Nora's Birth Story

Here's the real story, with details on my cervix and all. Read at your own risk.

Miss Nora Mae took her sweet time in arriving. It all began with what I later learned is called "prodromal labor" on Monday, January 19--six days before my due date. I began having contractions that morning. They were coming about every five to ten minutes and were "real" (not Braxton-Hicks) contractions. After about three hours of regular contractions that were getting closer together, though not painful, I thought I was safe to start letting family who would be traveling for the birth know. The Gent came home from work and we headed out to the park for a walk because the weather was beautiful. My parents were at our house with the kids, the Gent's parents and my Nana were on their way into town. I went to the doctor's office about 1pm to check in with her. She confirmed I was in early labor but couldn't predict how long it would be till things picked up. By about 5:30pm the contractions were not getting any stronger or closer together, so we decided to get some dinner and then go back home to rest. I continued with this prodromal labor through the following Tuesday--one week and one day of contractions every five minutes or so (Wednesday they were about 30 minutes apart). They would occasionally stop for about half an hour, then pick right back up again, whether I was sitting, walking, sleeping, etc. Nana stayed with us for the duration to help me with the house and kids and she was very patient putting up with us all! I am not very good at accepting help but perhaps this fourth baby will teach me. :) I felt awful for having the Gent's parents drive down for the non-birth but the kids enjoyed the extra visit! However, this confirms for me that my previous labor coping strategy of "deny you are in labor for as long as possible" was a good one I should return to if I ever find myself in this state again.

Fast forward through lots and lots of prodromal labor, inquiring minds wanting to know of any labor progress, and my older children not napping for six days straight.

Thursday, January 29, began as any other Thursday. I did yoga and my Bible study and then the munchkins got up. We went to music class and Publix, then Nana and the kids and I met Honey at the park to play and then we went out to lunch. We got the little ones down for "rest time" and Honey and I went for a short walk around the neighborhood. We sat in the living room and chatted for a while. The kids got up and Honey decided to head for home about 4:45. I left Nana to occupy the munchkins in the playroom and went to the office to finish up my Bible Study Fellowship lesson. About 5pm I had my first real-real contraction. I thought "Hmmm this is probably it...or probably not and I don't want to bother anyone just yet. And I really don't want to have another baby in the middle of the night" (Sophie was born at 1:03am). But these contractions kept coming every 3-5 minutes and I could actually feel my cervix opening. During each contraction I would think "this is real" and then when it was over "maybe not." The Gent got home a little after 6 and I told him I thought I was maybe in labor. I had green beans and rotisserie chicken and brown rice for dinner and helped him get the kids to bed. By the time they were down at 7:15 I had decided I really was in labor and the contractions were starting to get my attention. I called my parents and the Gent called his parents. I told Nana I was in labor and she reminded me she didn't know anything about birthing babies (she only had four, ha!) so not to wait at home too long. I called the doctor and spoke with the doctor on call, letting her know I was in labor and would be heading in to the hospital later. I told her it was my third natural birth and I had a pretty high pain tolerance and she asked me to call again when I was on my way in. Honey and Poppa arrived around 8 and I decided it was about time to head to the hospital. I was needing to breath through each contraction (I was standing and leaning over the back of the couch, swaying and trying to get baby to move down) and wanted to get to the hospital before I was too uncomfortable but had also progressed enough that being at the hospital would not slow labor down. So we called the doctor back and set off.

With the third baby I finally timed the hospital correctly. With Annie I showed up at the very end, and with Sophie too early. This time we got to our room about 8:45pm. I had a great nurse and met the doctor, who turned out to be absolutely wonderful. She made us feel so at ease and was very amenable to our birth plan and wishes. She wasn't even going to require a hep-lock, but I told her I had lots of bleeding with my first baby and would feel better if we planned to do Pitocin after the birth, just in case, to which she strongly agreed. :) We did my 20 minutes on the monitor, answered the health questions, and dealt with insurance paperwork. I was 7-8 centimeters at this point and the contractions were requiring my concentration. When one would start everyone would back off while I squeezed the Gent's hand, closed my eyes, and blew out long, deep breaths. We took care of the annoying stuff and got rid of the monitor. Everyone except my nurse left us (me, the Gent, and my mom) and I focused on laboring. I could tell from my contractions that I was transition. At this point I began humming through each contraction, the strength of the ommmmmm (my favorite vocalization sound this time around) varying with the strength of the contraction. As these intense contractions came to a peak, I needed the Gent and Mom to hum with me, as I stood leaning against the Gent, with my head buried in his right shoulder and squeezing the life out of his left hand. But I stayed in control this whole labor (third time is the charm, apparently), never fighting the contractions or getting absorbed in the pain. I had the nurse check my progress again at some point (time had become a blur) and was at 9 centimeters. I was still able to relax in between the contractions, which I'm guessing were about 1-2 minutes apart. After laboring through another couple of contractions, my water broke, one more contraction and I told the nurse I was ready to push. I had to blow through two contractions while I got settled on the bed with the squat bar and the doctor came back. Of course at that point I had talked myself out of pushing, reminded the Gent and Mom that I did not like this part, and decided to breath through a contraction or two before beginning to push. I pushed two or three times and Nora was born. I recall that as she was crowning Mom said, "Oh, she has a full head of hair!" and me thinking "I could care less about her hair, get her out of me!" Which she soon was, and I was holding her and quickly decided she was worth it all. :)