Nora Margaret

Well, I'm not sure how long this will take to get posted, I've got to write in between naps and feedings and all the other stuff we have going on! Currently both kiddos are napping so we'll see how long that lasts to get other things done.

As you know from the last post, I was supposed to go in on Thursday morning to get induced. After my appointment on Tuesday morning, I had been feeling contractions all day, all night and all day Wednesday. They weren't painful and they were very inconsistant so I was thinking that we would still have the induction rather than go naturally. Wednesday evening I packed all the bags, got everything ready to go then went to bed. Right before bed I had two contractions that were a bit more notable than they had been. Once I laid down for the night around 9:30, they were very noticable and I had to focus a bit through them. After about an hour, I went downstairs (cause I wasn't sleeping anyway) and started timing them. I had to really stop and breath through them at this point. They were 8 minutes apart lasting about 2 minutes. At about 11, they turned to every 3 minutes and were getting crippling. I waited as long as I could to tell Fogg to let him sleep. At midnight I decided it wasn't worth waiting anymore, I was sure I was in full blown labor. I went upstairs and woke him up saying "Fogg, it's time to go.". He was really confused cause he thought we were leaving at 7am and it was only midnight. I said that I was very much in labor and we needed to go now. We packed up and headed out at about 12:20. The contractions were getting harder and harder to deal with as we drove.

Once we got to the hospital, I had several contractions while trying to walk to the labor and delivery department. Fogg went ahead and I got on all fours in the middle of the hall to get through another contraction. A nurse walked up to me and I immediately recognized her as my most favorite nurse from when I had Reed. She has had four kids all natural so I knew she would be a great source of strength for me as I attempted a drug-free birth. We got in the room and she checked me - 5cm dialated. They called my doctor and we went through a few more contractions. She checked again about 20 minutes later and I was a 6-7. They called the doctor again to come in now. I got in the bath and had several contractions there. Once the doctor got there I got out of the tub and she checked me again - 8cm. She told me to let her know when I felt like I needed to push. After that I got four contractions right in a row that were getting significantly worse. I was handling all of this great, trying to cast out my negative thoughts about doing this without drugs. Clearly I was in transition - getting fully dialated - the most painful part. She checked me after those four stacked contractions and I was still an 8. They let me get back in the tub. After only three major contractions (with major feelings of pushing) I got out again. Once I got to the table and they got everything prepped for birth, she checked me again - fully dialated and ready to push. She broke my water and noted that not much came out. I pushed at the next contraction but it didn't make much feel better! I was starting to cry and scream. In hindsight, mostly cause I was scared. After that push, the doctor told the nurse to call nursery now and told me that with the next good push the baby was coming out. So I bared down with all I had, crushed Fogg's and the nurses hands, and pushed hard. Out came our baby at 2:31am! She came out fast, they all yelled for me to stop pushing for a second while the doctor did something.

My doctor noted that the baby was small, smaller than she expected and that it was a girl! Throughout the whole labor, she noted how well the baby was dealing with the labor with all the potential problems that could have happened with the low fluid and two vessel cord. They took her while the doctor had to do a few repairs on me (I guess I was a bit too forceful with those pushes...). They also collected the cord blood and put the placenta aside for donation to search and rescue dog training.

Here are some pictures of the first few moments of her life. She weighed 6 pounds 5 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.


So I did it! I made it through with no drugs at all! Nora fed immediately for about an hour which is great. The second she came out, I seriously felt so good. I could walk and move and I didn't feel weird at all. It was nice to feel so normal so quickly. The days after I'm a little sore but overall, I feel so much better than the last birth. They took her to the nursery around 4:30 and took us to a recovery room to sleep for a few hours. I tried but had a hard time after all that adrenaline pumping through me.


Later that day, Reed came to visit. He was a little shy to begin with but after a few visits, he really warmed up to her. We had the baby and Reed exchange gifts which seems to have gone very well. Nora got Reed a stuffed Mickey Mouse which is very excited about. He gave Mickey a hug and kiss when he saw him. Reed gave Nora a little teddy bear and insisted that where ever the baby went, so did the bear. He also started hugging and kissing her. Here are some pictures of the two of them.


We also got visits from Nana and Papa Branch, Pete and Amy Gompert, Dawn and Travis Webb and Sarah Heilig. The next day we got visits from Bryan and Tracy Dwyer and James and Michelle Scrip.

Nora tested really high on bilirubin levels on Friday and they had to start putting her under lights in the morning. I would feed for an hour then they would put her under lights for 3 hours. Luckily she responded really well after 24 hours of treatment and she went from the high level to below the low level. We haven't had to do any follow up treatment and go in on Monday for another check to make sure we are in the clear. Because she was born at 2:30 in the morning, that meant I had to be discharged 48 hours later. Luckily after they discharged me, they let me stay in the room a few more hours to sleep and feed while she finished her light therapy. We left at about 10am on Saturday morning!

She is a very tiny baby compared to Reed so I'm just getting used to how to handle her and make sure she is fed enough. We are working on the schedule and feeding, the first night home was a little hard but we'll work on it. We are also really enjoying the vast difference with having a girl. I believe she is effectively working on getting Fogg wrapped around her finger...

Well, I did the whole post in only two sittings, not too bad. Off to do some other things on the to do list now. Catch up with you soon - hopefully!