Isabella new pictures May - 2007

2007-05-21T18:01:00.001-07:00

New pictures of Isabella

2007-05-21T17:57:00.000-07:00

Christmas 2006

2006-12-30T17:08:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos of Bella's 1st Christmas!

Un - Bella - ievable!

2006-11-13T11:29:00.000-08:00

Isabella and Mom!

2006-11-13T11:25:00.000-08:00

Isabella and Dad!

2006-11-13T11:23:00.000-08:00

Yesssssssssss!

2006-08-03T21:39:00.000-07:00

Bloop Bloop!

2006-08-03T21:36:00.000-07:00

Easter and other pictures!

2006-04-22T08:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some new pictures of Isabella!

2006-04-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

Isabella Crawling

2006-03-07T14:55:00.000-08:00

This one was taken after her bath. She can't quite crawl yet.

Me and my baby girl!

2006-02-25T19:04:00.000-08:00

Home sweet home

2006-02-25T18:57:00.000-08:00

Baby Isabella pictures

2006-02-25T14:18:00.000-08:00

She came out hungry.

First Bath.

Baby Isabella!

Baby Arrives

2006-02-24T18:36:00.000-08:00

Little Isabella meets the world.

Baby with mommy!

Baby with Daddy!

Mommy and Daddy with Isabella.

The Big Moment

2006-02-24T16:18:00.000-08:00

On Monday night, I remember telling my coworkers how I thought it was going to be at least two weeks before the new baby was born. I was wrong. Very wrong.
Here you can see how big Erika was the night before. Neither one of us knew what would happen in the next 24 hours.

It all started at 4:00 AM on Feb. 22nd. Erika was getting up for like the 57th time to go to the bathroom when she noticed that her water had broken. We then calmly proceeded to gather up our things, called the doctors and headed to the hospital before 8:00 AM

Actually, everything went pretty much exactly the way it's described in text books. Her contractions started out slow and then progressed into more frequent and more painful.

Erika did a great job of controlling the pain as you can see below (with some minor help from drugs).

This picture of us was taken inbetween contractions just before 12pm.

Eventually, the contractions became too painful though and Erika prepared for the epidural (a.k.a. almost Spinal Tap). The nurse had told us that we were looking at several more hours of labor and Erika needed something to help her get through this long event. And other than using the largest needle I have ever seen that gets shoved within millimeters of areas it shouldn't be, this went very well.

Or so we thought...

Erika was out of pain and starting to feel pretty good. But then began the scariest 30 minutes of my entire life.

The nurse was doing some more standard checks on the baby's vital signs when her eyes became huge and she started opening cabinets and moving things around pretty franticly. I didn't know what exactly was going on, but I knew it couldn't be good. My fears were confirmed in the following minutes when several nurses and doctors rushed into the room and started commanding Erika to move this way and that. One nurse yelled to other "How long?" and the other responded, "I don't know? 5 maybe 6 minutes!"

The next thing I knew, Erika had an oxygen mask on and was running to the operator room behind her table. She seemed fine to me. But how was I supposed to know? I had no idea of what was happening. But before too long, it became clear that there was going to be some major surgery.

Once in the OR, it seemed like about 10 doctors were surrounding her. They began to explain that they were about to perform a cesarean section. They rubbed some iodine on her stomach placed a curtain between her face and stomach and within minutes were underway. Erika, who was drugged but still awake at this point, asked if she was going to feel any pain. Someone said she would feel them but it shouldn't be to painful. A snuck a peak over the curtain and they had already begun without her knowing it yet. Unfortunately, she became very aware when she experienced some severe pains in her stomach.

She was screaming! Man was I scared. Soon she got some more drugs and passed out. I was even more scared at this point. Here I was in the operating room not knowing why they were performing an emergency cesarean. Not knowing if Erika or the baby were going to be alright. Luckily this moment didn't last too long. Within a few minutes they had gotten the baby out and Erika had regained consciousness. I was relieved.

Here is a picture of me with my baby daughter Isabella a few minutes after she was born.

So all within about 30 minutes, I experienced the scarriest and happiest moments of my life. Luckily in that exact order.

Erika and Baby Isabella made it out in pretty much perfect health thanks to the speed of the hospital staff. I am so thankful that everything worked out.

After everything calmed down a little, the doctors explained that after the epidural, they found that the baby's heart rate had dropped from about 140 bpm to around 70 bpm. The exact cause was unknown, but the baby was losing oxygen and they only had 15-20 minutes to get her out without any long term effects (brain damage). I guess this why these doctors make the big bucks. In my opinion they deserve every penny.