Our Little Pumpkin

Having a baby is quite an adventure. Of course, we had to dress her up for Halloween. A few outfits have come our way and we have a tradition of carving pumpkins every year. I figured it was a good opportunity to put her in her first pumpkin!

She wasn't totally excited about it.

Here she didn't mind. At least for a few seconds she was happy. And we have a fun picture to remember her first pumpkin experience!

3 1/2 weeks old.

A random selection of pictures

I give you a picture from the second day of life for Norah. Can anyone guess what she is doing in this picture? Already listening to music? No, she is getting her hearing exam. But looks like she is really focused on the "music".

Here we are! The Felix family! 

Okay, this next is one of my favorites. I love her little smiles. I was able to capture this one perfectly!

Questioning her dad, "why are you taking pictures of me???"

Almost three weeks old in these two pictures (above and below). Norah is quite the cutie.

Grandma Karen

Brian and his mom thought it would be fun to make some Norah size scrubs out of an old pair of scrub pants my mom had. Pretty cute huh? Good sewing Karen!

Proud grandma with her little Norah!

So, we dressed Norah up! Put my name tag on her just to add to the outfit.

We tend to nap a lot. She more than I, but Brian has found a liking to napping with her. 

She was two weeks old yesterday! Starting to focus in on our faces, mine in particular. I spent 20 minutes just talking to her yesterday and she watched me the whole time. What a delight!

First Days of Life

First days old, both Brian and I are thoroughly enjoying her. 

On day four we had a photo shoot! It was so fun to watch my friend Brigett come and take some awesome pictures of little Norah Belle. 

One of my favorite outfits!!

And the smiles and other facial expressions. They are the best. Better to watch than TV!

She Has Arrived!

Well, It's October 10th and Norah has change our lives and hearts. 

Here I am 40 weeks pregnant, plus 6 days. From September 30th, 6 days overdue.

By October 3rd, we had made the decision to start the induction process. Baby was 8 days late at this time, ultrasound had showed her to be "large" (over 9 pounds), and we were ready to go!

During the day my water had broken. It sure wasn't a gush, more of a slow leak over many hours, so I wasn't even sure it had happened at first. But, we went in as planned at 7:30 pm and I finally felt my first contraction, definitely not regular but finally something!

Here I am getting all set and ready to go. Cervidil was the medication of choice to start the cervical ripening process (where they get the cervix to dilate more than it has, if any).

The medication worked faster than intended and I was having contractions every 2 minutes after just 2 hours. So, out the Cervidil, and onward with labor. The next three hours were pretty miserable, I'm not going to lie. Definitely the worst pain I have ever experienced. Plus, I was so tired, being the middle of the night, and had received a sleeping medicine (thinking I would sleep all night) and two doses of Fentanyl (pain medicine).

By 3 AM I asked for an epidural, I was ready for less pain for sure. With that in, I lost sensation from abdomen down which was very strange indeed. 

Norah's body didn't like the epidural as much as mine though and by 4:30 AM the midwife was concerned about her drops in heart rate.  I was praying something fierce in my head and by the grace of God was dilated to 9 at that point. But, she still needed to come out. A doctor was brought in to consult and by 4:55 I was dilated to 10 and could push!

Twenty minutes of pushing, with amazing cheerleaders at my side, she came out. With a little help from the doctor (episiotomy to get her out quicker since her heart rate was not ideal).

And here is our lovely Norah! 5:15 AM, 8 pounds 9 ounces, 20 and 1/2 inches long. Healthy. 

I couldn't have asked for a better husband. He supported me the whole way. And loves his daughter so much!

Already showing some personality, she had to get a little IV for some IV antibiotics. There was a little infection in my placenta and amniotic fluid.

Our bundle of love. One of God's little miracles.

Babymoon

Back in August we decided to go to the beach for a weekend to enjoy the last bit of alone time. Who knew we'd run into a small shark on the beach? Brian was skim boarding and happen to see something flopping in the waves. We ran over and really felt this shark was struggling to get out of the surf and back to swimmable waters. We watched him for a bit, And finally another young couple came up and Brian got the nerve up to pick the shark up for a toss into deeper waters.

Heave HO! First try, unsuccessful, I think Brian was a little nervous to go out in too deep of waters just in case the shark turned around to go after him. So, three throws later and the shark finally didn't roll back in from the waves. We saved a shark that day. 

We ventured to downtown Newport and watched the massive sea lions barking at one another for a while. That was fun!

And for the most part had good weather. One day was foggy just along the coast line, drive inland a mile and totally blue skies!

Our last morning we ate at a nice place right off the water!

It was a nice date weekend!

Overdue Baby

Norah is due to come out any moment. But she is quite comfortable, healthy, safe, warm and happy in her present location: my belly. She is now 8 days overdue, which I know for some of you women, isn't a big deal. I've heard stories of weeks late, including my mother and Brian's mom!

Well, we did finally install the car seat on Sunday, thanks to Karen! She is an expert and definitely showed Brian a thing or two. I was a tad distracted and Brian gave me a lesson later. 

We used my old pound puppy in place of Norah. He worked quite well and didn't cry at all!

Along with being late, I had two girlfriends both due on October 1st. (yesterday). Well, lucky for them, they both had their babies two weeks ago and last Friday. One is in Russia, so I don't get to see him (Jonas), but the other is just north of Vancouver. My best friend, Sarah and Dan have a third boy now. Here I am holding him, Calvin James Stuart. He is a cutie and also tried to tell Norah to come out. Weird to think I'll have a little bundle like this ANY DAY now.

So, induction is looking like the way to go soon. 1. Our little Norah might be a little big (per ultrasound) 2. She is already 8 days late. 3. My cervix doesn't seem to be dilating past 1 cm for the past week and a half. For sure next Tuesday they will be inducing me if we don't choose to get things started sooner. Prayers are welcome in this case. It is a strange decision to make, especially since I thought she would come on her own.