Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
13 days old
Nora meet Rose! Rose is Susie's baby and she is 9 days younger than Nora, though she was born weighing 8 pounds 9 ounces so she is a little bigger.
Friday, March 26, 2010
12 days old
Ceci's 2nd birthday party. Mama was trying to eat, hold Nora, and smile at the camera all at the same time.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
10 days old
Pediatrician follow up visit today. New weight of 7 pounds 8 ounces. Good enough weight gain that she doesn't have to go back until she is two months old.
To celebrate we went out to brunch to the Quiet Storm.
To celebrate we went out to brunch to the Quiet Storm.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
5 days old
Joy Mark and Cecilia came to meet Nora and play
Picnic at Schenley park (Nora's sleeping in the car seat)
Picnic at Schenley park (Nora's sleeping in the car seat)
Friday, March 19, 2010
4 days old
Next relative to meet Nora and come help us with the crazy family transition - Tante Robin
Thursday, March 18, 2010
3 days old
First pediatrician appt. New weight of 6 pounds 14 ounces
Susie, Carmon and Ruby came to visit
Susie, Carmon and Ruby came to visit
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
2 days old
A nurse came to our house to check on Nora. Weight update - 6 pounds 11 ounces
catching some Vitamin D with Papa
catching some Vitamin D with Papa
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Nora's birthday - 0 days old
Just born
First bath
First visitors - Becky and Calliope
First relative to visit - Aunt Angela - all the way from Tennessee!!
First bath
First visitors - Becky and Calliope
First relative to visit - Aunt Angela - all the way from Tennessee!!
Nora's birth story
Nora’s birth story
Before I went to sleep on the night of the 14th I decided to have a little ‘talk’ with the little life growing inside of me. I sat up in bed and put my hands on my belly, closed my eyes and took some deep breaths. I told the baby growing inside of me …I’m ready and really excited to meet you. I can’t wait to see you and hold you in my arms.
1 am: my labor began.
3 am: I got up and told Eric that he had better go to bed. I stayed up and timed the cramping… they were a little over 7 minutes apart. I ate breakfast and washed dishes.
5 am: it was getting more uncomfortable, but the cramps were only lasting about 30 seconds and were still about 6 minutes apart. I laid down on the couch and tried to rest.
5:45 am: I woke up Eric.
6 am: Eric took a shower. We got the bags mostly packed and he called our sisters so they could figure out who was flying out to help us first.
7 am: we called Patrick. I told him “I think I’m in labor!” and we talked for a few minutes. I got in the tub. Eric called Ryder. We decided to let Silas sleep until he woke up. When he woke up, Ryder would come to our house as quickly as he could and just take Silas away until we left the house. While I was in the tub, I forced myself to eat two hard boiled eggs Eric had brought for me.
8 am: Patrick showed up at the house and came into the bathroom. He checked my cervix and said I was only 1 or 2 cm dilated. The time between the contractions was not consistent at all from the very beginning, and once I got into the tub it was even more so. They would be 3 minutes apart, and then 5 minutes apart, and they were 30 to 45 seconds long. Patrick said … “probably by tonight you’ll be fully dilated and ready to go.” Then he left and went to his office. He also said a few other things that really stuck with me. I don’t remember his exact words, but basically he said: 1) if you feel like you need to go to the hospital, don’t wait for me to tell you it’s ok, just go and let me know you are going and I’ll meet you there. 2) when you get into active labor… don’t panic. 3) trust your body/ listen to your body.
9 am: We went into the bedroom and I walked around for a little while. Every time a contraction started, I would bend over and Eric would apply pressure to my lower back/tailbone area. It really helped with the pain when he did that. In between, he was busy getting the car loaded and everything together.
9:30 am: Silas woke up. Eric called Ryder, got Silas up and ready to go, and helped Ryder take Silas. I decided to get into bed and try and lay down between the contractions. During this time I threw up the eggs I had eaten earlier.
10:15 am: my water broke. We went back into the bathroom and the contractions were suddenly much stronger and closer together, though still inconsistent. I would get two or three in a row without a rest, and then I would get 2 minutes of rest. They were also so much stronger that I was having trouble breathing. This is when I thought of Patrick’s words… “don’t panic.”
10:30 am: Eric and I agreed that it was time to go to the hospital. I was having crazy contractions in the car and by this time I was screaming and breathing like they show laboring women do in the movies. We pulled up to the valet and they brought out a wheel chair for me. According to Eric the entire lobby was full of people and they wheeled me in, screaming, at which point, the whole place screeched to a halt, a little kid started crying, and the people in the lobby backed away to open up a path for us to the elevator. I only saw the elevator, which was full of people and there was a man standing there holding it open for us. We got into the elevator and I was still screaming. Behind me I could here a small child crying and a woman saying to the child “she’s ok… “ Normally you have to stop in triage when in labor, but Patrick has the authority to have a ‘direct admit’ which meant I got to skip triage and go straight into labor room. #12.
11 am: We beat Patrick to the hospital by just a couple of minutes so he arrived and checked me as soon as I got into bed. I was on all fours and the nurses were running around trying to put monitors on me and get my blood pressure and pulse. When Patrick checked me I was 8 cm dilated and I felt this massive urge to push. Basically, I was screaming for half of the contraction and suddenly I felt the need to bear down, so I did. Patrick came around to my head and got really close to me and said, very calmly and quietly – it would be really helpful for you if you could slow down your breathing between contractions. His voice was very calming and I doubled my effort of trying to slow my breathing as much as I could. While I was having contractions, Eric had his arm across my chest for support. When I would feel the contraction starting I would scream and occasionally bite down on his arm.
11:15 am: Patrick put the fetal monitor in, and told me two things… 1) I was fully dilated and 2) the baby’s heart rate was at between 70 and 80 beats per minute. This was cause for concern and he really wanted me to try and get the baby out as fast as I could. So, he said, push as much as I wanted to. Hooray! I told him that I wanted to squat, so they installed the squatting bar on the bed and Eric helped me turn around. And I pushed. With every contraction the pressure was intense and the need to bear down was impossible to ignore. It really felt like I needed to poop out a basketball. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but that is exactly what it felt like.
11:37 am: Since Patrick told me to push as much as I could, I kept pushing even after the contractions would end, but my legs were just not able to hold me up, so I ended up laying on my back. At this point, Patrick exclaimed ‘Oh boy!’ and so I thought that I had just had a boy. He told me to push again and then there was this crazy intense wooosh and a feeling of more pain and then a whole bunch of stuff coming out of me… this was actually the birth. I had pushed two times on my back before our baby came out. Patrick caught the baby and laid it on my belly. The nurses grabbed a towel and were rubbing the baby vigorously while the baby screamed and screamed and I was looking down at the little face thinking …wow, that baby just came out of me!. Then, Patrick picked the baby up and said “let’s see what we’ve got!” which really confused me because I thought he had said we had a boy. It turned out that he was just exclaiming earlier and just the top of the head was out at that point. So, Eric got to cut the cord and he got to be the first to say… “it’s a girl!”
It took us less than 12 hours to pick our daughter’s name. Nora Ilona Helton. She was born at 11:37 am at Magee Women’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, weighing 7 pounds 1 ounce and 20.5 inches long. Our midwife was Patrick Thornton.
Before I went to sleep on the night of the 14th I decided to have a little ‘talk’ with the little life growing inside of me. I sat up in bed and put my hands on my belly, closed my eyes and took some deep breaths. I told the baby growing inside of me …I’m ready and really excited to meet you. I can’t wait to see you and hold you in my arms.
1 am: my labor began.
3 am: I got up and told Eric that he had better go to bed. I stayed up and timed the cramping… they were a little over 7 minutes apart. I ate breakfast and washed dishes.
5 am: it was getting more uncomfortable, but the cramps were only lasting about 30 seconds and were still about 6 minutes apart. I laid down on the couch and tried to rest.
5:45 am: I woke up Eric.
6 am: Eric took a shower. We got the bags mostly packed and he called our sisters so they could figure out who was flying out to help us first.
7 am: we called Patrick. I told him “I think I’m in labor!” and we talked for a few minutes. I got in the tub. Eric called Ryder. We decided to let Silas sleep until he woke up. When he woke up, Ryder would come to our house as quickly as he could and just take Silas away until we left the house. While I was in the tub, I forced myself to eat two hard boiled eggs Eric had brought for me.
8 am: Patrick showed up at the house and came into the bathroom. He checked my cervix and said I was only 1 or 2 cm dilated. The time between the contractions was not consistent at all from the very beginning, and once I got into the tub it was even more so. They would be 3 minutes apart, and then 5 minutes apart, and they were 30 to 45 seconds long. Patrick said … “probably by tonight you’ll be fully dilated and ready to go.” Then he left and went to his office. He also said a few other things that really stuck with me. I don’t remember his exact words, but basically he said: 1) if you feel like you need to go to the hospital, don’t wait for me to tell you it’s ok, just go and let me know you are going and I’ll meet you there. 2) when you get into active labor… don’t panic. 3) trust your body/ listen to your body.
9 am: We went into the bedroom and I walked around for a little while. Every time a contraction started, I would bend over and Eric would apply pressure to my lower back/tailbone area. It really helped with the pain when he did that. In between, he was busy getting the car loaded and everything together.
9:30 am: Silas woke up. Eric called Ryder, got Silas up and ready to go, and helped Ryder take Silas. I decided to get into bed and try and lay down between the contractions. During this time I threw up the eggs I had eaten earlier.
10:15 am: my water broke. We went back into the bathroom and the contractions were suddenly much stronger and closer together, though still inconsistent. I would get two or three in a row without a rest, and then I would get 2 minutes of rest. They were also so much stronger that I was having trouble breathing. This is when I thought of Patrick’s words… “don’t panic.”
10:30 am: Eric and I agreed that it was time to go to the hospital. I was having crazy contractions in the car and by this time I was screaming and breathing like they show laboring women do in the movies. We pulled up to the valet and they brought out a wheel chair for me. According to Eric the entire lobby was full of people and they wheeled me in, screaming, at which point, the whole place screeched to a halt, a little kid started crying, and the people in the lobby backed away to open up a path for us to the elevator. I only saw the elevator, which was full of people and there was a man standing there holding it open for us. We got into the elevator and I was still screaming. Behind me I could here a small child crying and a woman saying to the child “she’s ok… “ Normally you have to stop in triage when in labor, but Patrick has the authority to have a ‘direct admit’ which meant I got to skip triage and go straight into labor room. #12.
11 am: We beat Patrick to the hospital by just a couple of minutes so he arrived and checked me as soon as I got into bed. I was on all fours and the nurses were running around trying to put monitors on me and get my blood pressure and pulse. When Patrick checked me I was 8 cm dilated and I felt this massive urge to push. Basically, I was screaming for half of the contraction and suddenly I felt the need to bear down, so I did. Patrick came around to my head and got really close to me and said, very calmly and quietly – it would be really helpful for you if you could slow down your breathing between contractions. His voice was very calming and I doubled my effort of trying to slow my breathing as much as I could. While I was having contractions, Eric had his arm across my chest for support. When I would feel the contraction starting I would scream and occasionally bite down on his arm.
11:15 am: Patrick put the fetal monitor in, and told me two things… 1) I was fully dilated and 2) the baby’s heart rate was at between 70 and 80 beats per minute. This was cause for concern and he really wanted me to try and get the baby out as fast as I could. So, he said, push as much as I wanted to. Hooray! I told him that I wanted to squat, so they installed the squatting bar on the bed and Eric helped me turn around. And I pushed. With every contraction the pressure was intense and the need to bear down was impossible to ignore. It really felt like I needed to poop out a basketball. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but that is exactly what it felt like.
11:37 am: Since Patrick told me to push as much as I could, I kept pushing even after the contractions would end, but my legs were just not able to hold me up, so I ended up laying on my back. At this point, Patrick exclaimed ‘Oh boy!’ and so I thought that I had just had a boy. He told me to push again and then there was this crazy intense wooosh and a feeling of more pain and then a whole bunch of stuff coming out of me… this was actually the birth. I had pushed two times on my back before our baby came out. Patrick caught the baby and laid it on my belly. The nurses grabbed a towel and were rubbing the baby vigorously while the baby screamed and screamed and I was looking down at the little face thinking …wow, that baby just came out of me!. Then, Patrick picked the baby up and said “let’s see what we’ve got!” which really confused me because I thought he had said we had a boy. It turned out that he was just exclaiming earlier and just the top of the head was out at that point. So, Eric got to cut the cord and he got to be the first to say… “it’s a girl!”
It took us less than 12 hours to pick our daughter’s name. Nora Ilona Helton. She was born at 11:37 am at Magee Women’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, weighing 7 pounds 1 ounce and 20.5 inches long. Our midwife was Patrick Thornton.
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