Norah Marie Podey: February 2015

In Greek: Norah means "Light". Baby girl, you have brought so much light into our lives in the past month!

PINCH ME! Luke and I are beyond blessed with the most beautiful, happy, baby girl. I know we are a little partial :)

Today, she turned 1 month. ONE MONTH. Holy cow! This month has been wonderful. I am so thankful I have had time to spend with her at home (mostly snuggling). I am also so thankful for our mothers who have volunteered lots of time helping out and babysitting so Luke and I can get an hour alone here and there or so I can run and grab groceries!

Norah's 2 week appointment went wonderfully and Dr. Heim gave us the go ahead to allow her to sleep more between feedings. Since then, she has slept anywhere from 4-6 hours at night between feedings. We. are. so. lucky. No complaints here!

Overall, Norah has a sweet, laid back, disposition. We have been super fortunate that she is a good sleeper. I cannot believe a month has already passed! Our lives have been forever changed by a teeny little girl with a mop of thick, brown hair!

Some fun things that have happened this month:

*Sleeping 4-6 hours at night between feedings

*Started to smile at mom's voice at 3 weeks

*LOVES to be held and take naps on your chest

*Likes to relax in the bathtub

This is so late!

I want to keep a monthly journal at least for the first year for Norah and hope to share with her when she gets older :) Sweetheart, here is the story of how you entered this world...

New Year's Eve, Luke and I went to the Westside Firemen's steak supper as we always do on NYE. We went with our friends Susie and Weston. We left at about 11:00 and Luke wanted to go to the bar for a quick drink and go home after midnight. I did not feel "right", so pulled the "I am 40 weeks pregnant" card and said we should go home. As soon as we dropped Susie and Weston off at their house around 11:20, I was already contracting 5 minutes apart! I called up to the hospital unsure if it was labor contractions. They said to time them until they were 3 minutes apart, then head to the hospital.

At around 3:00 after we packed our bags and each got a shower in, we headed to town. By then, my contractions were 2 minutes apart and I was needing to breathe through them. We didnt want to tell anyone we were going up, but low and behold, as we were checking in we saw Luke's Uncle Brad in the waiting room as Alyssa had at a reaction to some medicine she was on! Crazy : ) Anyway, we headed up shortly after and got settled into our room. At about 5:00 I got my epidural and it was smooth sailing after that. Luke and I both rested for a few hours. Dr. Heim checked with us around 9 saying she would check back around 1 to see how much I had progressed. She actually came back around 12 and was shocked that I was ready to push!

Delivery :)

We pushed for about an hour before you were born. During delivery, Dr. Heim was having trouble hearing your heart rate due to the cord over your heart. She called the anesthetist just in case we needed to do a C-Section. There is alittle monitor that screws into the baby's head to get the heart rate, but Dr. Heim couldnt even use that! She was SO excited about all of your hair and couldnt use the heart rate due to the amount of hair. Fortunately, Dr. Heim had me go on my side and we picked the heart rate back up. Overall, pushing was not all that hard knowing I would get to meet you soon. Luke was so great in being calm and at my side.

A few pushes later, we saw your beautiful, thick head full of black hair! Dr. Heim held onto you for a bit and we were SO anxious to know what you were! When she told us you were a girl, tears filled my eyes. Luke was SO proud.

You were born at 1:06 pm. A whopping 8 lbs 10 ounces and 19.5 inches long. Our life as we knew it was over. We were so in love with you :)

Here are some pictures of visitors at the hospital over our time there. Also, some pictures meeting your "big" sister Rye.