Norah's Birth Story

I had my last "official"39 week appointment on Tuesday, Feb. 1st.  At that appointment I was only dialated "a fingertip" (which is where I had been for the past 3 weeks).  This didn't surprise me in a way because with Kyler, I had a mid-week appointment and was dilated 1-2 cm and then he was born the following Sunday.  So, I wasn't expecting to be one of those people that walk around for 2-3 weeks dilated at 3-4 cm. :)  But, I did think that since this was #2, maybe things might move a little bit faster.

Friday morning, Feb. 4th, I woke up about 8:00 and thought I was maybe having a contraction.  I wasn't really sure as it seemed a lot lower than I remembered and not really across my belly.  I was also trying to decide if it was just "uncomfortableness" from laying down all night as I had been uncomfortable with aches and pains for quite a few weeks.  But then I had another one a few minutes later.  So, I told Erik I thought I was having a few contractions, they weren't really consistent, and not that painful.  He said he was heading to work and to call if he needed to come home before lunch, otherwise he'd be back at lunch time.

Around 11:30 Lauren stopped by to say hi since she was back from Des Moines.  I had still been having contractions throughout the morning, but again they were pretty spuratic and I was still doing okay.  Erik came home and Lauren left and Erik asked how I was doing.  I said I was still having contractions but they didn't seem very consistent.  We then decided I should text my mom to let her know that I'd been having contractions and she might need to come get Kyler at some point in the next day or so.  We had lunch, Erik went back to work-again with the idea that I would call him if he needed to come home before his normal time.

Erik got home around 4:00 and my contractions were starting to get a bit stronger and more consistent.  We decided to go to Target quick around 4:30.  While we were at Target, I definitely had a couple contractions that made me stop walking around the store and just stand there a minute until they were over.  We then decided we needed to head home and get dinner.  This is where things started to really get going.  Around 5:30 we ate dinner and then I was ready to go sit down as I was pretty uncomfortable from the contractions, they were starting to get consistent and a bit stronger.

At about 6:30 we called my mom and she came and got Kyler around 7:00.  Erik and I finished getting things ready to go to the hospital, as we didn't know when we'd actually go.  About 8:00 we called the hospital and the nurse said I could take a bath and see what happened, or head over there.  I really did not want to get there and have them send me home, but I also knew that things would probably go a lot faster the 2nd time around.  My contractions were every 3-4 minutes and fairly uncomfortable by this point.  We decided to head to the hospital about 9:00.

We got to the hospital and they checked me to see how far I was dialated, and I was at a 6!!  I was very excited that we were going to be admitted and not be sent home!  By about 10:30 we were in our room and waiting.  Kyler was born all natural with no epedural, so I wanted to try and do the same this time too.  Around 11:30 Dr. Weno came in and asked if I wanted her to break my water.  I decided no, I was going to wait, and I wasn't quite ready for that yet.  I think I was at about a 7 by this time.  About midnight the nurse finally convinced me to sit up for a bit because I hadn't been making much progress.  After sitting up for a little while, I was finally at a 9.5.  She then went and got Dr. Weno, who then broke my water the rest of the way.  I then started pushing around 12:30 or 12:45 am and our little girl arrived at 1:11!!  I did make it again with no epedural; however, the end seemed a bit longer this time because they used the vacuum to get Kyler out and Norah came out with just me pushing.

Overall, things went very well and faster than with Kyler.  (With him, I had contractions for a day and a half before we went to the hospital).  We are very excited that our little girl is here and healthy!