Introducing …

Happy Saturday, you guys!

We couldn’t be more thrilled to introduce Isla Meline, born January 21st at 2:38 P.M.  She weighed 7 lbs., 12 ounces and was 20 inches long.

Our Story

I came home from work on Friday after staying late to prepare for my sub who would start the following week, regardless of when Isla made her arrival.  My doctor had planned to induce me Monday night or Tuesday, so I wanted to make sure I was fully prepared to be gone from school the next week.  When I finally got home around 6, I told Logan I had been feeling pretty crampy that day and we decided it was probably just from being checked at my appointment the day before or Braxton Hicks contractions.  We both went on with our night and Logan fell asleep on the couch while watching TV.  The cramps started becoming more intense and were coming and going rather than a constant pain, so I decided to start timing them just in case.  I woke Logan up around 9:30 and said, “I think we’ll be going to the hospital tonight,” once I noticed the “cramps” or whatever I was feeling were increasing in intensity and frequency.  I went to the bathroom to straighten my hair (because that’s the first thing you do when you’re in labor!) and gather a few things that weren’t already in my hospital bag.  By the time we were ready to head out the door, the contractions (I knew for sure by now!) were pretty intense.

Long story short, we arrived at the hospital emergency room and they wheeled me to a delivery room where they checked me and decided I was definitely in labor.  I requested an epidural right away – the contractions were REALLY intense by this point. It took about 30 minutes to finally get the IV in and have the anesthesiologist come in. Things progressed pretty quickly.  I really thought it was going to be a short labor, but boy was I wrong!

I was sleeping off and on throughout the night and at one point I woke up and there were 5 nurses standing around me with concerned looks on their faces.  Apparently I had a really long contraction – 6 minutes long! – and Isla’s heartbeat had dropped quite a bit.  They had to give me some medicine (not sure what) to stop the contraction, which made her heartbeat return to normal, but slowed things down significantly.

It wasn’t until about 11:30 the next morning that it was finally time to start pushing.  Pushing seemed super easy at first, but after 3 hours of it, I was just DONE.  I even said to the doctor, “Can you just use the forceps or vaccuum to get her out?” We laughed about it later since most women don’t usually request those things.  She said she knew I was exhausted at that point!  She had me push for a few more minutes and then did use the vaccuum to help with the final stage of delivery and perfect little Isla made her entrance into the world after 16 hours of active labor!

On a side note, I tried to imagine what our daughter would look like throughout the pregnancy, and she came out nothing like what I pictured, but was more beautiful than I ever could have imagined!  The Lord works in such amazing ways – we can plan and picture how things might go or look – and He always has something even better in store for us!

The doctor handed her to me right away and it was the most magical feeling to hold my daughter for the first time!  Honestly, I was so exhausted though that I don’t think I was truly able to take in that amazing moment for what it was.  I felt like I was dreaming and that none of what I was experiencing was real.  It was definitely a surreal feeling!

After Logan and I had some time with Isla and she was all cleaned off and measurements taken, it was time to introduce her to the family.  The grandparents and proud aunt came in first and oohed and awwed over her for about 10 minutes before we said, “Well, do you want to know her name?” They had been dying to know for the last 6 months, but were too enthralled with the baby to even ask at that point!

We announced her name: Isla (pronounced eye-la) Meline, and told the story of how we chose it: We had a boy name picked out right away, but had a harder time coming up with a girl name.  Logan liked a lot of the names that could work for both genders and I liked the really feminine names, so we just couldn’t agree on anything! As we were driving back from Dallas this summer, we took turns suggesting different names we liked and Isla was one of the first names we both really loved.  We had a few other options that we were both fine with as well. As I lay in bed that night, I repeated the names in my head with the middle name, which we knew would be Meline (my middle name as well as my mom’s).  As I was saying the names in my head, I realized that Isla was the exact same letters (an anagram) of Lisa, my mom’s name.  I told Logan about this realization the next morning, and we both decided that should be her name – it was our favorite anyway!

We spent another hour in the delivery room and brought in my aunts and cousin who had been waiting, too, before moving upstairs to the room we would be staying in for the next couple nights.  We both went to bed that night so amazed at God’s worksmanship in creating this tiny little miracle we had watched grow from the size of a poppyseed to a beautiful baby girl who was OURS!

   

Thanks for following along during the pregnancy and for all of your congratulatory wishes!  We are so appreciative of your love and support!

XOXO, Jenna