Announcing Isabella Rose Clark

We are so excited that our precious little girl has arrived!!  December 23, 2009 David and I headed to Hermann hospital for my scheduled induction.  Let me just say that the labor/delivery was by far the easiest part of my entire pregnancy.  I got my IV and the induction started at 6am.  At 8am the anesthesiologist arrived for my epidural and my exact words were "do I need an epidural?  I'm not even in pain?!".  The anesthesiologist recommended I go ahead and get it anyway-so needless to say I have no idea what a true contraction feels like!  The doctor broke my water at 10am and by 1:20pm Isabella Rose Clark arrived weighing in at 7.1 pounds and 19 inches long.  She was immediately put up on my stomach which was such a precious moment....and so surreal!

Proud papa!

Our first family photo

Grandma Celina

Grandpa Vural

Uncle Ilhan

Cousin Emily

After 2 days in the hospital we bundled up and headed home Christmas day-what a perfect Christmas gift!

Unfortunately we were home for 4 hours when Bella had a little episode.  She was sitting in her Boppy pillow and David looked over at her to find her body in full extension and her face all red.  He ran over to her and saw a little milk at her mouth, wiped it off, and saw she wasn't breathing.  He ran and got the suction and it took two suctions for her to finally relax; but despite all his prodding she didn't cry-she just kind of had a blank stare on her face.  We were terrified and didn't know if she had had a seizure and so we rushed to the ER.  They took blood and urine cultures and did a head CT.  The blood showed she was dehydrated and there was the possibility of infection so they had to do a lumbar puncture.  They empirically started her on antibiotics and we were admitted.  The CT showed a funny spot on the left side of her brain suggestive of possible intrauterine stroke and so an MRI was recommended.  I cannot tell you how devasted, exhausted, and overwhelmed we were at this point.  We proceeded to spend the next 4 days at the hospital having multiple tests done.  It broke my heart because she kept having to be stuck for blood and had 4 different IV's placed because her veins would keep blowing.  At one point the IV was in her scalp and I just couldn't take it-I just bawled. Thankfully the MRI came back normal meaning the spot on CT was probably Bella moving during the test.  Eventually all the cultures came back negative and the antibiotics were stopped.  She had an EEG to check for seizures which was normal.  Finally she had a barium swallow which showed severe reflux. So what happened was she refluxed which caused her to arch her back and instinctively hold her breath so not to choke.  We were SOOOO incredibly grateful it was nothing more serious.  My source of

 comfort during our stay was the verse in Luke 8:50 where Jesus says. "Don't be afraid; just believe. and she will be healed."  We were so blessed during our stay to have the most amazing nursing staff and I am not going to lie....it helped that David is a resident at Hermann and knew the majority of the specialists following Bella and so we got tests done and results read at record speed.  We would like to thank all the people who came to visit us during our hospital stay and all your thoughts and prayers!

Bella getting the EEG.  She slept through the whole 1 hour test.

Gripping her paci tight after some tiring tests

One of the nurses made Bella a bow-so cute!

We FINALLY made it back home December 29th.

For New Years we spent one night at my parent's house up in Conroe with my whole family.

Aunt Missy and Josh

Uncle Don

Aunt Clare

And now we have officially been out of the hospital and home a week.  We are adjusting to frequent feeding and diaper changes but enjoying this precious time.  I am not going to lie, this is more difficult than I ever could have anticipated but we are so incredibly blessed to be a family of 3 with a beautiful healthy (despite the reflux) baby girl!