You may have heard....

Its a GIRL! Introducing Aurora Faye Belt. She finally made an appearance after 9 days past her due date. She was born on September 2, 2010 at 1:32pm. She weighed 8lbs 14oz and was 20 and 1/2 inches long.


Dustin and I decided that big sisters Adelynne and Amy had to be the first to know that their new baby was a girl. So no one was told (except my mom), that we had had a girl. When the girls arrived I was holding Aurora and they came into the room and saw the baby. They were smiling and excited and then I told them that the baby was a girl, and you should have seen their faces-- priceless! Amy put her hand to her mouth and gasped and excited just isn't enough to describe the scene. Then my mom took Aurora to the couch to let the girls hold her for the first time. In this picture Adelynne has noticed the cuts on top of Aurora's head and is obviously concerned. (The cuts were from delivery).

I love how Amy has discovered Aurora's toes


And I LOVE how Amy's expression as she waits her turn to hold Aurora. She was so anxious to hold her baby sister!

Adelynne holding her baby sister for the first time

Amy just LOVES her baby sister. She gives her hugs and kisses and holds her as often as she can. The nurse came in a little after this and asked Amy what her new baby's name was. Amy replied, "Princess Aurora."

I never actually got a picture with me and Aurora until the morning of Sept. 4th. Every time I was holding her was to nurse her (and I really didn't want a picture of that on the blog)!

And since Dustin was behind the camera all the time, he didn't get a picture with Aurora either until the 4th when I was finally up long enough to be the one taking the picture. Nothing more sweet than a Daddy with his baby.


Going home in her silly little hospital hat. We left the hospital late in the afternoon of September 4th.

Finally home, and oh my goodness, I look at this picture and I am head over heels for this precious baby.

Our 3 little princesses! This picture was taken on Monday, September 6th.

Aurora is a sweet and calm baby, she loves to nurse, and she loves to sleep, and she rarely cries. I can hardly believe that it has already been 1 week since she came into this world, and I'm already thinking, "This is going by too quickly!" We do have nick names for her, mostly we call her Aurora right now, but sometimes I find myself calling her Rory or Rora, and of course Princess, or Sleeping Beauty. :) Of course being a new mommy I am overwhelmed with emotions and thoughts that come to me. Some of my thoughts have been, "Why did I wait so long to have a baby?!" I am truly happy just holding her and snuggling her, I cannot believe I didn't have a baby for nearly 3 and 1/2 years. I've also thought how I can't wait to have another baby (I know, crazy). The other day I told my mom, "I don't want this stage of my life to be over. I just want to have little ones and babies all the time! All of my thoughts have been happy and positive and I hope they last. I cannot express enough gratitude to my Father in Heaven for sending this precious child to my life. I know Aurora is a daughter of God and has come from His arms into mine.

The Birth Story:
So I had an appointment with my OB Monday (previous post), and I actually consented to be induced on Thursday the 2nd. I debated my decision to do this for the next two days because I really just wanted the baby to come on her own time. But after two nights of false labor, and after talking to Dustin, I decided to keep my appointment. So Thursday morning came and Dustin and I checked into the hospital at 6:30am. Shortly after, I was hooked up to monitors and an IV. Before pitocin was even started, I was already having contractions, just not anything serious. So the pitocin was started around 7:30am at a low rate. My cervix was checked around 11:30am and I was past 3cm but not to 4cm yet. So I decided to wait on an epidural until I was at least 4cm dilated. Well there is where things went south. My contractions started getting harder and more painful, but I kept thinking I needed to wait just a little longer for the epidural. The doctor came in and checked my cervix and I was past 4cm so I asked for the epidural. But then of course that took at least an hour to happen because they had to give me a bag of fluids and then wait for the anesthetist to arrive. During that wait, the pain was too much for me. I broke down and cried-- which I'm not sure why it should have been, but I was humiliated and embarrassed that I was crying. And then the contractions were just coming one on top of the other and so painful and I was just crying out, "no, no, no!" as they started. Though I think Dustin was really the only one that heard me actually saying that. I also kept thinking, "How do people do this without medication?!" And then finally the anesthetist arrived and I was very tense and in too much pain to be a good patient. But she did get the epidural in, despite the fact that it hurt like hell. (Personally, I don't think she was that great-- I don't remember any previous anesthetists causing me that much pain). Then when the epidural was finally given I laid down waiting for it to kick in. The nurse checked my cervix and said, "Do you feel like pushing? You are ready!" So I began pushing. I guess when the epidural did begin working, my blood pressure bottomed out and the baby's heart rate went down (or up-- I don't remember), but they had me wear an oxygen mask-- a first for me during labor. Then I guess I had a small episiotomy to get her head out-- which is what I guess caused the small cuts on the top of Aurora's head. But then I wasn't able to get Aurora out past her head. So I had another, very large episiotomy to get the baby the rest of the way out. Because Aurora had shoulder distocia they did not give her to me right away. They took her over to her exam table and checked her out to make sure she didn't have a broken collar bone or any nerve damage. So I didn't get to see that she was a girl right away, and since the doctor and nurses didn't make the announcement I was waiting for them to make, Dustin finally looked at me before they whisked her away and whispered, "Its a girl!" I really was in disbelief. I was almost certain that I was having a boy. But I am not and was not disappointed in any way that another little girl is a part of our family. But still it took me nearly the rest of the day to get over the surprise. So finally just before Aurora was delivered did my epidural really work. The problem with this was I had to stay in the delivery room an extra hour because I could not move my leg on my own and get up out of the bed even with assistance, so I had to stay in the delivery room an extra hour before they moved me into my post-partum room. The next two days of recovery were tough-- mostly from exhaustion. I had to fight plenty of nausea. I also had a low heart rate the entire time so the doctor ordered an EKG to check my heart. And then because I had a leg cramp they performed an ultra sound on my right leg to look for any possible blood clots. Thankfully I had no problems. Aurora was perfectly healthy and happy and only had a slight tongue-tie and so we had a specialist clip that. And that's my story. The End.