Nora's Birth Story

 

I wanted to sit down and write the details of Nora's birth before I forget because it was honestly incredible. This post is very much TMI so if you aren't interested in every little detail you might wanna skip.

Trying to conceive 

Trevor and I both agreed that once Hudson was around 18 months that we would try for our second. Trevor would've waited longer, but I wanted them a little closer together because my sister and I are 4 years apart and that felt like too much to me. We are close now, but growing up I always felt so much older than her and we really couldn't relate to the same things. A little backstory on my body, my period is very irregular. Before we had Hudson, I spent a good half of a year tracking my temp, CM, all the jazz and found out that most months I don't even ovulate. In fact, I ovulate on average maybe like twice a year. Knowing that information told me that we may have a little difficulty having children, and I really didn't know what challenges we would face or even if we would be successful conceiving naturally. 

By taking my temperature regularly and tracking, I was able to learn more about my body and now I know exactly when I'm about to ovulate. Like I can nail it down to the exact moment almost. I encourage every woman of childbearing years to read "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" because you will learn so much about your body that they really should be teaching us in school. Anyways, Hudson turned 18 months old in October 2020 and from there it was a waiting game on my body to ovulate basically.

November rolled around and surprisingly, I knew that my body was about to ovulate! So we really didn't have to wait that long at all. Luckily we were successful and I got a positive pregnancy test. It almost seemed almost too good to be true. 

Pregnancy

My pregnancy was fairly normal. I was wayyyy more sick this time around though in the first trimester. With Hudson, I had a little bit of nausea in the evenings but never threw up. With this one, I was nauseous 24.7. I would wake up in the middle of the night sick and would be sick all day. I threw up numerous times. Thankfully, once I got on the vitamin B6 and unisom combo I felt a little better. Not 100%, but enough to function. Around 16 weeks I was finally able to stop taking the medication and probably around 18 weeks or so I felt back to normal.

The second trimester was great. The third trimester was a doozy. Being pregnant in the summer heat is no joke. Hudson is an April baby, so I didn't have to experience that with him. Did I mention that we don't have central AC in our house? You couldn't pay me to go back to the third trimester, I was miserable. Add in chasing a crazy 2 year old around and hauling him in and out of his car seat, crib, him trying to sit on your lap to read books, etc.

My biggest fear during labor was that the doctors would do a bunch of interventions on me (internal monitors, episiotomy, forceps or a vacuum, etc). I think it's because I worked L&D and also worked with those doctors in the OR for long enough that I've seen them do a million interventions on women. Because of me being afraid of this, my plan was to stay at home in labor for as long as I possibly could. I wanted to basically arrive at the hospital just in time to push the baby out. I was planning on either doing it without an epidural, or getting one at the last second if I needed to. 

Because I knew I was going to stay at home for a long time, I did a lot of labor prep work. I listened to hundreds of birth stories. I read books about labor. Even Trevor read "The Birthing Partner", a book for birth partners literally to help them coach you through labor and understand the process. I saw labor as a challenge that I was excited to take on to see how I could trust my body through the process to do it's own thing.

Labor and Delivery

As I approached the end of my pregnancy, I was sure I was going to go into labor early. I honestly don't know why I was so sure. I think it might be because second babies generally come earlier so I took that and ran with it. I also had been having killer braxton hicks contractions from about 35 weeks on. Well... 38 weeks came and went, 39.... and then I approached my due date. I went into labor with Hud at 39+4, so I was kinda surprised when that day came and went and nothing happened. 

The doctors started talking to me about being induced at my 36 week appointment. When I went into the doctor when I was 39+6, they really pressured me to set an induction date. I refused. I really wanted my body to go into labor on its own and for my baby to choose her own birthday. I went home and cried that night because I thought I was never going to go into labor and also cried from the pressure the doctors were putting me under to be induced.

I woke up on my due date (August 3rd) and my braxton hicks contractions felt like cramps that were occasionally coming and going. This wasn't anything new though so I didn't get too excited, but I joked with Trevor that maybe it was the beginning of something happening. I had started my maternity leave the day prior so I was off work, and Trevor was off that day too. I went with him to our friend Lexi's house and watched him and John cut down a tree in her yard while I hung out with Lex and her new baby Myah. I still was having those occasional crampy contractions probably like every 10 mins or so.

In the back of my mind I wondered if I would go into labor that night. Did you know that our bodies naturally go into labor in the night hours because it dates back to the caveman days essentially? Our bodies feel safer and secure at night where we can labor without any distractions, people watching us, etc. This is true for most mammals, which is why you see cows, horses, cats, dogs, etc giving birth at night as well. 

Sure enough, as soon as I put Hudson down to sleep for the night I got my first real contraction around 8pm. They started coming about every 10-12 minutes and I wasn't sure if it was the real thing or not. Trevor was contemplating calling off work, he was packing our bags just in case, and we just hung out in our room for the evening. I decided to try and get some sleep if I could. I laid down and fell asleep, but as soon as I got a contraction I had to jump out of bed and sway my hips back and forth because they were pretty painful even though they were still 10 mins apart. After maybe like a half hour of doing that, I decided that I couldn't lay down at all because I was so uncomfortable. Trevor, who was downstairs watching TV, came up at this point because he heard me from downstairs. He decided to call off work at that point.

Around 12:30 my contractions all of a sudden jumped to every 2-3 minutes apart. I got in the shower and it was amazing. I used the shower head to spray my belly and back during contractions and although they hurt, I was able to cope with the pain and get through them pretty easily. Trevor stood outside of the shower and gave me support by bringing me water and at one point I was trying to eat a bowl of cereal between contractions. I switched between the shower, to a bath, to the birthing ball, to simply walking around our bedroom and leaning on our dresser and swaying. This went on for about 3 hours. Finally, I told Trevor I thought we should go to the hospital and he agreed. The contractions were super painful at this point, but I was calm and able to stay on top of the pain with my coping strategies. 

Trevor's dad John was on standby that night and he came over around 3am to stay at our house with Hudson. Trevor and I went to the hospital which is only a 3 minute drive thankfully because contractions in the car are HORRIBLE. We parked in the parking garage and went up to labor and delivery. They put me in a labor room and immediately checked me, I was 7cms. At that point I was still feeling great. Contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes, but I thought that if I got a mobile monitor and got in the shower that I could do the whole thing naturally.

They put my IV in, asked me all the admission questions, and then I was finally able to get in the shower. While I was in the shower, I started feeling a ton of pressure like the baby was moving down. They had me get out and checked me again. The nurse thought I may be 10cms, but my water bag was bulging so she couldn't tell for sure. The OB Dr. Zlupko came in at this point and he checked me, but I was actually at 9cms. At this point he broke my water, and that's where everything changed. 

With my water broke, my contractions immediately became SO much more painful. Like it was unbelievable. With every contraction, I felt the urge to push and bear down. Trevor was giving me counter pressure on my back, but it didn't help at all. It was the most pain I had ever been in in my life, and I felt like the pain was engulfing my entire body. An hour or so went by with me having contractions like this. Nothing helped, not even the shower. Dr. Zlupko checked me two more times, but each time I was stuck at 9cms. He thought the baby wasn't positioned right, that's why I wasn't fully dilating. All I wanted to do was for it to all be over. My contractions were so painful that in my head, I started to panic every time I got one. I asked Dr. Zlupko if it was too late to get an epidural, and to my surprise he said no. So I said, get the anesthesiologist up here STAT (and i'm pretty sure there were some swear words in there too because I was basically swearing to everyone at that point). 

The anesthesiologist came up and he was going so slow. He didn't realize that I was 9cms. He kept saying stuff like, "Wow, I thought the second labor was supposed to be easier!" and I honestly wanted to rip his head off at that point. Finally when he learned I was 9cms, he didn't even think he could give me the entire epidural bolus because I hadn't had enough IV fluids. My IV was dripping so slow. Thank god Trevor insisted on taking the IV off the pump and running it to gravity, and then switching the line to the proximal port. I'm so thankful for Trevor being an ICU nurse because I just had so much trust and confidence that he would make sure I was taken care of when I couldn't advocate for myself. Anyways... because Trevor switched my IV all around I was able to get fluids in record time and got the whole epidural bolus. But let me tell you, sitting still while he was putting that epidural in at 9cms with those crazy, nightmare inducing contractions was horrifying. I remember going through a contraction, bent over on the side of the bed trying not to move, and I was also trying not to burst into tears. Transition is absolutely NO JOKE. I knew this going into labor, but I wasn't anticipating getting stuck in transition.

So finally after what seemed like a lifetime, the epidural was in and the medicine was working. Each contraction became easier to manage and I was able to finally relax. I could've cried happy tears. At this point my mom arrived. It was about 6am. Of course, as soon as I am relaxed in bed, baby's heart rate started dropping on the monitor. I watched the screen as it dipped into the 50's and wouldn't come back up. They rotated me from side to side, and then I got onto hands and knees and her heart rate came back up. My butt was on display for about 10 different people but I really didn't care at that point. After a couple incidences of her heart rate dropping, Dr. Zlupko checked me again. I was 9.5cms, but he thought I might be able to push past that little bit of cervix left. He had me do a practice push, and after that he put his gown and gloves on. I was shocked. I pushed for 2.5 hours with Hudson, so I said "Wow, were my pushes really that good that you are gowning and gloving?" and he said something along the lines of "Well with second time moms you really don't want to leave the room during pushing". 

I hadn't planned on my mom being in the room for the actual delivery, but she was already in there and saw my butt displayed to the room, saw me being checked, etc and at that point I really didn't care whatsoever. I asked her to stay, so her and Trevor held both of my legs while I pushed. I pushed a total of 4 minutes and Nora was born. She had her cord wrapped around her neck which is why her heart rate kept dropping previously. But she came out immediately screaming, and I started crying. It was the best moment of my life, and I couldn't had asked for a better labor/delivery experience. I had been through hell with Hudson's delivery, and this one was amazing. I was crying holding her and I looked up at Trevor, and he was crying too. It was honestly the best moment of my whole life.

Nora weighed 8lbs 4oz on 8/4/21. She was 19 inches long. I didn't have a single tear during delivery, and I think maybe I took like 2 or 3 ibuprofen and that was it! We stayed in the hospital for a single night and got to go home.

Postpartum

Postpartum was wonderful. I couldn't have asked for a better experience with everything. I barely had any pain whatsoever and felt fantastic after I gave birth. My bleeding was minimal. My vitals were perfect. Our breastfeeding experience was great! Nora latched on right from the beginning and we had no issues with feeding whatsoever. My milk came in after a day (!!??) so she was full right from the very beginning. With Hudson, things definitely did not go that smooth and I was in excruciating pain for months, but with her I had very little pain and it only lasted for about 2 weeks, if that.

Mood wise, I didn't even experience the baby blues! With Hudson, I cried a good bit for a few weeks after we got home. With Nora, I didn't cry once or even feel any mood swings. I attribute it to Trevor being home. With Hud, Trevor didn't get any paternity leave at all. But with Nora, he got 10 weeks off. It has been the biggest blessing having him here to take care of Hud while I focus on Nora. It really has made the transition from 1 to 2 kids smooth sailing. 

The whole experience with Nora couldn't have gone better. I look back on everything and I'm just so extremely happy and blessed with the whole experience.