Norah’s Birth Story

My birth story begins just like everyone else's, I'm sure. All of my previous appointments have gone well, she was great, measuring a little small but nothing to be concerned about.

So, here I was going in for my 37 weeks appointment, my doctor checked to see if I was dilated and it turns out I was already three centimeters. I was excited and nervous and all I could think about was how I was going to have this baby any day. I had dreamed about what it would be like to go into labor and being able to tell Matt it was go time. For a quick minute, I was so excited, and could not wait to meet this baby. But, then my doctor looks at me and goes, "Oh no, I think that's a butt instead of a head" and I am like "Is this baby upside down?! She was the other direction just a few days ago." So, we did a quick sonogram, and of course, our little baby girl was breech. This was our first child, so I didn't really know what that meant for me. My doctor started to explain how it is a little late in the game for her to flip around, but we will of course give her the time to do so, but in the meantime we need to schedule a C-Section in case, because letting me go fully into labor could be dangerous for the baby and I. In that moment, I did not have time to panic or think about what I wanted, all I knew was my baby needed to be safe and if a C-Section was necessary, then it was necessary. The doctor also told me that she did not expect me to make it my scheduled c-section, which we had set for the first day of my 39th week. She figured she would see me by the end of the weekend and it was already Friday. She also told me if I had even ONE contraction, to give her a call because she would probably want me to come to the hospital. Cue the panic here!

Fast forward to the end of that weekend, with a few contractions here and there. We called, buy they wound up telling us not to come. So here we are, still no baby, and I was quite happy with that! But, with the few days that passed it really sunk in that I did NOT want to have that c-section. I cried for days to my husband, telling him I felt forced (which now I realized was not the case), and how a c-section was not part of any of my plans. The recovery in itself was scary enough for me. I spent days worrying about this and allowed that to take away from the excitement of having a happy and healthy baby.

I head to the doctor right at the start of week 38, July 21st, 2020 to be exact, expecting it to be like any other appointment, and praying this girl has flipped over. Right before my appointment I had just finished a workout and did some exercises that are supposed to help a breech baby flip. Which I am still not sure have any medical backing, but I was willing to try anything else I could at that point. My doctor came in and we headed into the sonogram room to check her position, and of course, she is still breech. I was upset, defeated and scared that something else could go wrong. But, at the same time knowing full well we were so lucky that she was healthy and strong. The doctor checked to see if I was dilated, she looked at me and said "Are you feeling okay?" and I felt fine, some mild cramping, but nothing crazy! And she laughed and told me I am five, just about six centimeters dilated and my water could break any minute. My first question is okay what the heck do I do now, and my second was, if I am this dilated why aren't I in more pain? Due to COVID, my husband was not at the appointment with me. The doctor told me to call my husband and tell him to meet me at the hospital right away because we were having that baby!

So, I drove myself to the hospital and arrived at the hospital around 2:30 pm and they began hooking me up to all of the monitors and my husband followed behind and arrived around 3:15 pm. The doctor was trying to rush all my information to get the c-section done before 5:00 pm that day, but by the time my COVID results were back (thank goodness they were negative) it was already later than that. Finally around 5:30 pm, I was prepped and ready to head into surgery. The anesthesiologist asked if we had any music requests to be played during the surgery, so, we of course picked the Hamilton soundtrack. Now, I was laying on the hospital bed, freezing and shaking from my nerves as they were prepping the rest of the room. They put up numerous drapes in front of us and even taped up some air fresheners on the curtain nearest to me. The entire OR team was incredible, they talked us through the entire thing and never let us feel nervous or uncomfortable. And at 6:37 pm on July 21, 2020 we got to meet our baby girl, Norah Grace. She came out screaming her head off and red as tomato, with "The Story of Tonight" playing in the background, and within a few minutes our little peanut was in our arms, happy and healthy.

This may not have been the birth I was expecting, after being pregnant through the thick of COVID, it was the last thing I had wanted. But, in the end, getting the most beautiful baby in the world was all that mattered, and once we were able to hold her, I quickly knew I would have endured any kind of pain to have her here.