Our last photo as a family of 3, before leaving for the hospital!
Since I did not blog at all between the positive pregnancy test confirming that Nora was indeed on the way (we found out in December, 2010) until recently, I thought I would go back and tell her birth story!
By the time mid-summer arrived last year, I was REALLY ready to meet our baby girl. It was hot, I was huge, despite gaining less weight than I had with Jack, and I was tired. BUT, I was so grateful that the school year finished up in June and I had the last two months of my pregnancy to just be home. Ahhhh! Jack and I would have busy mornings or head to the pool where he would run laps around me in the shallow end and I would sit like a beached whale and watch. Then we'd come home, have lunch and both of us would crash for naps! Jack was and is still a fantastic sleeper and he would sleep 3 hour naps most days. I would sleep at least 1 hour and it was awesome!
On July 9th, I had a baby shower and my mom fell down the porch stairs at my sister's house on the way, breaking her ankle. Long story short, she ended up in a cast and off her feet for several weeks. I was due with Nora on August 14th, so we HOPED she would be well enough to come for the birth and to care for Jack, as we had planned. Well, a week or two after her fall, she was hospitalized for a pulmonary embolism and was in the hospital for a week. Her own health was at risk, so coming for Nora's birth was out of the question. I was so upset and emotional. Then our washer broke and a new one could not be delivered for 3 more weeks...aughh! I had to just pray and trust that God would provide ALL our needs, even when it didn't look like our plan was going to work out. And He did! More intimately and graciously than I expected! But that's another story!
We checked into the hospital on August 7th for an induction. I'd wanted to go into labor naturally since I had not had that with Jack, but given all the craziness that we'd gone through, I opted for an induction. They started pitocin in the morning around 11 after I had had my antibiotics for GBS. Things moved slowly, which surprised us since Jack had come pretty fast! We just hung out and rested, watched movies, and were entertained by Caroline, who came for the day. My OB came in and out as it was not a busy day for him. I got an epidural and we waited...and waited...and waited...Nora was pushing her head down into my pelvic bone and not on my cervix, so I was hanging out at a 5 for a long time.
Finally at about 8pm, I knew my epidural had worn off...not that it had worked much anyway, only numbing my left leg. Nora moved into position and WHAM!...the show hit the road! All of a sudden I was in great pain, and called the nurse in. I was an 8 and she told me she'd come back in 30 minutes. About 5 minutes later, I knew something was going on. I told LeGrande to go get the nurse, and he did. She checked me again and I was a 10 and ready to push. I was totally freaked out because I knew I would feel the pain I already felt and more with the epidural not working. Then I just took a breath, said a prayer, and knew I would just have to do it. It was time to meet our daughter! I started pushing (and YES it hurt!) and after a few pushes, Nora had arrived at 9:18 pm on! She was beautiful! 7 lbs, 15 oz, and 20 inches long, with dark hair and chubby cheeks. She was SO alert, looked right at us, nursed immediately and well, and was just the sweetest thing! And I have to say that I recovered MUCH faster from her birth without the epidural working...I felt better immediately after she was delivered and it kept being better.
I got to rest while they cleaned her off and then took me to our room. No one was at the hospital to meet her since it was so late, but the next day, LeGrande's mom brought Jack, who was then 2 years and 4 months, to meet his new little sister! He looked so big next to her, and was very sweet with her, kissing her and giving her a pink bear he had brought as a gift. It was precious to have the 4 of us together!
And it has been a precious year. I have been at home with both kids again, which has been such a blessing. We've had the expected ups and downs, but we feel so blessed to have a healthy little boy AND girl!
Nora is a joy and a delight! She has a precious smile and amazes us daily with her ever-growing vocabulary! She has started crawling and is EVERYWHERE and loves it! She has a cute sense of humor, and she and her brother are best friends, which is the part of having 2 kids that I enjoy the most. They have recently started sleeping in the same room at night! I pray that they will always be close.
We love you so much, Nora Kathryn, and we are so glad you joined our family a year ago today!
P.S
. Birthday photos coming! We spent the weekend before Nora's birthday in the mountains of NC at my cousin Erin's wedding, so we celebrated with extended cousins there.
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