Sweet little Nora

I suppose it's fair to say that each child comes into this world in their own way and with their own individual personatity. Nora was no exception. For those interested, this is her "story".

We were supposed to be at the hospital monday morning at 7 to be induced. Needless to say I demanded breakfast so we stopped by St Louis Bread Co for some breakfast. We didn't get there until 7:40. They hooked us up to the pitocin around 8:30ish and set it to a 2 (the lowest possible setting I think). We had a plan. That plan included another natural childbirth. The doctor checked me and said we were a 2. Still. Around 9:30 my doctor came in to break my water. She checked me first and said we were at a 5. I suppose the pitocin was working. She broke my water -- which did not happen easily. The contractions weren't bad at all. I pulled out my book (Cathing Fire) and continued reading. I took a break to hop in the jacuzzi tub. Got out and sat on the birthing ball. Kept reading my book. Just after 1 Tammy, my awesome nurse, came in to see how we were doing. The contractions still weren't too bad. She asked if I wanted to be checked and I said, "why not". She checked me and we were a 9! Getting there. Then all of a sudden while checking me she says "Oh, shoot". Only she didn't say shoot. I freaked out. All she did was grab her cell phone (with one hand still inside me) and call my doctor. She said something about the cord and doing an emergency c-section. She yelled for other nurses and before I knew what was happening they were wheeling me down the hall to the operating room (bum fully in the air). I'm sure the people in the waiting room were a bit confused. In the two minutes it took them to get me to the operating room my doctor was there. Fortunately her office is across the parking lot from the hospital so she literally ran right over. She held my hand and told me everything was going to be ok. As scared and nervous as I was, I believed her and totally felt calm. But with no epidural and a hand still shoved inside me, I was in pain. They got me onto the operating table and my doctor wanted to check me again to see if I was far enough along to push. I pushed a few times but with the cord right there trying to come out and only being a 9, the pushes weren't going to help. Within minutes I was being strapped to the table and was out cold. Poor Ryan. This entire time he was in our hospital room just waiting for some kind of explanation/answer. Nora a born at 1:38, so all of this happened in less than half an hour. I am so thankful for amazing doctors and nurses who stayed calm and knew what they were doing. I have no doubt that the blessing Ryan gave me the night before was exactly what I needed.

So why the c-section? Well, Dr Reining (my OB) checked me when I was a 5 and noticed that Nora's hand was up by her face and over her head. She was literally grabbing her hand while she was checking me. Cute. She informed me that this wasn't a problem and that delivering like that might cause some bruising, but wouldn't cause any permanent damage. Well, when the nurse checked and I was a 9 not only was Nora's hand still above her head, but the umbilical cord had slipped between her head and arm and was trying to come out first. This was cutting off circulation/oxygen. They tried to push it back in (that part did not feel good at all :), but no success.

With a rough start in this world, Nora has done amazing. She is an incredible eater/nurser and her coloring is better than my other girls was. She weighed 8 lb 5 oz (same as Aubrey) and was 20 inches long with a 14 in head. And lots of hair. She is just beautiful, and we couldn't be happier to finally have her with us and be able to hold her and give her kisses. She gets lots of those.

Thank you everyone for your prayers, they helped. Dr Reining has already told us that next time around we won't have any problems having a VBAC which we were grateful for. We are happy. Happy with the Drs, happy with the way things worked out, and happy with Nora. If I don't make sense or if I'm rambling I apologize, I am still on some drugs. Good drugs.

We are still working on a middle name, but here is our little Nora. Our Angel. Our stinker, who had her own plan for coming into this world.



More pictures to come soon!