Ok, so my apologies for taking so long to get part 3 out. The combination of moving + new baby has knocked me on my butt! I swear there are days where I do nothing but feed Norah. Plus, we just now got our internet up! Whew!
Anyway, back to part 3. Pushing. Like I said, when it came time to push, I started crying. I was in such constant and intense pain, I couldn’t stand the thought of adding to that pain. But I also knew that getting Norah out was the only thing that was going to make that pain stop! Plus, I just wanted to see her. I wanted to be assured that she was ok.
In my last post, I failed to mention that around change of shift, which is 7 pm, they started having some real trouble keeping Norah’s heart rate on the monitor. And then it dropped. I’m not sure how low it got, I didn’t want to know. I knew that if I became aware of too much that was going on, that I would lose my focus. So I just prayed for God to keep her safe. I wasn’t breathing well enough. I found that during this labor, that I’m a moaner. Moaning helped me to cope with the pain. But the nurse said that I couldn’t because in doing that, Norah wasn’t getting enough oxygen. And sure enough, once I started taking more deep, regulated breaths, her heart rate went up and stayed up there.
Anyway, back to pushing time. It was about 15 minutes til 10 when Dr. Perez got there and started “suiting up”. He honestly looked like a butcher in blue. He jokingly asked if I was sure that I didn’t want breathe through it for a couple more hours to make it to the new year. I responded with “Don’t even play.” Once everything was in place, I was ready. I psyched myself up, hung on to Josh and my mom and pushed with all my might. I mean HARD! I could actually feel the progress I was making. She was almost here! And being able to feel that progress made me want to push harder! And then all of a sudden… there she was! Her little blue self! And just like that, the pain was gone. All I could do was look at her and say “Hi Norah!” over and over. My baby girl was here! With her cord wrapped around her neck (probably explaining the heart rate issues)Josh cut cord and they took her over to the warmer to get all cleaned up.
We then introduced Evan to his new baby sister.
This time, I did something that I was bound and determined to do. I wanted to cuddle her skin to skin for a while. So after they got her footprints and cleaned off, they brought her back to me, still naked, and I laid her on my chest and wrapped us both up in a couple of blankets. I was in complete heaven.
Then it was time for our first family picture!
This was one of the greatest experiences. I wasn’t induced this time around so it was an entirely different experience than it was with Evan. I’m so thankful that everything went smoothly and was as “uneventful” as it was.
Norah is an absolute joy. I still can’t believe that she’s mine! I’m one blessed mama.
