Isla Rae

Dear Isla,
You were born on October 9, 2012 at 3:15pm, 11 whole days before your due date. You were a whopping 8 lbs 2 ounces, which was a huge surprise to me! You were so perfect and looked so much like your daddy! The night before you were born I thought it would be a great idea to finally get our Halloween decorations up, so naturally, I made a complete mess of the nursery by getting them all out in there. Your dad kept pestering me to do other things like get my hospital bag ready but I assured him that we had a few more days and I promised I would pack it first thing in the morning. Little did I know how true that was going to be.
At about 3:45 in the morning my water broke! So I (somewhat) calmly woke up your dad and told him it was time to go. We weren't the fastest to get ready though. After about an hour of getting my things and your things, we were off to the hospital. Lucky for us it's only about 2 minutes away. We arrived at the hospital, checked in, confirmed that my water had really broke, and then we waited... and waited... and waited... I still wasn't in labor or having contractions at 7 am when your doctor arrived, so he decided we should speed things up and induced me. I was so nervous about being induced but we decided you were ready to be here finally and my body needed to get with the program. After about 3 hours I finally started having contractions and decided I most definitely wanted an epidural. It was so much better after that, I wasn't in pain and I wasn't so stressed anymore so things started to move much faster. I was even able to get a little nap in!
Around 2:30, one of the nurses came in and said that your was getting ready to perform a hysterectomy on another patient soon. If we didn't have you now he wouldn't be available for about an hour. My nurse knew that you were going to come much sooner than that so we decided it was time to start pushing. They set everything up and your doctor arrived just in time. After about 15 long minutes of pushing you were finally here! It was amazing, I've never seen your dad so happy! Hearing your first cry was the sweetest sound I had ever heard. The nurse asked if I had waited a long time to hear that cry, she really had no idea how long. They put you in my arms after what seemed like forever and I have never felt so much happiness, love, relief, peace and pure joy in my whole life.
It was a glimpse of Heaven. You were beautiful. You had lots of blonde hair, the sweetest eyes, and of course some chubby, chubby cheeks! I will never forget holding you for that first time. I never really thought it was going to happen. From the moment we found out we were pregnant, I was just waiting for it to not work out. Every appointment, every ultra sound, every day, I was just waiting for something to happen. For the doctor to tell me something wasn't right, they had missed something, or that you were gone. I was always so scared, I just wanted you here so badly.
Isla we love you so much. We hoped for you, we prayed for you everyday, and we were blessed far beyond what we could have ever hoped for. You have been the sweetest baby, you're so content and happy all the time. You have changed my life in so many ways and I thank Heavenly Father every day that you are here, that you are healthy, that you are ours. I hope you always know how much we love you. We still hope for you and we still pray for you. I love you so much my sweet, beautiful Isla.
                                                           Love always,
                                                          Your Mommy