THE JANITORIAL

Nora Grace's Grand Entrance...

I apologize in advance for the long post but here is the story of our little girl.

Despite being super sick during my first trimester my pregnancy was complication free. At each prenatal appointment I was measuring right on track and our little girl had a nice strong heart beat, so we were beyond shocked when my water broke late night on Friday 8/30.  I went to work Friday and did not feel any different. I was extremely exhausted but that is nothing new at the end of a work week for me. I had fallen asleep watching TV and Josh was downstairs still up. I woke up to use the restroom and stepped into the bathroom when my water broke at about 10:50 pm. I really don't remember what went through my head at that point. I poked my head around the corner and called for Josh. His reaction was complete shock. Somehow I managed to stay calm and directed Josh to start packing a bag (ironically that was our plan for Saturday) and I called the hospital. Of course they wanted us to come in.

When we got to the hospital they put us in a triage room and the nurse confirmed that indeed my water did break (not really any question about it for us). The doctor and resident were in surgery so we waited patiently to find out what was going to happen. After what seemed like forever the resident came in and told what the options were. Basically the baby would need to be delivered in the next couple of days because after your water breaks the risk for infection to mom and baby increases. That is when it hit us that we were going to be parents much sooner than we thought. The resident continued to tell us that they were not going to start labor and were not going to stop it if it started naturally but either way I was going to be in the hospital until the baby came. We were assured multiple times that babies born at 35 weeks and 4 days do just fine and that the fact that we were having a girl was great because girl's lungs mature much faster than boys. They started to prepare us for what to expect with a preemie. Respiratory issues, feeding, and body temperature were their 3 main concerns. We were told that the average time a baby at this gestational stage spends 10-14 days in the special care nursery.

We spent the rest of the night in triage until around 8 am when a labor and delivery room was available. Neither of us slept and spent the night trying to get our parents back to the cities. Oh yeah, being Labor Day weekend they were both gone. Josh's parents were in Bismarck, ND moving Josh's grandparents, they hopped in the car at midnight or so and started the drive back. My parents were camping somewhere in MN without cell service and I had no idea where they were. Thanks to the diligent work of Marie Mensing we found my parents and the staff at the campground went and told them what was happening. Everyone who was suppose to be there made it and my amazing aunt was also there which was a fun surprise (she filled in for my parents until they got there and decided to stay).

We were told that depending on how well our little girl was doing we would have a little time with her before she needed to go to the special care nursery. My contractions started around 4 am and our little girl, Nora Grace, was born at 10:19 pm. She was a good size for a preemie, 6 lbs, 8 oz and 20.5 inches long. She came out crying which was a huge relief to everyone (we were told she would likely need assistance with breathing when she came out). We got about 5 precious minutes with our daughter before she was swept away to the special care nursery. We had an amazing special care nursery nurse who let Josh carry her to the nursery and introduce her to family on the way. About an hour later (after my epidural wore off) I got to go the nursery to see her. I had never expected with a completely healthy pregnancy to see my baby hooked up to so many monitors and an IV.

Nora in the Special Care Nursery after she was born

The day after Nora was born was a fun day of having both sets of grandparents visit and get there first chance to hold our peanut. The doctors told us that an important part of getting her off the IV was to get her eating so we also spent a lot of the day on that. Feedings were quite the ordeal with trying to breast feed, pump, and formula feed from a bottle (Josh and I decided that if we wanted to get her home we would need to give in to formula until I could feed her enough to have her gain weight).

The second day we found out that Nora would need to be put on a bilirubin light. She did not have Jaundice quite yet but was boarder line and they wanted to prevent her levels from getting too high. Nora remained on the light for 3 days. That was one of the hardest things for us because the only time she could come off was for feedings. It was so hard to just sit and watch your baby and not get to spend the time you were expecting to cuddle her. On day 3 the NP said it was ok for us take her off the light for longer time periods to hold her. In those 3 days Nora did get weaned off the IV which was a huge relief for us. On Labor Day I was discharged from the hospital (2 days after she was born) and we had to leave her at the hospital and go home. I know that if Josh had not been there with me I would not have been able to leave. Never did I think I would be leaving the hospital without taking her with us.  We spent 4 nights away from her. We would stay for her 8 pm feeding and were back the next day for her 8 am feeding.

Nora on her light

On Thursday the doctor was hopeful that if she gained weight overnight we could take her home Friday. We were so thrilled. That night we got everything ready for her and were so excited that we would not have to leave the hospital on Friday without her. When we got to hospital on Friday I knew she wasn't going home. The nurse didn't say anything to us about it until we asked and we could just tell it was hard for her to tell us that she had lost weight. We were devastated and Josh made the decision that he was NOT leaving the hospital again without his daughter. So we decided to stay the night and my parents brought us some overnight items. We did every feeding for her that night and at 2 am the nurse weighed her and she had gained weight! She was going home a week after she had arrived. 

Heading Home!!

Even though this was NOT how we pictured the birth of our daughter we are so grateful that she is home with us now and is healthy. We also learned so much from the nurses at the hospital and had an amazing experience with almost every special care nursery nurse. We are so appreciative of all the support from our family and friends over the last couple of weeks.  They made the transition to parenthood a little easier considering the circumstances.

Our beautiful daughter at home with Mom and Dad!!

Nora has been home for over a week now and continues to be doing well. She had a home health visit and her first pediatrician visit and gained weight at both and is very healthy. We love being parents to our little girl and are enjoying our family time together.

-Heidi