Pictures of Bella

Isabella Grace Wilcox

So, here's a few more pictures.

such a proud daddy

We couldn't believe she only weighed 7lbs!

she has the sweetest cry

Bella's first bath

I love that face


Joe loves his baby!

So do I


She's perfect

Her newborn clothes are too big!



We're home!

Our beautiful Bella Bambina

Our beautiful Bella

Well we're finally home from the hospital. I am ecstatic to be home. What an extraordinary trip I've been on. So, I'll start from the beginning.

(My last pregnant picture)

Wednesday we got the results back from the amnio that everything was awesome and to head to St. Vincent's at midnight. So, I got everything packed and ready to go. Around 9 or so the labor nurse calls and says they're chock full of women in active labor and we need to come in at 7am. I was so crushed. Then decided to stay positive and went to bed.

Thursday morning bright and early we headed to the hospital. It was very surreal. We got to the hospital and got all checked in. It took a while to get everything going. They let me eat some breakfast and I was very happy. Joe and I played card games and wartched "Nightmare on Elm Street. At noon they finally started the pitocin! Whoo-hoo. I started having regular contractions within an hour. They started off relatively mild but, holy cow it did not take long for them to pick up.

The dr. broke water soon after and things really took off. I felt like 10 lbs lighter right after they broke my water. My contractions jumped up to every 2 min apart lasting about 45-60 seconds. I spent most of the time on my knees leaning against a chair in the shower. It was heaven. I was stuck at 5 cm forever so they upped the pitocin and suddenly my contractions were every minute. I was in excruciating pain. I wanted to wait as long as possible for an epidural by now it was 2 am and I was shaking so badly from the contractions that the whole bed was shaking with me. I only had 30 seconds between contractions and because I was shaking so badly and dry heaving the whole time I couldn't relax in between. I finally asked for an epidural. It was magical! I instantly fell asleep. They woke me up at about 5:30 to check me and I was finally 10 cm. dilated. It was time to push. I had them turn off the epidural and waited for it to wear off before I oushed. I wanted to be able to feel the urge to push and be a dead log.

Here comes the real work. 24 hours later and we're finaly pushing. I was utterly exhausted. I decided to use a mirror to see and I'm so glad I did. It helped me keep going. Joe was amazing all throughout labor. He was so encouraging and always holding my hand. He was right there with the midwife urging me on. Bella's head was stuck in my pelvis and maling its way by millimeters. By about 9:30AM I didn't think I had anything left in me. I could see her head but she wasn't moving. The contractions were doubly strong now. I just started crying and pushed even harder because I was so exhausted. Joe kept whispering in my ear, that I could do it and well....24 hours of hard labor and 4 hours of pushing later Our Bella was born at 10:20 AM weighing in at 7 lbs. even and 20 in. long! It wsa such an emotional moment. When they placed her on my stomach I just started bawling hysterically. I was so happy to finally hold her and feel her in my arms. She was just perfect. Joe couldn't stop staring at her. She knew his voice right away. I can tell she is definitely going to be a daddy's girl.

Whoo-Hoo!

So, I just got off the phone with the Kaiser nurse and she said the amnio results came back "beautiful". I am so excited and at the same time nervous. I keep dropping things and just flung fruity pebbles all over the computer.

The amnio went really well actually. I was surprised. I was fine when I first got in there and then I got really nervous...I thought I was going to puke. I started humming "A child's prayer" out loud to no avail. I still felt like I was about to pass out. The nurse asked if I wanted Leslie (my mother-in-law) to come in and I said "YES!" as soon as she came in I was fine. The needle didn't even hurt. What hurt the most was when they had to mark my stomach with a straw. Weird. I know. I hardly felt the needle go in. It took about 10 min. total.

So, now I play the waiting game to go to the hospital. We have to be there at midnight. I'll probably wash some more of her clothes and double check our bags. Most importantly I'll try not to be a nervous wreck and injure myself.

Next time I'm on here I'll have super cute pictures of my daughter!!!!!!

One more Day!!!

Tomorrow I am being induced!!! Well, hopefully. Assuming that the Amnio comes back positive for lung maturity. If all is well we go back tomorrow night for the induction! I'm pretty sure everything will come back fine. She's a big girl. They're guessing she'll weigh in at about 7 1/2-8lbs. I have a feeling we'll be taking back all of the newborn sized clothes we have.

I am so excited to not be pregnant anymore! Yesterday I broke down crying because I was so frustrated. Joe and I went on a breakfast picnic. First of all I had to sit on the ground because my pregnant body and my McDonald's platter didn't fit on the bench and I couldn't put it on my lap because I haven't been able to close my legs for a week now. Second, We were playing bocce ball and I couldn't bend over to pick up my balls, I had to wait for Joe. The icing on the cake was when we got home I went to shut the car door but forgot about my giant stomache and slammed the door into myself. So, here I am balling my eyes out in front of our house with the neighbors staring at me. All I can I could manage to say was "I don't want to be pregnant anymore" I cried for like 20 minutes. Then I started laughing hysterically because I realized how absolutely ridiculous the whole morning was. Thank you Elder Wirthlin for reminding me to laugh! Poor Joe has no idea what he got himself into.

It still hasn't hit me yet that I'm bringing home a baby this week. It all seems so surreal. I have no idea what it will be like. I'm way excited though. I've already got our first few little outings planned. I just can't wait to hold her and see what she looks like.
I've decided I'm going to brave it and use a viewing mirror to watch the birth. I figure it's a once in a lifetime thing and I might regret it later and if it's too gruesome I'll just have them whisk it away!
Hopefully next time I write on here I'll be writing about my beautiful daughter!

It's 5 AM and I am still awake! Not cool!

So, it's going on 5:30 and I've been awake since 1 something. I have the worst heartburn and upset stomache of my life! I finally broke down and went to Wal-Mart and bought some Maalox. Tums just weren't cutting it and all that's on TV are stupid infomercials. I figured I' do something productive.

I had a lightening fast appt. at perinatology on fri. I was a little irked because I drove all the way to Beaverton for a 15 mon. appt. The US tech was in such a hurry. She forgot to measure Bella. All they had to tell me was she looks fine. Well, duh! I already knew that! the day got progressively worse. I drove all the over to Lake Oswego to go to Babies R Us because we got a $10 gift card from them. Whoo-hoo, or so I thought. I spent an hour looking around and finally found the cutest little pair of shoes! I was so excited. When I got to the cash register the card wouldn't work. She called over someone else and they said "Oh, this gift card expired in Aug." first of all, how does a gift card expire?! The first cashier said "Oh, we'll just override it" the second one said "No, that's not possible, it's expired" I couldn't believe it. We just had the baby shower and they knew that, which was why they sent us the card! The second cashier (the mean one) said, "If you want to buy everything off of your registry we'll give you 10%off" I said: No thank you! I live in Vancouver and drove all the way over here and am never coming back. Then....I went to Arby's to console myself and dripped Arby's sauce all over my pashmina wrap and white shirt! I just wanted to cry!

Okay, so that was me venting from 3 days of pent up anger....on to something else. Today was pretty good. I went "super saturday" and hung out w/ the girls. It was nice. I need to do that more often. I feel like I have no girlfriends. Since Jill moved to Utah and we got married, I feel like such a loner. It was nice to sit and socialize. I love Joe to death, but sometimes I just need some girl talk!
I am so ready to have this baby. I was pleading with Heavenly Father earlier to just make something happen! Apparently, the whole thy will not mine still stands. 'Cause I'm still PREGNANT!!!!!
I think I'm so tired I'm just rambling deliriously. I'm going to force myself to try and sleep. for the last few saturdays something has come up and I can't make it through even an hour of church.

My husband!

I stole this from Katie Jensen. I thought it was cute. Since Joe is such a quiet guy I thought I'd share a little about him

1. What is his name? Joseph Pierce Wilcox

2. Who eats more? It depends on the food. Junk:me by a landslide. Chips: Definitely Joe

3. Who said I love you first? He did when we were in the temple. I thought I was going to have to perform CPR

4. Who is taller? lol...Joe by a foot!
5. Who is smarter? math, business stuff Joe. Anything artsy or english ME

6. Who is more sensitive?actually I think we're pretty dead even

7.Who does the laundry?Me, I hate folding it so Joe usually folds

8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? for now Joe. The left side is closer to the bathroom

9. Who pays the bills? We both do. It depends on who remembers first

10. Who cooks more?HA! Yeah, That would be me. Joe did put baked potatoes in the oven

11. What meals do you cook together? breakfast

12. Who is more stubborn? Me. I blame my Irish heritage

13. Who is the first to admit they're wrong? Usually me

14. Who has more siblings? Joe

15. Who wears the pants in the relationship? I don't mean to but I usually take over

16. What do you like to do together? We play games a lot. We love hiking, sightseeing, playing bocce ball, we watch a lot of movies

17. Who eats more sweets? I am definitely the junk food junkie

18. Guilty pleasures? Chips and salsa. I've never seen anyone consume as many bags of Chips as Joe. It's amazing!

19. How did you meet? YSA beach trip. A big group went camping and Joe was wearing a funny looking peruvian hat. We didn't actually start hanging out for like 6 mos. later after a night of Karaoke and table football. I kicked his trash.

20. Who asked who out first? I'm not sure. We hung out all the time. He kissed me one night and then we decided to go on an actual date. A little backwards

21. Who kissed who first? lol...it's pretty funny. We were watching Nacho Libre, chilling on the love sack and he brought out OJ in wine glasses. We started talking and mid-sentence...Wham! He kissed me. It was so sloppy because my mouth was wide open from talking! I started laughing hysterically!

22. Who proposed? He did. We were swimming in the washougal river and he dove down to get a "rock" and came up and proposed.

23. His best features? Joe has the kindest eyes of anyone I've ever met. They make me melt

24. What is his greatest quality? Joe has a huge heart. He can make friends with anyone and he always makes sure the "underdog" is taken care of. He doesn't judge people on outward appearances. He gives everyone a fair chance.

25. Tag? All you ladies...tell us about your hubby- because we all know that they don't update the blogs.

This ball is rollin'

Well, things are definitely moving along. I've been having contractions since saturday. They started saturday night and were pretty regular for about 3 hours. As soon as I started to get our bags in the car, and yes, fixed my make-up (gotta look cute), they stopped. I had them all day Sunday but they weren't strong enough so we just chilled and played games with Joe's parents. Yesterday, they were definitely stronger but much more sporadic. Today it's been about the same.

I went to the Dr. today and she said I'm 2 cm dilated! Whoo-hoo! I was going to be pretty mad if after all that work and discomfort nothing had happened, My cervix has 2 cm left to go to be completely shortened. Bella's head isn't fully engaged in my pelvis yet. She's about halfway there. There's a very good chance that I could go into labor on my own before the induction!

If this little girl decides she'd rather wait, we've scheduled the induction for the 29th. I have an amnio scheduled that morning and assuming everything comes back okay we'll go back at midnight to start the induction. I may not need pitocin since I'm already dilated and I've lost my mucus plug. If i don't need it all they will do is break my water.

I'm pretty stoked! I'm definitely done being pregnant. I just want to wear normal clothes again! I'm so ready to try all of Bella's adorable clothes on her! I found the cutest shoes for her. I am so excited!

This is a 3-D image of Bella's face. You can see her nose and mouth.