Norah's Birth Story
With the alarms set for 5am, we went to bed the night before Norah's scheduled induction hoping to sleep for at least a few hours. At 4am, my ringing phone startled me awake. It was the hospital. Apparently there was no room at the inn. Too many women were in labor and they were going to call me when a room became available. Well, we waited. And waited. And waited. I ran errands. Took a nap. Then, at 1:09pm we finally got the call to come in. Our awesome nurse Andrea had me all hooked up by 2:45pm. I was 3cm dilated and just as we started the Pitocin, my uterus became irritated. It was the strongest and longest contraction I had felt yet and the nurse had a difficult time finding the baby's heartbeat. Within five minutes, my cervix jumped from 3cm to 5cm. Another nurse gave me a shot to in the arm to settle my uterus, and Dr. Seale, accompanied by several others, rushed in the room. Before I knew what was happening, the doctor broke my water and placed an internal monitor into Norah's scalp. Just moments later, we found the baby's heartbeat and everything settled down, including us.
At 3:15pm, I received my epidural. More than four hours later, I was still 5cm, but my good friends Rachel Billingsley and Traci Sipniewski were there to keep me company and help document Norah's arrival. At 9:24pm, our new nurse, Melissa Stuart, told me I was just 6 1/2cm dilated. Not long after that, I started to feel more pressure, as well as some pain on my left side. All day, I had been concerned that I could feel my left leg some and that my epidural was not evenly distributed. At 10:09pm we called Melissa back to the room and she discovered I fully dilated! She gave me an extra boost of my epidural, which took away the feeling on my left side! Then we waited because Dr. Seale was delivering a baby next door (she delivered 12 babies in 24 hours!). At 10:55pm, she made her way in and I began to push. At 11:07pm, Norah Mae Al-Rikabi was born, despite the cord wrapped around her neck (or jewelry, as Dr. Seale called it).
She weighed just 6lbs 11oz and was 19.25in long. I knew she would be smaller than Sadie because I never reached the point where I felt uncomfortable pregnant. Not once did she kick me in the ribs or put pressure in my pelvis. Overall, it was an even easier pregnancy than her sister's followed by a far shorter time in labor and pushing in delivery. This momma was made for having babies!
