love is patient.: Introducing Nora Rae

I wanted to type this out before I forget the details. However, I'm typing with a sleeping newborn on my chest, so you'll have to forgive any spelling or grammatical mistakes.

Because I had a c-section, this isn't going to be one of those birth stories where the woman pushes and pushes and prays her way through contractions only to finally successfully push out a baby who is immediately placed in her arms and they dance in a meadow of wildflowers before going home. However, having Nora tops my "best days of my life" list, so I want to remember every minute of it, even the un-fun ones.

Our c-section was scheduled for 7:30am, which means we had to arrive at the hospital at 5:30. We woke up around 4, got ready, Ryan packed the car, and we headed out. We were both nervous, but we managed to keep it together on the way there and got checked in at the hospital without any hiccups.

Once we got upstairs to the labor and delivery ward, I had one last weigh-in - I gained 23 pounds in total throughout the whole pregnancy. I happily announced to Ryan that "I'm going to lose like 10 pounds today - I should be on The Biggest Loser!" The nurses laughed at me...I wonder how often they have heard that joke.

I was surprised how quickly things moved at first. I immediately changed into a hospital gown (I hate those things - they are always way too big and, really, could they make the prints on them any uglier?!) and the nurses started talking us through everything. There was a lot of paperwork, so while one nurse put in my IV (I happened to catch a glance at the needle, and apparently the look on my face was pure shock) the other held my hand and asked me questions. I think they do these two things at once to keep the mom distracted rather than to be efficient. THey also asked us her name - this was the first that we had told anyone - so it was fun to finally say it out loud to someone else. I was still squeezing the heck out of the nurse's hand (God bless those nurses) when they said the IV had been done for a few minutes and I could relax now.

About 7, my doctor came in to double check, one last time, that the baby was breech. She also told us that, unfortunately, she had to do an emergency surgery downstairs, so they were running a little behind. She promised to be back as soon as possible and told the nurses that she would call them as soon as she was done.

And so the waiting began. It really wasn't that long - really, surgery only started about a 1/2 hour late - but it felt like forever. The nurses left to process the paperwork, leaving Ryan and I to ourselves for a few minutes. It was quiet, but my mind was racing with everything that could go wrong, so I asked him to turn the TV on. It didn't work (not sure why - it worked when we tried to turn it on later), so as much he tried to distract me, I couldn't shut off my mind. I started to cry after a few minutes, so he came over and sat in the bed with me. I was just so scared and anxious - this was the moment that we had been anticipating for 9 months! A nurse came in to do a few more things, and she helped to calm me down, too - she said she would be worried if I wasn't nervous. Anyway, I'm crying now just thinking about it, so let's move on.

Ryan put on scrubs and our doctor was finished with her surgery downstairs, so it was the moment of truth...I walked to the surgery room (which was FREEZING, by the way...luckily the had blankets in a warming thing for me to use before I was numb). My teeth were chattering, both a combination of the cold room and being so nervous. I sat up on the table and the anesthesiologist gave me the spinal block (like an epidural, just higher up on the spinal cord) while a nurse held my hands (and hence, was the glue that held me together). It was crazy how quickly I went numb - from the chest down, I went from feeling tingly to feeling sort of numb but still being able to move my legs and feet a little, to totally numb. I'm not really sure what all happened down there after that, but I do know that they checked to see if I was totally numb by pinching me with what looked like a medieval torture device, and I didn't feel a thing (I only know this because they told me after they did it). Before I knew it, Ryan was next to me (and I noticed that he looked really cute with his glasses on and his eyes looked really green under the bright lights) and they started the surgery.

The surgery moved very quickly, and within 10-15 minutes, she was born! Before we could see her, the doctors said she was "a doll" and then the NICU nurse (it's standard procedure to have the NICU people there for a c-section) took her and cleaned her off. I could just see little bits of her, but because she was breech (and had been for a long time), I could see her little skinny legs sticking straight into the air. I had to laugh - we had been warned that she would be like that, and apart from watching her hips more closely while she's young, it was no big deal. Ryan went over and took a few pictures of her while they weighed her - 6 lbs, 4 ounces - and measured her - 19 inches. I think I said (or I at least thought it) that I won the bet that Ryan and I had made while guessing her birth weight.

They finally brought her over to me and I got to finally see her beautiful face and kiss her little cheeks and forehead. She is beautiful - dark blue eyes, chubby cheeks, perfect skin and round little face and head (c-section babies have the blessing of having nicely-shaped heads). I cried - this time, tears of joy - as I saw her for the first time.

They took her back over for a few more tests, which was a good thing, because I spent the next few minutes throwing up. They had also warned me that this would happen and the anesthesiologist was ready with a puke tray for me (I guess that's why they make so much money...) and the gave me some Zofran through my IV to alleviate the nausea. This was a gross and miserable moment, and I tried to just close my eyes and tell myself it would be over soon.

I started to feel better, and they brought her back over a few minutes later. They moved me to a regular hospital bed so they could wheel me back to the room and we could start the recovery process. Those first moments in the room are a little fuzzy. I remember holding her, nursing for the first time, and just looking at her face. The nurses were buzzing around and I was hooked up to several monitors, but I didn't care about anything but holding her.

After an hour or so (again - the time frame is a little fuzzy) in recovery, we called our parents back so they could see her. They got to hold her, and the nurses came in and gave her a bath and laid her under a warmer. By this time, she was very content as long as she was warm.

We spent the next few days in the hospital - an extra day tacked on to the normal stay since I had a c-section. The nurses were really wonderful, especially when it came to learning to breastfeed. Nora had lots of visitors, too. - but more on all of this later.

I will never forget the day our Nora was born. While the city around was buzzing with Super Bowl news and everyone went to work and school like normal, we got the greatest gift of our lives.