Amanda is here!!!

On July 30th at 4:49pm our beautiful baby girl Amanda was born at Hylton Birthing Center in Manassas, VA. Same lenght as her big sister 20 1/2 inches but little bit smaller 7 lbs 14 oz. Big Sister Izzy and GrandMa Coralie came to the delivery room shorty after baby sister was born and we had wonderful and very special first hour of Amanda's life together. Interestingly both girls were born in the same delivery room #5. Both of their first pictures look so much a like.

I was really hoping for natural delivery without pain relief this time since I had epidural with Isabella but ended up having one with Amanda too. Baby sister just really liked inside of me and did not want to come out even after the due date passed.

On the morning of July 30th, we arrived at the birthing center around 7:30am. After monitoring for about 45 minutes and signing all the paper work, I was able to walk around little. Around 9:30am my Dr Eugene Louie-NG arrived, checked, still only 2,5 cm dilated, he broke my bag of water and we decided to wait few hours hoping that it would trigger for the labor to start. I guess having about 1 contraction in half an hour does not count ;) I was reading book, Jason went home to check on Izzy and Grandma, they even managed to go to Farmers Market while I was in so called labor ;) Around Noon I asked to start Pitocin. Hearing newborn cry in other delivery rooms did not help, I decided it is time to have plan B. After having Pitocin dose upped from 6 to 32, I could not take it anymore and asked for Epidural. I was getting sleepy and drowsy. It was given to me around 2pm. I was able to take a nap. Around 3pm Nurse checked I had progressed from 3cm to 5cm, decided to sleep a little longer, but woke up 40 minutes later with feeling that baby is coming. Sure enough, Nurse checked and I was 10 cm and she said - Baby is about to fall out! I had strong urge to push but waited for my Dr Ng to rush over for delivery. We called GrandMa and told to get Izzy in the car as baby is ready to be born. Since everything happened so fast there was no time to turn off my Epidural and it made pushing stage more challenging since I could not feel contractions, just the urge to push. After about 15 minutes of pushing Baby Amanda was born. I think it is one of the most miraculous and amazing feelings in the world when warm baby is put on Mommy's belly, all sticky and wet but so special. I could not believe she was out although she was right there in front of me. Tears poored down my cheeks and I could not be happier!!! Very special moment!

Amanda looks so much like Izzy when she was born

Meet our new Family of Four

My 2 beautiful girls meet each other for the first time - could not be happier!!!

Happy GrandMa Coralie