We're so excited to have Nora in our family!
Nora
Born April 9, 2015 at 6:01 pm
10 lb 6 oz
22 inches long
Nora was due on April 6th (which would have been a cool birthday), but she went a little longer. I was expecting a late baby. Caleb was on his due date, but both both Eliza and Joshua were over a week late. I also expected my labor to start at night, as it has in the past. I expected to wake up around 2 a.m. with contractions and head off to the hospital.
Expecting to go into labor in the night was a comforting thought to me because it meant that Mike would be home with me. He works an hour away from home and home is 40 minutes from the hospital, which is in a different direction than work (the three locations form a nice triangle). With my history of fast labors, I was already worried about making it to the hospital on time, so it was nice to not have to factor in how Mike was going to get home in time to take me.
Each day when I would wake up I would be confident that today was not the day. My mom was flying in on Friday, April 10th. As Nora (who was just "baby" at the time) passed her due date, I mentally decided that I would go into labor the night my mom arrived and have her in the morning hours on the 11th. My mom was in the room when Eliza, Caleb, and Joshua were born, so I was hoping she'd be there for this one too. I wanted her to take pictures.
So much for plans!
I had an OB appointment on the morning of Thursday, April 9. The doctor said my cervix was dilated between 3 and 4 centimeters, that he could stretch it to a 4. He asked if I had been having contractions. I have always said that I don't get Braxton Hicks contractions. I have random tightening sometimes, but I have never considered them contractions, so I told him no. He seemed surprised by my response.
On the drive home from the appointment, I started second-guessing myself. Was I having contractions? Maybe I was and I just didn't notice them or didn't consider them real.
When I got home, I was feeling exhausted, so I laid down on the couch and fell asleep. Josh ran around and played by himself. I was out! I didn't think too much of it. Going into town, especially the 40 minute drive home, makes me tired. I always want to go to sleep when I get home, but I usually don't let myself do it.
I woke up in just enough time to go to school and pick up the kids. They get out at 2:50. On the 15-minute drive home from the school I started watching the clock to time my contractions and see if the tightening was regular. Sure enough, they were 6-7 minutes apart.
Thankfully Mike had left work early to attend a site council meeting at the school at 3:00. I texted him at 3:30 to tell him to come home after his meeting. At about noon we had talked about the possibility of having the baby tonight, but I had told him he could go back and work at his other office after the site counsel meeting, since the nearer office is only 30 minutes from home.
At this point, I was pretty sure I'd have the baby that evening, but wasn't in terrible pain. I packed some snacks and added some things to my hospital bag. My focus was on deciding who could take pictures since my mom wouldn't be there.
The original plan was to leave the kids with Mike's mom while Mike and I went to the hospital. Mike's dad was home early that day to work in the garden, so I asked Mike's mom if she would be willing to come to the hospital with us and Mike's dad if he could watch the other three.
Mike got my text and couldn't concentrate on his meeting. He told the other site council members that I was in labor and left before it was over. By the time he got home, I was having to stop and wait for contractions, but I could still walk around fine. In fact I wasn't in a hurry to get to the hospital. I told Mike's mom (who was following in her car) to bring a book or something because we might be at the hospital longer than is normal for me. Considering we were so far from the hospital I was ok with going at that time. In my mind I saw us walking laps around the hospital parking lot before going inside.
We left for the hospital at 4:15. I felt mostly fine, except having to rest (not talk) during contractions. I didn't realize how far I had progressed until I got out of the car at the hospital. I had a hard time walking. By then I was feeling pain during contractions and had to pause and hold on to something when they came as I walked into the hospital. Mike got me a wheelchair at the welcome desk and wheeled me up to labor and delivery. We passed a clock in the lobby and I saw that it was just after 5pm. After that I kept my eyes closed. Apparently it took me a long time to get through the parking lot because Mike's mom was up at labor and delivery before us.
This is where my memory gets a little bit foggy. I remember that changing out of my clothes and into the hospital gown was a chore. Having to pause between ever more frequent contractions made it take forever.
I felt like I had to go to the bathroom. Mike says that I always say this when I'm in labor, but they humored me and let me try to go.
When the nurse first checked me I was only at 6 cm. That was kind of disappointing. I was hoping to be further along. I told them that earlier that morning I was at 4 cm.
The nurse tried unsuccessfully to get an IV in me, which left some nice bruising. Since I had tested negative for group B strep, they didn't need to set an antibiotic drip for that, so they let me go without an IV (which is what I always request anyway).
About fifteen minutes later the contractions were even more serious. The doctor came in with scrubs on ready to deliver if it was time, but measured me at 6.5cm, which was disappointing. He said he'd stay nearby so that when it was time he could be back.
My water broke at 5:55 so ten minutes later he was back. I only know the time because there is a picture of Mike taking off my socks which were soaked by the gush. I knew the baby would be following shortly.
I progressed quickly and started pushing. When the baby's head peeked out, the doctor and nurses commented on how it was completely covered in thick hair. That wasn't surprising, as all our babies have been born with lots of hair. The next two pushes didn't get very far. It looked like maybe her shoulders were stuck in the birth canal. Mike asked if I could take a break for a minute, but the doctor wanted me to keep going. He was worried that she wasn't moving. It seemed like a long time, but finally, only about four minutes after, her head slipped out all the way. With the next push her body turned and her shoulders and body followed. Our newest little one had arrived at 6:01.
The doctor wrapped her up in a towel and put her on my chest. She was slightly purple, but not enough to be worried about. It wasn't until I was cuddling the baby that I wondered it was a boy or girl. I was surprised when they announced she was a girl!
Everyone has asked me throughout the entire pregnancy if I felt like it was a boy or a girl. I always just said that I honestly had no idea. I had a hard time deciding if my "feelings" were just what I wanted or some sort of intuition. Since I never knew (and was wrong with the other kids) I just stopped guessing. On the way home from the doctor's office that day, I started thinking more about it. I decided that it was probably a boy. I think I wanted a girl, but thought it was probably a boy. I was definitely surprised.
The doctor and nurses kept saying how she was such a big baby. No wonder her shoulders were stuck. Honestly, she didn't look that big to me. I thought she would probably weigh less than my other babies. She just didn't seem as roly poly as some of the others. I was shocked when they weighed her at 10 lbs 6 oz. Wowee! My others were 9-8, 9-6 and 9-11, so Nora was definitely an outlier.
The nurse kept kneading my belly which is always a terribly painful feeling. At one point when she did that it pushed out lots of blood clots. They decided that I was losing too much blood, something that becomes more of an issue the more babies you have. They gave me a suppository and put in an IV with a pitocin drip to get my uterus contracting back down to normal size to stop the bleeding.
Wow! That was way more painful than the actual delivery. Seriously! I was curled up on my side writhing in pain.
Grandpa brought the kids in to see me as soon as they finished their dinner. The nurse who was in charge of giving the baby a bath invited the kids to help with the bath. They were so excited! It was such a special, personal treat for them.
Eliza got to help put on Nora's first diaper.
They tested Nora's glucose levels because that's often an issue with big babies. Sure enough, her glucose was really low. I nursed her and the nurse also tried to manually express some colostrum. They ended up giving her a wee bit of sugar water to get her glucose levels up.
Because of the quick and slightly traumatic delivery, Nora's face was pretty bruised and swollen. Thankfully in a day it was better.
We are so happy to have this sweet, precious babe in our family.
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