Our Little Addition: Nora's Birth Novel

 I wanted to make sure to record my birth story novel. So here is goes:

I kept telling Jeremy that I wished my water would break so I would know for sure that we need to go to the hospital. Well my wish came true! So our story begins:

Once upon a time on a Thursday afternoon (about 2:30) I took a shower (I had been pretty slow going in the mornings since I didn’t have much else going on). When I was stepping out of the shower, I noticed that a small drop of something came out of my body... it was a clear substance. I wasn’t sure if I peed a little without realizing it (not too uncommon during my pregnancy haha ..sorry if that is an overshare) or if I was still dripping wet from taking a shower or if my water had broken. So I read somewhere that you should smell it. If it is amniotic fluid it will have a sweet smell. So I smelled it... but it didn’t really smell like anything. I also read that if your water has broken, then it will leak out more if you lay down because the baby’s head is not stopping the flow. So I got dressed (I now realize that I shouldn’t have done this) and laid down on our bed. Nothing happened so I went to get up to fix my hair and then it came. As I sat up a big gush came out and soaked my pants. Hmmm... time to call the doctor. I was trying not to freak out but I knew that my water was broken! I was still a week early and didn’t think she would be coming so soon. When I called the Dr. I had to leave a message for the nurses that sounded something like this “Um hi... I think my water is broken so if you could call me back as soon as possible that would be great.” I decided to pack the hospital bags while I waited for the nurse to return my call....40 minutes later she called and told me to go to the hospital right away. Jeremy was at work, so I called him and told him that he should come home because we need to go to the hospital ( I didn’t call him until now because I didn’t want to freak him out). 

            We got to the hospital about 3:45 and they had to do a couple tests to make sure that my water really had broken. These tests were one of the most painful parts of the whole labor... but not the most painful. I’m getting there. So turns out my water had in fact broken! I was going to have a baby!! So they got me hooked up to an iv. I am positive for a bacteria called Group B strep so I had to have penicillin go through my iv 3 times (This was the most painful part of the whole labor!!!!!) When the penicillin went into my arm it burned so so so so so bad!! I wanted to rip my arm off. I’m not trying to be dramatic but you can ask Jeremy about my reaction to the nasty stuff... I was balling so hard! Anyways... now that you all think I am a wuss let me continue on with my story....

            I didn’t ever go into labor on my own so at 5:30 I was started on Pitocin. By 7:30 I was really feeling the contractions and decided that I wanted to be done feeling them. At 8:00 I got my epidural. They gave me a local and then put in the epidural, but as the anesthesiologist turned around to grab the tape to tape it up, his finger caught the epidural tube and pulled it out! Ha! So he had to give me the epidural again. Good thing I didn’t look at the huge needle because I might not have wanted to get it again. He felt really bad but I wasn’t that worried since I was numb where the needle went in anyway. I also got a cathedar... I was nervous about this, but then I remembered I couldn’t feel anything anyway!

            9:15 I was almost a 4 and got another painful dose of penicillin... Yikes!

            11:15 almost a 6

            1:30 am. I was fully dilated. So they called the doctor and I was ready for her to come. I got another painful dose of penicillin (the epidural did nothing for the pain in my arm, dang it!) I also got a fever at this point. I was also shaking uncontrollably from labor and then I threw up to top it all off! Plus I hadn’t eaten anything since noon so I didn’t really have much to throw up so it was kind of painful too. They put me on oxygen because of... I don’t know why, but they did. I was also really thirsty. All I wanted was to down a thing of water but the nurse told me that it would make me more sick so I voted against it.

            1:40 am. The baby’s heart rate dropped. The nurse kept moving me from side to side to back to try to bring the heart rate back up. I could tell she was trying not to freak out, but she was a little nervous. She had the nurses call the dr and told her to get there stat (which I know means right now! From watching Grey’s anatomy). So I was getting really worried that the heart rate wouldn’t come back up and I would have to have an emergency c-section. Luckily, the nurse was able to find a position that the baby was happy with and the heart rate came back up to normal after just a few minutes.

            2:00 The nurse told me that the dr wanted me to “rest and descend”. She said they wanted the baby to work her way down on her own for a bit before I started pushing. I thought that this would be like a 15-20 minute process... well an hour later...

            The nurse came back in to take my temp. It was up to 102.5! They were worried about what was causing the fever but it was about time to push.

            3:15 am. We were about to start pushing. The nurse wiped me down and I felt it! I panicked for a second... I was worried that since I felt that I would feel EVERTHING when I was pushing. I was worried that my epidural wore off. But I just pushed the button again and hoped that it would work quickly! I started pushing and pushed for about 6 or 7 contractions (pushing is tough work, I tell you) and then the nurse said that we weren’t going to push anymore and we were just going to wait for the doctor to come in. It was like 3:30 at this point and baby girl’s head was out a good few inches. As I had contractions I could feel her wiggle and push even further out on her own. She was ready to come!!

            The dr. had 2 patients that had their water break within an hour of each other so we were racing to see who would deliver first. The other girl went first... hence why I had to wait for the doctor to come. She was busy stitching up the other girl! Crazy right! What are the odds!

            3:42 am. The doctor comes in and I push through one more contraction.

            3:43 am. Baby girl is born!!!

Nora Lynn Stevenson was 6 lb 9 oz and was 19 inches long.  She was perfect!! They cleaned her up and handed her to Jeremy while the doctor stitched me up. I only tore a little bit and I had one stitch that was wrapped around a couple times. Overall, it was a good experience... despite my long post and nit-pickiness about the details. I really couldn’t have imagined it going any better (ok I could have done without the penicillin, but still)!

            Recovery wasn’t that bad except I was EXHAUSTED!!! I also had to keep my IV in until Saturday at noon because I had to be on antibiotics from the fever. Which was quite obnoxious. My first iv, in my wrist, started leaking, so the nurses decided that I needed a new one at 1:30 in the morning on Saturday so I’m running on like zero sleep at this point. They chose the veins in my hands. I’m pretty sure the nurse sticking me hadn’t ever done an iv, ever! She stuck the first vein and dug around for a while with no luck, the vein collapsed. It hurt so bad and I was so exhausted that I just started crying again! She says “wow, I’ve never made anyone cry doing an iv before”. Well I’m glad I could be her first!! Gee! So the nurses left me alone for a couple hours and came back to try again... She stuck another vein in my left hand... no luck. It also collapsed. Finally on the third try, they were able to get a vein in my right hand. So my hands were a little tender.

            In between all of these glorious visits (I know they were just doing their job and I’m not mad at them), I had to feed Nora. So I felt like I got absolutely no sleep. Then the nurses came back at 5 because I needed to get my blood drawn... of course! So the same nurse decided that she still liked the veins in my hands better than the veins in my arms so she stuck me in the same vein in my left hand... and dug around for a while again. And guess what! Yep. It collapsed again! She decided she was sick of failing so she got another nurse to come draw my blood. The other girl came in stuck my arm in two seconds and was done. It was fabulous. (Side note: I am not afraid of needles. Never really have been. I am actually quite tough when it comes to needles. I have had to get my blood drawn every hour for 4 hours and didn’t have a problem with it. I just don’t particularly love to be mistaken for a pin cushion especially when running on no sleep).

            But recovery wasn’t that bad other than this one incident. I healed pretty quickly and was up walking around on Friday night. I think overall the whole delivery went great! (I know I have focused on the 2 bad things that happened)

            Nora is perfect! We love her so much! She had a couple rough nights when we first got home, but we are working on getting her to sleep at night and not so much during the day. She is a breast feeding champ! I’m not so much, but she does great! I’m a little sore, but it is getting better. She weighed 6 lbs when we left the hospital but at her dr. appointment on Tuesday, June 26, she was back up to 6 lb 6 oz. The dr said she is doing great! She is really healthy.

We love our little peanut! She is so fun!! So here are some pictures! 

She makes some of the funniest faces!

my friend Hilary Briscoe took these newborn pics for us (the rest of the pics are from her).She did such a great job! Thanks Hilary!   

This girl loves her paci!!

Nora's signature hat! I made this for her and all the nurses couldn't stop talking about it. Nora was the talk of the hospital! When I got a new nurse, she said how cute the hat was. When she found out I made it, she said that she heard about the hat from other nurses but didn't know it was me that made it. Ha ha... I just watched You tube and did what a lady was doing... it wasn't that hard! 

So there you have it. Thanks for reading if you stuck around this long. Sorry it was such a long post, I just wanted to make sure I got it all down! Until next time!