Nora was due on October 11, 2020. I was hoping and praying and doing alll the things to get her here early because I was READY! I’m so grateful I had a smooth pregnancy but by the time I hit 39 weeks, I was like get this baby out of me, I’m SO ready to meet her!!

On Tuesday October 6th at 12:45pm, my water broke. I was on my way to the grocery store having a sassy attitude with God like “okay fine I’ll get groceries for the week because she’s obviously not coming yet” even though I was still hopeful she would…so hopeful that I put our hospital bags in the car before I left the house that morning ha. Anyway, it felt like a big gush and I had used the restroom just 10 minutes prior so I called Drew immediately. I was about a minute from my in-laws house so I headed there to check (seemed a lot better than the Kroger bathroom ha). Once I arrived, another gush happened so I knew it was for real! I called my OB and they said to head on in. Since my water broke, baby girl would be joining us within 24hours to avoid any infections. It ended up being ideal timing because Drew had just finished his lunch when I called. He met me at his parents house and by 1:45pm, we were checking into the hospital. I wasn’t having any contractions but continued to gush (I had no idea that would happen) so much so that they didn’t check to see it was amniotic fluid…it clearly was ha. They got us all checked in and we waited in triage for about 30 minutes before our nurse came to take us to our room (around 3pm at this point).

I still wasn’t having any contractions or signs of active labor so as a result, they started me on Pitocin around 4pm. I went into labor with super low expectations and really no “birth plan.” I wanted to go all natural for as long as I could but also wasn’t going to be disappointed if I had Pitocin, epidural, or c-section…I just wanted her to get her our safely, and hopefully quickly.

Around 8pm my contractions were getting very strong (thanks Pitocin) but I still wasn’t very dilated so I knew it would still be a few more hours of labor. Being on a medicine ball leaning back with Drew supporting me was the only tolerable position for contractions. I was getting really tired. At that point, I decided to get an epidural. I was pretty hungry so drank an entire cup of chicken broth but after one of my last contractions pre epidural, I threw it all up. Oops. Thankfully Drew noticed in time to yell to the AMAZING nurse (seriously, we had the best medical team at Community North!) and she got me a bucket. I was pretty shaky because the IV temperate was lower than my body temperature. A friend told me this might happen beforehand and I’m so glad she did because I think it would have really freaked me out if not! Our nurse kept bringing my warm blankets and wrapping me up like a burrito which was pretty dreamy.

When getting the epidural, I had to lean forward while holding a pillow. I just so happen to have a huge contraction but they said I couldn’t move…goodness that was the WORST. I yelped for the numbing part and may or may not have cussed in German haha but overall that wasn’t bad. After the epidural set in, on a scale of 1 to 10, my pain level went from a 9.5 to a 1.5 with the same size contraction…praise the Lord for modern medicine! I then took a nap and felt like a new woman!!

We listened to worship music and just tried to rest until our nurse came in the room around 11:30pm and said “we’re going to have a baby soon!” She started getting everything ready. Originally, I really wanted a birth photographer but because of COVID restrictions, that just wasn’t possible. We brought our camera gear and a tripod thinking that’d be all we could get. I ended up asking our nurse if there was anyone available who could take just a few pictures for us (thanks to my sister-n-law for this idea!) and there was a nurse available! This made me SO happy (and as you’ll see below, she did an amazing job capturing those first few moments)!!

Around 12:10am on Wednesday October 7th I started pushing. 20 minutes later, Nora was on my chest! Per recommendations from other mama friends, I did ask to have a mirror to watch and I am SO thankful I did! It really helped me focus on where to push and honestly watching her come into the world was one of my favorite moments of my life!!

Nora was 7 lbs, 7 oz, 21 in and as my husband said, “it was love at first sight.”

The rest is a bit of a fuzzy blur. They cleaned her up, took all her measurements, we Facetimed and texted families/close friends, and tried breast feeding. That first one was pretty painful but with each time, it got better/easier. We were hoping to get discharged the morning of Thursday October 8th but they wanted to double checking on Nora’s jaundice numbers because they was showing up in higher risk category. She ended up getting blood work done to be precise on her numbers and thankfully, she was in the clear/ the initial reading was inaccurate. We were discharged at 12:45pm and headed home!

It truly was an incredible experience and we are praising God for a healthy baby and smooth delivery!

Until next time friends!

Cheers,

Mon