Nina joined our family at 9:40am on November 25, 2014.
Nina’s due date was the 22nd, and Nana arrived on the 19th to help out and hopefully be here for Nina’s birth. Clara and I had been making numerous trips to the zoo to keep moving and hopefully help Nina along. Nana joined us for zoo trips and an outing to the children’s museum. Over this week, I started to have some signs of labor and thought it could be the real thing a few times but nothing ever progressed. Jeff and I went to an ultrasound appointment on Friday the 21st to check Nina’s growth. Nina looked great and was estimated to weigh around 7.5lbs. The midwives also guessed around that weight at my last appointment. I still didn’t really believe that Nina could weigh that much as Clara was only 6lbs 11oz. We also saw our first glimpse of Nina’s chubby cheeks from my side of the family.
We spent the weekend finishing house projects and trying to make sure everything was ready for Nina’s arrival. Saturday came and went with no real signs of labor. Our church had a 10 year celebration on Sunday evening at the downtown church plant. We RSVP’d yes even though that was a day past the due date. Jeff fully expected that Nina would be late and had his bet on the 24th. So, we all went to the evening church service. The church plant meets in a beautiful Methodist church in downtown. It was special to worship in such a lovely place and with a large group of believers. After attending a church that meets in an office building, this was almost magical. Jeff and I purchased some raspberry leaf tea after the ultrasound on Friday since Jeff just knew that Nina would be late. I started drinking some on Sunday to see if it would help start labor.
Nana, Clara, and I spent Monday at the zoo doing lots of walking. The Phoenix zoo is big and even has hills– not an easy thing to find around here. I started seeing more signs that labor might be near but tried not to get my hopes up too much. Jeff decided to go ahead and take off this week and spent Monday getting some house work accomplished while he still had time. I had some contractions that evening but not unlike I had experienced some evenings before.
I woke up at 2:30 am the next morning, Tuesday the 25th, and knew that this was it. I was having consistent, fairly strong contractions about 3 minutes apart. I woke Jeff up around 3 because it seemed to be going fairly quickly. He rushed around getting everything ready to go. Soon I needed his help to get through contractions. We used a makeshift rebozo which we learned about this time in our birth class, tried the bath tub, employed a hot water bottle, and even attempted distraction in the form of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown on Netflix. Some tactics worked better than others. I have an acute sense of smell even when not pregnant that is even more heightened when pregnant. The rubber smell of the hot water bottle was just too much. I had two vomiting episodes, which was new to me this labor. All of this laboring happened while Clara was snoozing (thankfully) and Nana was attempting to sleep in our improvised guest room in the playroom. We called the midwife around 5 to check in and decided to wait a few more hours before heading to the birth center if possible. Around 7, we called again and planned to head downtown soon and meet the midwife on call. My water broke just before we left. At that point, we knew that we needed to get to the birth center pretty quickly. Upon arriving at the birth center around 8, I was ready to push, and Nina was born less than 2 hours later. Jeff helped cut the cord and after breastfeeding, Nina weighed in at 8lbs 5oz and 20 1/4 in long. We were shocked! A baby over 8lbs? So much bigger than our little Clara!
So, about a 7 hour labor. Yes! Much shorter than with Clara! Overall, things went pretty smoothly, and we were happy with our decision to have Nina at Babymoon. Jeff was a huge support throughout. I am thankful for a husband that is supportive of natural birth and loves me well. Most importantly, we were overjoyed and thankful for our Heavenly Father who blessed us with our precious daughter. This pregnancy has been a big reminder of God’s sovereignty over our lives as well as his care and love for us. We felt that during her birth as well. I was able to be calm in the midst of it knowing that Jesus is Lord over all and as Clara would say, “Jesus always wins.” Nina has been prayed over so much this pregnancy and her birth was bathed in prayer as well.
Nana brought Clara to the birth center a few hours after Nina’s birth. It was so special to see Clara meet Nina for the first time. Clara was excited to see her new little sister! A HUGE thank you to Nana for helping with Clara and helping our household continue to function! My mom is so gracious and giving and a huge blessing to our family. We left the birth center around 1:30pm that afternoon– only about 4 hours after Nina’s birth!
On Friday, when Nina was just 3 days old, Jeff noticed that she felt a little warm, took her temperature, and discovered that she had a fever. We then were caught up in a whirlwind of an ER visit, admission to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and numerous tests. Apparently, there is a protocol for children under a month with a fever, and it is not fun. The results of the test take 48 hours to come back fully, so we spent the weekend at the hospital. Thankfully, Nana was still here and able to watch Clara while Jeff and I stayed with Nina. We were relieved when all of the tests came back negative, and we were able to go home. It was just a viral thing after all. Although it was a rough experience, we really saw God’s hand in it and were so thankful to have her home once again! We have new insight into the difficulties many of our friends have faced with children in the NICU, and we were only there for a few days.
