Daddy's Little Girl

Cousins!!

Isabelle being held by her cousin, Emma

Isabelle and Auntie Hiroko

Isabelle met her cousin, Emma and her Auntie Hiroko for the first time. Her other cousin, Theo (Emma's older brother), couldn't make it for this visit but maybe they'll meet soon.

Snug as a Bug

Isabelle all swaddled. She looks like a little bug in a cocoon.

First Meeting with Grandma and Grandpa

Isabelle meets her Grandma at 3 days old.

Isabelle meets her Grandpa at 10 days old.

Going Home

Mommy and Isabelle at the hospital

Daddy and Isabelle at home

It's a Girl!!!

Isabelle's Birth Story

I started having contractions on the evening of August 8th (4 days overdue) but they were very irregular and really far apart. I called my midwife to let her know that something was happening and she told me to go for a walk and relax because there was nothing to get excited about yet. Andrew and I went out for a long walk that evening and also for an A&W root beer float that I was craving. I went to sleep that night without much of a change.

At about 5:00 am on the 9th, I woke up to a little more intense contractions but they were still really far apart and very irregular. I kept timing them throughout the morning and then called my midwife around 10:00 am. She came by and checked but said that I had not dialated at all and she suggested that I take a relaxing warm bath or shower. I opted for the bath, which seemed to relax the contractions a little. Andrew had to go to work that day but when I got out of the bath around 1:00 pm, my contractions were 4 or 5 minutes apart. Andrew called into work and told them we were having a baby and then called the midwife again. She came by, checked, and said I had dialated to 4 cm. She told us to meet her at the hospital at 4:30 pm and do some of the labour at home. The contractions began to get more intense and I when we left to go to the hospital, I hated the car ride there. It was terrible because I couldn't get into a comfortable position every time I had a contraction.

When we arrived at Royal Columbian Hospital, we checked into hospital administration. That part wasn't very much fun either because they didn't see us right away and then they ask you a series of questions. Once they got all the information they needed from me, Andrew and I were taken upstairs and checked into a birthing room. We arrived promptly at 4:30 pm and we skipped the assessment room because we had a midwife with us instead of a doctor. I progressed steadily from this point and I spent a lot of time in the shower. It seemed to make the contractions less painful.

Eventually my water broke on its own at 9:45 pm and I started pushing a couple of hours later. I pushed for about an hour and for some reason the baby wasn't coming down. There was something blocking the baby so the midwife told me not to push while she paged the doctor to come assist. I didn't have an epidural or any other drugs so they gave me some laughing gas to help me through the contractions while we waited. Well, any woman who has gone through labour knows how impossible it is NOT to push so I remember crying to get someone to help me and take the pain away. Andrew was by my side the whole time and was the greatest coach. I couldn't have done it without him and he stayed so calm while I felt like I was going off the deep end. After an hour of "not pushing", the doctor finally came up, checked and said that whatever was blocking the baby had cleared itself up so I could resume pushing.

After a short bit of pushing, Isabelle Momoko Otsuji Pickell was born at 1:43 am on August 10th. She weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and was 21.5 inches long. She was whisked away right after birth to the heat lamp across the room because her heart rate fell a little low so no one had said the sex of the baby. I asked Andrew if we had a boy and his response was "I don't know??" I asked the nurse and she told us that we had a beautiful baby girl and my response to that was "Really??" In the end, I'm happy that we kept the sex a surprise and we're so happy to have a little girl. Maybe our next one will be a boy...

Overdue and Ready to Burst!!

This picture was taken at Mud Bay. I was already a couple of days overdue at this point and ready to burst. My whole body was completely swollen from all the water retention. Who knew I'd still have just over 3 days to go!!