrible experience I thought it would be at all. It was quick and pretty painless, especially when you having these most intense contractions. With in 10 minutes I could feel everything going numb and it was WONDERFUL!! Epidurals rock!! The only downside is I got cold and started to shake a little. My blood pressure dropped at times, but nothing that they seemed overly worried about. Just needing some extra monitoring.

So by Noon I'm all relaxed and the nurse suggested that I try to rest for pushing later. Feeling like a million bucks, I snoozed here and there, Ricky went to lunch. While he was at lunch the nurse checked me and I was 5 cm dilated. That was sometime around 12:30 ish. So during this time we're chilling and I'm resting the doctor comes back and checks me and he says "OK, are you ready to push?" I thought he was joking for some reason because just a little while ago I was 5 cm. I know that they had upped the pitocin since I'd had the epidural, but I was sure that it would be hours and hours before anything would happen.

So they got things ready and before I knew it I was starting to push. It's a very difficult process when you have no feeling down below but my nurse was super. Plus I had Ricky at my head and my mom and sister each holding up a leg. At one point they had to give me the oxygen mask because Sophie wasn't tolerating the pushing so well. That seemed to help both of us because I was bearing down hard and could not catch my breath. She came down and started to crown after only a few pushes. Nurse called the doctor and he came in, couldn't believe it when they said she was crowning and I was a heck of a pusher. So he gets ready and I start to push some more. It's funny because the doctor thought he had another contraction before she came out but when he turned around the head was coming out and he was surprised. So one last push and out comes Sophie!!

This was the most amazing thing that I have ever experienced. They laid her on top of me and she was wide eyed and gooey (Ricky did so awesome). Doctor cut the cord and they handed Sophie off to the nurses. I had to get stitched up (tore a tad) and they had to finish getting everything else out.

So that is my short story and we are in love with Sophie. She is such a beautiful little girl, such a combination of Ricky and me it's difficult to tell who she looks like. Here's a few pictures and there will be many more to come.