A Nora Story

Nora was born Monday, 8 lb 5 oz and 21.5 inches long, and perfect. Here's how she got here:

I was induced at one week past my due date. We got started at night, taking the slow and patient route because of my previous cesarean. It was a long night (hospital beds are so uncomfortable, and I'm sure the couch Aaron was on wasn't much better) but we had made progress by morning. My dr broke my water around 9 am the next morning, and we added pitocin by 11 or 12. By 2ish the contractions were hurting a lot and we were reminded a lot of our experience with Zeke, starting to wonder if maybe we were destined for a repeat surgery. By 3:30 I was in an amazing amount of pain with each contraction, and beginning to wonder how much longer I could take it, even with Aaron's perfect coaching. I was given some oxygen to help Nora's heart rate stay stable during the contractions, and then my body started to push on its own. Weird experience that scared both of us when it first happened! We pushed for 15 minutes, and Nora was born at 4 pm. We still almost can't believe we had the successful unmedicated VBAC we hoped for!