Bella's Baby Announcement - Annual Halloween Card

Halloween Shoot 2010

Here are some photos taken for our 2010 Halloween card. Renee did a great job, but it was certainly harder to capture a content 8-day old Bella in between feedings and Mo without an overdone smile, and more stressful for us. Check out Mo's dance poses.

More Photos

Bella was born Fri 3:21AM. Fri afternoon Rose brought Morgan back to the base and Jeff brought her over to see her sister. Fri night Mo and Jeff stayed at the house and Bella and I slept in the hospital. I don't think any of us got that much sleep being split apart. Because Bella and I were doing well they let us leave Sat evening after staying 36 hours versus the normally required 48 hours. Leaving the hospital the nurses all said that they have never seen a sibling as excited as Morgan! Morgan is a super sweet, gentle big sister who loves to help out. Here are some more photos.

Isabella Leigh Barris, 10-8-10, 3:21 AM Napoli time

Announcement Email

Isabella Leigh is here!

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From:	Liz Barr ... Add to Contacts

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Isabella Leigh was born 10-8-10 at 3:21 AM weighing 8.5 pounds and measuring
20.5". She's beautiful and doing well. She has black curly hair - a full
head. Must be the Italian pasta! Labor was relatively quick. Contractions
started Wed night, but didn't get too intense until Thurs evening. 9 PM we
called Morgan's babysitter, Rose, and by 10 PM we were at the hospital. I got
the epidural at 11 PM, and we 'slept' from 12-3 AM and it was a quick push out
(another 20 min superstar effort [my coach's words!]). Jeff really helped me
through it with the counting and seemed to remember everything. He also got to
cut the cord.


At 6 AM when things had settled down, he went back to our home to check on
Morgan and they were all still sleeping! He was jealous! Morgan slept the
entire night for Rose. Then they both came over to the hospital to meet Bella.
Morgan was really excited and got to hold her - though was a little too curious
about the umbilical cord clamp! Morgan was very gentle and gave her a kiss
before Rose drove her into 'school'. Rose will bring her home when her work day
is done around 4 PM.


I'll probably stay at the hospital tonight as well. Typically they want mom's
and babies to stay 48 hours after delivery, but I think given that everything
went so well and that we live on base we can check out Sat afternoon.


We took some photos and will update our blog when we can. Love to you all,
Jeff, Liz, Morgan and Bella

Early Labor

After worrying about waiting to be induced and the knowledge that inductions can lead to an increased rate of c-section, I decided to do everything to encourage Bella starting with a fabulous 60-min massage on Wed. Wioletta from Poland is one of the best masseuse's ever - she has a studio on base at the gym. I had hot stones on my back, aromatherapy and she hit all the pressure points that you normally worry about during pregnancy in my feet. She also was able to loosen my lower back which was great.

Wed night contractions started spaced about 10-15 min, and then a 30 min, back to 10-min apart. Jeff and I both took Thursday off work and took Morgan into daycare, and tried almost all the wives' tale tricks for going into labor and by about 6 PM contractions were getting stronger.

By about 9 PM contractions were very intense and about 5 minutes apart. We called our babysitter Rose and when she arrived we decided to walk to the hospital. It's really close on base and I was still worried that we might be sent away. After walking into ER and into Labor and Delivery, I must have looked pretty calm and comfortable because the attending nurses asked why we were there. We were kind of shocked and said "To deliver a baby!!". I then explained about the contractions being 5 minutes apart, lasting for 1 minute and that this had been going on for an hour. The Dr. happened to already be at the hospital and sure enough when she checked my cervix to all of their surprise - I was 5 cm dilated. Then they watched how Jeff helped me breathe through a contraction and were all quite impressed, though I did tell them that anytime would be great to get the epidural! :-)

Jeff's Work Shower

Here are a few photos from Jeff's work shower which was a Diapers N' Dish potluck luncheon. It was really fun and he is lucky to work with such a great team.

Earlier that day, I had a Dr. appointment (40 weeks plus 2 days) to see how baby was doing and to schedule an induction date - if needed. Because of the holiday it was set for the following Tuesday, 10/12, though I was really hoping she'd arrive earlier.