Our sweet baby joined us a week and a half ago...I've told the story WAY too many times about her birth - but I'll tell it again once more for you. :)
On Wednesday, February 26th due to odd numbers in classes, I did the workout twice - a partner workout that had 1500m worth of rowing each. By the end of the second go around of that WOD, I joked that was definitely my last workout before Nora arrived since I was SO tired. Below is a picture from that day - my last picture while being pregnant.
Thursday morning I woke up around 3:30am to get ready for work and realized I was bleeding. I told Chaz I needed to stay home, sleep in and call the doctor. As the morning progressed, so did my bleeding. We already had a regularly scheduled appointment with out doctor at 2:30 that afternoon, but I was able to get my appointment moved to 11:30 because I was so nervous about the bleeding that was now coupled with contractions. My contractions were about 30 minutes apart. The doctor assured me this was perfectly normal...and to go home and just relax. We were so disappointed...we had hoped she would send us over to the hospital to deliver her that day.
Friday morning was very similar to Thursday...I was still bleeding and my contractions were pretty far apart. I decided to take a hot bath around 10am. Around that time, my contractions starting picking up to around 13-17 minutes apart. I laid in the bed pretty much all afternoon...I was feeling very nauseous and had NO energy. That evening I was craving Panera, so Chaz went and got me a Bacon Turkey Bravo sandwich. :) Yum. After we ate, I decided we needed to speed things up...so we went for an hour long walk around the neighborhood. During the walk, my contractions sped up to 8-10 minutes apart. After the walk we were watching tv and I decided to do air squats and lunges during commercial breaks for almost an hour. We laid down around 11pm to try and get some sleep. Contractions sped up to 5-6 minutes apart...so we decided to head to the hospital. I can definitely thank the walk and my mini livingroom WOD for helping speed things up.
We were admitted to Northside around 12:45pm. I felt like the boy who cried wolf...my contractions slowed down to almost 15 minutes apart once they got me into a room and hooked up to the baby heart rate monitor and the contractions monitor. The nurse came into the room to give me my IV. I absolutely HATE needles and IV's so after they taped it down to my arm, my heart rate dropped and they immediately turned me on my side and gave me the oxygen mask. I had to work really hard to relax and take my mind off of the needle in my forearm.
I was determined to go as long as possible without the epidural. I fought the contractions from 1am - 11am the next morning. They doctors gave me pitocin around 6am to speed up the process. The last 2 hours of that was absolutely miserable!! Contractions were about 1-2 minutes apart and I felt like my insides were going to explode - and I was still only about 2cm. Chaz could see how much pain I was in and begged me to get the epidural...I caved and said ok. Again, because I am scared to death of needles, started freaking out. My entire body was shaking uncontrollably and I started crying. It was the only time during the labor that I felt truly out of control. As I let my legs hang off the bed and lean forward into Chaz's arms, he was my comfort and reminded me that we get a really great reward when this is all over. He told me constantly how proud of me he was and how strong I was. Love him.
About 30 minutes after getting the epidural, my body relaxed and I was actually able to take a nap! Chaz and I were the only ones in the room and we probably napped for about an hour and a half. When I woke up, the nurses checked me and I was 8cm. The flipped me on my side and put one leg up into a stirrup - less than an hour later, they checked me again and I was 10cm! It was time!!
We had a different doctor than our regular doctor since we came in on a Saturday. He was super calm and very conversational - he and Chaz literally had conversations about football during pushes. I pushed for 22 minutes...the doctor told me I was a great pusher and he could tell I was an athlete - that I didn't just push with my face. The doctor put Nora on my stomach as soon as she came into the world at 4:25pm on March 1st - I think I cried...I was mostly in shock. Our little girl was so TINY!! Chaz was over the moon excited and he got to cut the cord. She was taken to the warmer, cleaned up a little and weighed. She was 5 lbs 10 oz and 18.5" long. I literally had to do a double take to the scale because I didn't believe it! The entire family was invited into the room to watch Nora receive her first bath. She cried almost the entire time, but loved getting her hair combed. It was so precious. While the rest of the family ooed and ahhed over Nora, Chaz came over to me and gave me a blue Tiffany bag. He had gotten me a "push present". It is a silver necklace with a silhouette of little girls head. We are going to get the back engraved with Nora's initials.
After an hour in the room snuggling with Nora and attempting to breastfeed, we were moved to our room upstairs. By this time, it was almost 8pm and I hadn't eaten ANYTHING since my Panera sandwich on Friday night. We ordered Cheesecake Factory. I ate a salad and a piece of chocolate cheesecake...it was SO yummy!! I tried to breastfeed a few more times without much success. I couldn't find a position that was comfortable. We decided to let the nursery take Nora for the night so we could get a FEW hours of sleep. They brought her back to me 2 hours later because she was screaming.
The next day (Sunday) was spent relaxing and passing Nora around from person to person. She was always calm and only cried when she wanted food. I was still attempting to breastfeed without as much success as I had liked. That night I asked the nurses if they would have a lactation consultant come give me some tips and pointers. She changed the position of how I was holding Nora and that seemed to help with her latch. BUT I was still in SO much pain. It literally felt like Nora was pulling my nipples off of my body. That night around 11pm we asked the nurse if they would take Nora to the nursery again...I broke down to the nurse and told her I felt like a bad parent since I was shipping her off because I couldn't deal with the pain and her crying. She gave me a "mom" speech and told me that once night of giving her formula so she's relax and sleep wouldn't derail her from her breastfeeding train. So, that's what we did...we let the nursery feed her and I was able to sleep for almost 4 hours. (Ironically...I haven't slept that many consecutive hours since that night!!)
Monday morning Chaz got up early and went to Iron Tribe to work since we have a new 101 going on, he needed to be there. That meant I was all alone for a few hours. That morning my doctor came for a visit, a tech came in twice to get my vitals and to get Noras, the nurses swapped shifts - so I saw both of them in my room, the housekeeping lady came in to clean, the roomservice person came in to bring my breakfast, and then another lactation consultant popped in for a visit. By the time she came, I was on people overload and just broke down to her. I felt like I couldn't continue with breastfeeding. She worked with me for almost an hour and even brought in a pump so I could practice pumping to help supplement what I couldn't provide for Nora. I will say this, the lactation consultants make you feel (in my opinion) like a bad person if you even hint at the fact that you aren't enjoying the process. Hello - there is a tiny human sucking on my nipple, and my entire body is in pain from pushing a baby out of a tiny hole...give me a break. She finally could tell I had maxed out on the information about breastfeeding I could consume. I was SO glad to have Chaz back when he walked in as she was wrapping up. We left the hospital that afternoon around 4pm. Nora had a super cute sack dress with matching booties and hat for her outfit to leave the hospital. She had her blanket my mom got made to wrap around her - it was FREEZING that day and I was so nervous about her getting sick.
We came home that night and all I could think about doing was sleeping in my OWN bed on my stomach!! Woo Hoo!! Well, not much sleeping occurred that night - as Nora was still confused on what was day time and what was night time. Chaz's parents were at the house and so was my mom - I was grateful to have all the support and help. Mom stuck around for a few days to help me do laundry, clean the house, get all of Nora's things organized in her room and closet, and get some meals stocked and prepared in the fridge.
The day she left was Chaz's first full day back at work and I was so nervous to be alone with Nora. I was still exclusively breastfeeding and the child wouldn't latch. She also wouldn't stop crying. I mean, she was screaming bloody murder. I was in a panic and called the doctor. They said to bring her in, so I did. Chaz left Iron Tribe and met me there. The doctor asked me to breastfeed in front of her - talk about stress. So, I stripped off my shirt and bra and tried feeding her, crying the whole time because I was in so much pain. BUT...Nora finally ate and stopped HER crying. Basically once it was all said and done, I called the doctor to be told that my child was just hungry and I needed to relax when I fed her. After that, Chaz and I came home and had a long discussion about what will make Nora, myself, and our family happy. I really wanted to breastfeed because I felt like that was one thing God created me to do. But Chaz hated seeing me in pain and so sleep deprived. So, we compromised. I got a pump and now I pump 4x a day. Nora eats about 7x a day - this way at least half of her feedings will be breast milk. The other half will be formula. Nora is crying less and I'm sleeping a little more. Plus the amount of pain killers that I'm taking has dropped off significantly.
Every day will continue to bring it's new challenges. Some days Nora loves to sleep, some days she's fussy all day, some days she needs her diaper changed every hour, some days I have more energy and want to go for a walk with her, some days it takes an act of God to get me out of my pj's by the time Chaz comes home from work, some days I'm ready to throw in the towel on pumping, and some days I cry for no reason. But at the end of the day, I am SO smitten on my little girl.
She loves to snuggle and be close to mommy and daddy - she's the best at laying on my chest and putting her head right into the crook of my neck. She smells like lotion and formula, has the softest skin in the world, and will always win a staring contest. She sometimes makes noises that makes me thing a cat is living in our house. She is so tiny that all of her newborn outfits will fit her way longer than the average baby, which means she will continue to fit perfectly into the crook of my elbow for bottle feedings. My life is completely different now that Miss Nora Lynn has arrived, but I wouldn't change ANY of this...she has changed our family for the better. Nora has reminded Chaz and I to slow down, enjoy all of the little moments life has to offer and not wish time away. She helps to keep things in perspective and not to sweat the small stuff. Nora was brought into our lives at a divine time to help continue making our marriage stronger each day and she will forever challenge us to grow closer to God and learn something new about his grace and abundant love for His children.
We look forward to the next few weeks and months as we hit the baby milestones. Can't wait to share with everyone and share in the miracle of life with this little princess. Love you Nora Lynn!
