Emma asked me if I would like to reach down and touch the baby. Um. NO! My idea was to keep things rolling so I could hold my entire baby!
It could take a good 20 minutes to get from our flat to the hospital. But right about this time Mike ran through the door just in time for him to see the midwives turning Bella for delivery, since she was transverse. One more push...and at 9:50am, Daddy still in his coat, Bella Mae Leary entered the world. She was 6 pounds 11 ounces and 53 cm. It was a gray, rainy day, just like today.
There was no call of "It's a Girl!" They allow the partner to announce the baby. At that time in Scotland, they would not tell the gender during your u/s. So Mike and I traveled out of Edinburgh to a little clinic that did 4D scans. We didn't pay to print out the 4D scan, but they told us it was a girl (until now, the best day of my life!)
Emma said quietly, "Do you know what it is?"
Momentarily forgetting that the midwife wouldn't know that we already knew, and fearing the worst (that she couldn't TELL what the baby was!), I panicked! But Mike said something like, "Yes, she's Bella." And at that moment this child we had been calling Bella all along became Bella. She is still such a Bella!
Within minutes I was being offered tea and toast which I accepted, but it sat on my table most of the day.
I asked to stay overnight because I was nursing. Because she was born in the morning, I could have gone home that night! They have a home health visitor that comes and visits you in your home for 10 days after the baby is born.
Mike left shortly after because once again we thought his parents were arriving that afternoon. They weren't. So it was a quiet day for Bella and me to get to know each other. There is no nursery to send the baby away to, so she was with me the whole time. She was so perfect!
We only had 1 set of visitors to the hospital, our friends Amy and Elijah. They also came to help us 2 weeks later when it was time to move to Cambridge. Hopefully, I will get to see Amy next week on my trip to Texas. This will be extra special, since she was the first person to ever see Baby Bella.
Edinburgh is the most beautiful, special place I can imagine. It gave us the most perfect daughter. I miss it everyday, deep in my heart. I thank the Lord for our precious daughter: the best souvenir we could have brought back!
3 comments:
What a sweet story, Shayna. Thanks for sharing it with us! I had no idea that Mike almost missed her birth, wow!! Was your second birth as fast? My second was similar to Bella's birth, so I wonder how fast your second one was!
Thanks for having me in tears :)
Yes, my second was fast! But not as fast as yours! I thankfully went with an epidural the second time. Within an hour I was at 10 and ready to push. It was the middle of the night and they hadn't even called the dr who was 30 minutes away. I waited at 10cm for an hour!! It was so stressful! I did NOT care at all about the dr getting there! Then I pushed William out in 2 pushes. Thought it would be hard to beat Bella with 3 pushes! :)
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