Noelle’s birth didn’t go quite as we had planned, but we are thrilled that God has blessed us with a sweet—and now healthy—little girl!  I was scheduled to be induced at 6:00 am on December 26th.  We had a great Christmas morning together, and Jason and I were getting packed up and ready for bed when my water broke!  We were a bit relieved, first because we could get to the hospital before the blizzard hit, and second because I really wanted her to come on her own time.  We got to the hospital around 10:00 and the doctor on call (Dr. Fried) was already there with another patient so she was able to check me in.  I was only 2 cm dilated and not having any contractions, so we decided to take some time to walk around.

After a few hours, I was still not having any contractions so we decided to start Pitocin around 2am.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway, so I figured we might as well get things started.  For some reason the Pitocin made me very sleepy and I was actually able to doze off a few times between then and 7:00 am.  Around 7:00, my doctor (Dr. Ball) came to check me and I was still only 2 cm.  I wasn’t surprised, since I still wasn’t really having any contractions.  She thought that the baby was face up which may have prevented me from progressing much, so she had me lay on my side to try to get the baby to turn.  She also mentioned that since I was planning to get an epidural, I might want to go ahead and get it once my Pitocin got to a certain rate, which might relax me and get her to flip.  Between flipping from side to side and my Pitocin being pretty high at that point, I started having some pretty uncomfortable contractions and asked for my epidural around 9:00 am.

By the time the anesthesiologist came in, I was very happy to see him!  I got great relief from the epidural and once I was settled my nurse checked me and I was 8 cm.  We were quite surprised that I progressed so quickly after such a slow night.  After another 30 minutes or so I starting feeling pressure and I was 10 cm and ready to push.  Dr. Fried and Dr. Ball were both in surgery together so Dr. Fried came up to deliver me.  She is a new physician to my practice, but I had seen her for several appointments recently so I was happy to have her deliver me.  Once everything was set up, I pushed through 3 contractions and she was out!  I immediately saw that she looked just like Ethan did when he was born.  They put her on my chest, and I was able to snuggle her for a while before they examined her.

The nurse examining her noticed that Noelle was showing some signs of respiratory distress, so she called the NICU to come examine her.  The neonatologist explained that some babies have a hard time transitioning to breathing on their own, but they wanted to take her to the NICU for a chest x-ray and to put her on monitors to make sure there wasn’t anything more going on.  She was hopeful that by the time I was transferred to my post-partum room she would be breathing fine and I would be able to nurse her.

This is part 1 of Noelle’s birth story. Continue to part 2