Welcome To The World Nora Rae!

 Nora's Birth Story:

Laboring at Home:

I had talked to Bailey on the phone on Wednesday evening (a day after her due date). She said a few things that made me think she was ready to start labor, but I didn't say anything to her, because I didn't want her to get her hopes up in case nothing happened. She said her back hurt, which is normal at 9 months pregnant, especially when you carry a big backpack and curb walk, but she had never really complained about it before, so I knew it was more than the usual. She also was nauseous again all of a sudden. She was having what she described as period cramps, and her upper thighs were hurting. All beginning signs of labor. I was surprised that I didn't get a call sometime during the night. I had a run scheduled on Thursday morning with Joyce, and I was just getting ready to leave when I got a text from Bailey that said to call her when I was back from my run. I knew it! I hadn't left yet, so I called her right then. She had not slept good that night, and finally got up early in the morning, because she was pretty sure she was in labor. She said nothing was regular yet, so there was plenty of time. She told me to go on my run, and she would keep me posted. She hadn't even woke Mason up yet to tell him, because she wanted to be sure. I went on my run, which was probably good, because nothing can calm my nerves more than that. Joyce and I were planning to go 10 miles, but at 6 miles, I bailed on her, because I was feeling to antsy, and just wanted to head to Boise. I got home, packed up the rest of my stuff, cleaned up the house a little bit, and set off. It's a four hour drive, and I usually start getting really sleepy after three hours. This was definitely the most awake and alert I've ever been on that drive! 😁 Bailey called me a few times to give me updates and assure me that I had plenty of time. I got to Boise at 3:00 PM, and her contractions were long, but still pretty irregular. We guess that she started labor at about 4:00 in the morning, and it was now 11 hours later. We went for a walk along the river to get things moving. She basically just carried on with her day, and finally at about 8:00 that night things started getting regular enough to call the doctor. They needed to be one minute long, every 5 minutes, for at least an hour. Bailey's were about 55 seconds, every 3.5 minutes for an hour. At this point they were also getting pretty intense. She wasn't really getting breaks in between contractions, because she was having back labor so bad. It wasn't fun and exciting anymore! The doctor told her to go one more hour like that and then head to the hospital. She was pretty miserable by this point, and a lot of people were telling her to sit in the warm tub. She tried that, and it did a great job of taking the edge off. She did that two different times before we headed to the hospital.

Taking a walk to get things moving!

Things were starting to get intense.

She was downright miserable at this point, but I really love this picture. One of my favorites from the whole experience.

Laboring at the Hospital:

We got to the hospital at about 11:30 PM. The hospital in boise still has a lot of covid restrictions, so when we got there, Bailey and Mason went up to triage, and I had to wait in the waiting room until they admitted her. It took forever! They checked her, and she was only dilated to 4 cm. She was at 1.5 cm before labor even started, so I was shocked! After how long she labored at home, and how intense things were, I thought for sure she would be at a 6 at least. My heart sank a bit, and I realized we were in for a long night! Bailey wanted to do everything as natural as possible with as little intervention as possible. She had nurses who were 100% for that, and they helped her a ton! 

Bailey didn't want to be hooked up to machines, so the nurse checked Nora's heart beat every hour with a little portable doppler. Checking with no contraction....

Checking during a contraction.

They were pretty sure Nora's head was hitting against Bailey's pelvis and preventing her from dropping any lower. She was also facing the wrong direction, called 'sunny side up,' which explains the terrible back labor Bailey was having. I had it with Sawyer, and it is so miserable. I felt so bad for her! The nurses ran her through a program called The Miles Circuit, or 'Spinning Baby,' to try to get Nora into the correct position.

 

Step one of the spinning baby.

Step two of the spinning baby.

Next, she had to move around a lot. After steps one and two, she needed to do some lunges on a little stool. 😂

The back labor was really starting to take its toll on her.

The nurses gave her some other exercises to try. Each time she had a contraction, she did a wall sit, and wrapped her arms around her stomach to lift it up and give it support.

Baby bump photo!

They are the cutest! I was so anxious for them to be a family of three!

It's hard to watch your child go through this, but I held it together (at least on the outside) pretty good.

After a long and painful night, they checked her at 7:00 Friday morning. Seven hours of hard hospital labor, and no progress had been made. She was still between 4-5 cm. I can't even explain how devastating it is to get that news. The doctor suggested breaking her water, but Bailey wanted to try a few more hours to get things going on her own. At noon (5 hours later), they checked her again, and still no progress had been made. 😓 Her water was going to have to be broken.

This picture breaks my heart! She kept it together until the nurses left the room, and then she started to cry. We were 32 hours into this, and she didn't understand how her body could not be responding. It was so many hours of working through the pain for no results. I wasn't sure how much more she could take.

We can always count on Mason to lighten the mood. Bailey needed a tissue, so Mason came out of the bathroom with toilet paper for her, but it was still hooked to the roll in the bathroom. She was crying, and then started busting up. It hurt when she laughed, and that just got her laughing harder. If you zoom in on the picture, you can see him smirking in the bathroom. 😂

They broke her water at 12:45, and things got really bad from there. She got up to go to the bathroom, and had a terrible contraction (to the point where she could hardly move). She had been doing a great job of working through them up to this point, so we knew this was different. She had to have help getting to the bathroom. She was dizzy, shakey, and not doing very good. The contraction was super intense, but the problem was, it wasn't going away. They decided to try the tub. Mason helped her get in, and it didn't help at all. At this point she was starting to panic. She said she felt so much pressure on her bum. The nurse thought this might be a good sign. She assumed that once they broke Bailey's water, and she got up, Nora finally dropped down to where she was supposed to be. That is exactly what happened! The nurse said that she needed to check Bailey again, because she assumed things had finally got going. Getting her out of the tub was crazy. She was in so much pain! I think she was keeping it together because the nurse seemed really optimistic. The nurse checked her, and NOTHING HAD CHANGED! Full blown panic had now set in. Bailey said she couldn't do it anymore. It was gut wrenching to watch! The nurse noticed when she checked Bailey, that she could see Nora's head with a flashlight. She had dropped so low, so fast, so Bailey was having all the contractions and pressure of the end of labor, but she was not dilating. As much as she tried to avoid any intervention, she decided she needed an epidural. I was so relieved! She was in so much pain, and although they were going as fast as they could, it still took awhile to get her the epidural. About an hour and a half after they broke her water, at 2:20, she got an epidural, and finally got some relief. I'm not exaggerating when I say it was probably the longest hour and a half of all three of our lives. I never want to watch my kid go through that again!

The epidural

Within seconds of the epidural kicking in, Bailey was sound asleep. She was zonked out before the guy had even left the room. The nurse wasn't sure if she had passed out, so she had to wake Bailey up and have her answer some safety questions. She was fine, just physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. 

Finally some relief!

Once she woke up from her little nap, she got really emotional, because she really wanted to do this naturally. She was thinking that she wasn't strong enough. I was so grateful for the nurse; she explained to Bailey, that although she is all for natural childbirth, there comes a time when intervention is necessary. This was one of those times. Nora was ready to come out, but Bailey's body wasn't responding the way it should. They had to relieve her of the pain, or she would have eventually had to push, and that would have torn her cervix, which is an instant trip to the OR. It had nothing to do with being strong enough. She was strong for 34.5 hours, and I'm not sure how she did it! I was just grateful she was finally getting some relief and could get some sleep (as much as you can when they come in to monitor the baby every half hour). 

The nurse saw me falling asleep in a chair, and brought me a pillow, a heated blanket, and a foam pad I could roll out on the floor and try to get some sleep. At one point, Bailey woke up and saw me laying on the floor. She said she was worried about my back and asked if I wanted to trade her places. Seriously?!? Why yes Bailey, you come lay on the floor while you've just been laboring hard for 35 hours, and I'll take your bed. 😂 I busted out laughing! I assured her my back was just fine, and she just needed to concentrate on having a baby.

The delivery:

They checked her again at 5:20 PM, and she was at 7-8 cm. Finally! The epidural seemed to do the trick, and progress was finally being made! I had a similar experience with Sawyer. My body wasn't responding either, and they told me it was either an epidural or a c-section. Once I got the epidural, I started making progress too. I think our bodies must just tense up too much or something. By 7:15 PM, she was at 10 cm. They called the doctor and told him she was ready to have a baby! The nurse had her do some practice pushes while they were waiting for the doctor to get there. Remember how I said that Nora had dropped super low? Well she was right there, and after a couple practice pushes, the nurse thought better of that, and had her wait for the doctor. I was praying that since her labor was so bad, that she could at least have a good experience with the delivery, and she did! Bailey loved this part! She was smiling, and watching things in the mirror. She said she felt like she was finally being proactive, and was doing something that was working. 😂 She actually even got to reach down and touch Nora's head before she was even out!

I love this picture! This was between pushes, and Bailey was relaxed and happy as can be!

Nora Rae was born at 8:57 PM on Friday, April 29th. She was 7 lbs 10 oz, and 21 inches long. She is the cutest, sweetest, dreamiest baby in the world, and we are all smitten by her. It's amazing how much you can love someone you barely even know!

Introducing Nora Rae!

The sweetest moment!

Her little face was bruised, and her head had scratches on it that they think was from knocking into Bailey's pelvis for so long. Poor little thing!

Skin time with dad, while Bailey gets ready to go up to the recovery floor.

Once they got situated in the recover room, I finally got to hold Baby Nora. She is the sweetest!

😍💖😍💖😍

The cute little family of three stayed in the room together, and I went back to their apartment for some much needed sleep. I'm not sure that I've ever been so exhausted in my life! The whole process was about 41 hours!

Baby Nora:

She is perfect! She has the best full lips, the cutest little button nose, and chubby cheeks!

Just thinking about life. 😆

Good job Bailey! Way to make us the cutest miniature person!

And then there were three! 😍

They finally left the hospital around midnight on Saturday night. Welcome home sweet girl!

I can't even take the cuteness!

Mark got to Boise on Saturday afternoon, but he couldn't come into the hospital, so he had to wait until Sunday morning to meet Nora. She was worth the wait!

Nora and Pops!
Right after he met her, he went back to our hotel room and extended our stay for one more day. 😂

Nora and Grams!

Can you tell we're proud? 😆

Since Mark's parents are already Grammy & Papa, we decided to shorten that, and we want to be called  Grams & Pops. What do you think? Does it fit?

💖💖💖

Her first time in her swing!

*Sound on!*

Nora had a doctor's appointment on Monday, and she ended up having really high jaundice numbers. What worried them is how fast they had gone up. They seemed to be fine in the hospital, and then a couple days later they were pretty bad. She needed to be eating more, but she wouldn't stay awake while she was nursing. Bailey had to nurse her every two hours for 40 minutes, then bottle feed her after that, and then put her in the light bed. So basically no sleep at all for the next 24-48 hours. Bailey was a champ, and the next time they went back to the doctor, everything looked normal.

One of my favorite pictures of her. Sweet little bright eyes!

Her first outing was to the doctor.

She loves to sleep with her arms like this. It's so cute! And again....those lips!

Her first time taking a bottle. She did great!

My other favorite picture of her. The lighting is not good, but OH MY GOSH! I love her! 

We referred to her light bed as the spa.

Spending time at the spa.

Hehehe!

Mark and I left Tuesday morning. Apparently Bailey and Mason don't want us to move in for the summer  RUDE! 😂 So now we're back in Idaho Falls, and our little Nora is in Boise getting fat cheeks without us. 😢

I can already tell that I'm gonna LOVE being Grams! I already have so many things planned for this little munchkin! It's like have a new little bestie!