Well, this is the post ya'll ladies have been waiting for. Enough of the geekery, let's see some BABIES!Nora was born Sunday, July 29th at 10:59AM. She weighed 7lbs 12oz at birth and was 20.75 inches long. She's content, complete and healthy as far as we can tell!
Kristy got up on Saturday morning and went to the parade with Mom, her mom, Sister and some others. I got up at 6 and helped dad work on his house. We finished up at about noon and I met Bro-in-law (BNL) at my house. We hung out in the basement and were playing some games on the computer. It was pouring rain outside and I suddenly noticed that the window well had filled up halfway in about 5 minutes! Water was beginning to seep into the basement.BNL and I dashed outside and I jumped into the window well and started bailing water with a ~gallon bucket. The water was coming in faster than I was throwing it out so BNL brought me a trash can to bail with. I kept bailing while he tried to reroute the water. A trashcan full of water has some weight to it and I had to toss the water at least five feet past the edge of the well or it would just run back in, all of this while standing in waist deep water and mud.
Wifey called right before we noticed the window well filling up and said she was in light labor and was coming home. Wifey and Mother-In-Law (MNL) got home right after we had the window well cleaned out and were working on shoveling a trench to drain the water. They went down to the basement and moved some stuff around to avoid the water. Not very much got in.
After we got the situation somewhat under control I went to Dad's and got some flexi-tube to reroute the water from my downspout. I hooked that up and then took a shower in case we had to go to the hospital.
Kristy's labor was picking up but we wanted to wait until it was more serious before going to the hospital. I didn't want to take a nap because I wasn't sure I would wake up for a solid 8 hours.
At around 9PM we checked into the hospital and, after a brief stay in triage, settled in to our labor room. Kristy and I (mostly Kristy, I didn't have much of an opinion as it would be her pain) had decided to try for a natural birth so she declined the preparation for epidural, IV and other medication procedures.
Kristy initially moved through the labor process pretty quickly. By midnight it looked like we would be having a baby within an hour or two. Such was not the case. The hours slid by with Kristy having painful contractions and me trying to stay alert and be whatever support I could. I took quick snoozes here and there, or rather, fell asleep with my face on the bed rail. Mom, Dad, MNL, Sister and BNL were also in the hospital but Dad and BNL went home to get some sleep a little after midnight.
Kristy decided to allow the doctors to start an IV around 6AM, she was dehydrated and getting pretty exhausted. She also agreed to .5mg of Stadol, painkiller, as the contractions were getting excruciating.
Finally by 10AM we were making some progress. They had tried a few test pushes earlier but things just weren't ready. This time, it was for real. With the doctor, nurse and I helping, Kristy brought Nora into the world. It was hard for me to truly appreciate the miracle of birth because I knew how much Kristy was dealing with but it was still pretty amazing.
Nora's cord was wrapped around her foot, which cuts down on the blood supply from the cord, so she needed a little oxygen when she came out. I went down to the nursery with her, so they could monitor her heart and oxygen better, and rocked her for a few hours. I nearly rocked myself to sleep so I started calling people with the news to stay awake...I don't remember any of those conversations! When we were ready to go back they had moved Kristy into the postnatal room.
Anyway, that's pretty much the whole story. The birth was mostly-natural with just a little Stadol and oxygen. I tried to offer enough details (without too much information) to satisfy you ladies, hopefully these pics will hold you over until I can post some more.
PS: Her name: We liked Nora because it's not an unknown name, most people have heard the name but we don't know anyone named Nora...it's unique. I liked Lorraine as the middle name and Kristy liked names that end in -ene because several of her family members have -ene middle names. We combined the two to end up with Larene. The last name was easy.
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