My pregnancy with Noa was much different than my pregnancy with Raegan, mainly because this time around I was a type 1 diabetic. Because of type 1, I was high risk and pregnancy made it very difficult to maintain consistent blood sugar levels. Therefore, I had many more OB/GYN visits, scans, and NSTs. Type ones are also known for having large babies and run a higher risk for still birth when baby gets closer to term. Because of those reasons they don’t typically allow type 1 moms to go much past 39 weeks. This was ok with me because I already had a history of a giant baby (without diabetes) and I was over being pregnant way before 39 weeks anyways!

Then the pandemic hit: COVID-19. At first I kind of joked about it, but I quickly realized this beast was no joke. On Friday, March 13th, 2020 I went to my 35 week OB appointment after work. At this point in the pregnancy, I had to go in for a Non-Stress Test every week to keep an eye on babies heart rate and a few other things. While I was there, I asked whether it was safe for me to keep working or if I need to consider staying home to avoid the Corona virus. I was told that as long as I washed my hands really well and stayed home if I wasn’t feeling well that I would be fine. WELL things changed REAL quick. On my way home from this appointment, I was bombarded by emails and text messages saying that all schools were mandated to close immediately. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me. Me and my large belly were rather uncomfortable and, although crisis learning was very difficult and stressful, this let me work from the comfort of my bed instead of chasing 12 toddlers around all day. So that is what I did for the next 4 weeks. Shane fell off a roof at work and cracked a few ribs, so he was home with us too (Safer at home orders were in place as well). I had a NST every week and an ultrasound every other week to keep track of her heart rate and weight. I was not allowed to have any visitors at those appointments. So it was just me. They took my temperature before entering the clinic and masks were required. The ultrasound showed that baby girl was measuring about 3 weeks ahead. Yikes! We were also coming up on the first peak of COVID. So I was definitely feeling anxious. My biggest concerns were that Shane or I would get COVID and that either I would have to be separated from baby after birth or Shane would get COVID and not be able to be there for the birth. I could not imagine having to give birth by myself with Shane sitting at home. This was when it was all still really new and there were a lot of unknowns about COVID, so those thoughts shook me to my core. So we stayed home and saw absolutely no one. I did a lot of research and found Evidence Based Birth to have really great information to help me understand my rights during this time.

At my 38 week appointment, my doctor told me that Noa had flipped to a sunny side up position. I did everything that I could find to get that girl to flip. I found Spinning Babies to be a great resource! I felt like I bounced on a birthing ball all week long. On Friday, April 17th I signed off of virtual teaching and started my maternity leave. We scheduled an induction for 39 weeks on the morning of April 20th, 2020. I went into labor naturally with Raegan so it felt bizarre to know when I was going to the hospital.

On Monday, April 20th at 6:30 am we were screened for COVID and we BOTH checked into Labor & Delivery. Halle-frickin-lujah praise the lord Jesus! I was already at 4cm dilated and 90% effaced when we got there but absolutely no signs of labor. At 7:30am I was given Cytotec, a small pill, to hopefully kickstart labor. Three hours later and nothing had happened besides a few contractions here and there. At 10:30 am my doctor broke my water. I kid you not, it was the sound of a giant water balloon popping and the flood gates were opened. So much fluid! It went everywhere. It finally felt like the leaking had slowed down a bit so I went to the bathroom to kind of clean things up. Well…apparently it wasn’t done. I got about 1/3 of the way there while I held a pad between my legs, but that wasn’t enough. I left a river of amniotic fluid all the way to the bathroom. They had to call in the cleaning crew to clean it all up. It gave us all a good laugh.

Another few hours passed without much progress. Due to COVID protocol we were not able to leave our room, so I walked in this tiny circle over and over and over again. We were pretty bored at this point. At 3:00pm the doctor decided to start Pitocin. I’ve heard the stories about induction and Pitocin. But I was ready. I wanted that baby OUT. This is when active labor finally got started. From there things picked up real fast and the day starts to get a little blurry. I kept walking in my tiny circle and contractions got really intense, one on top of each other. I was at 7cm dilated at about 6:00pm. After getting an epidural with Raegan, I knew that I wanted one again. So this was my time. My spine is a bit curved and it took a bit for the epidural to kick in so they gave me a larger dose which made my right leg so numb that I couldn’t move it at all. But I got to rest a bit, which was glorious! They put me on my side and I used the peanut ball between my knees. This was like some kind of magic because about an hour and a half after my epidural was put in, at 7:55pm, I was at 10cm and ready to push!

Again, because of COVID, things were a bit different. They put up a clear sheet at my waist that separated Shane and I from the medical staff. This way we could take our masks off while pushing. I made a lot of progress quickly! The doctor was called, he lived in town but had gone home for awhile, and they told me to hold off pushing if I could to wait for him. I’m not one to be loud, so the room had a calm and quiet energy. My leg was still basically non-existent and it kept falling off the stirrup so the nurses would have to pick it up and put it back in place. It felt like 100 lbs of dead weight and, for some reason, I kept apologizing for the nurses having to tend to my helpless limb so often. Once the doctor got there I pushed a few more times. They had me put on an oxygen mask on, but I was too focused to ask why. There was all of sudden a big shift in energy and everybody started moving really fast. One of the nurses jumped onto the bed, got on top of me, and pushed on my stomach so hard. I could feel and see the doctor pulling on the baby. It was a different kind of pain that I have never felt. It went so fast and I barely had time to think or be worried. But the next thing I know…at 8:40pm the Doctor was singing ‘Happy Birthday’ and he slipped sweet not-so-little Noa under the clear sheet onto my chest. She was so quiet. I immediately was worried about why she wasn’t crying. They told me to just rub her and give her a second. She looked directly up at me, still quiet as could be with her swollen little face and then let out the littlest, “wah.” Not anything near a cry, just this sweet little, “wah.” Shane and I both melted. She latched on right away and we oohed and aahed over her while the medical team did all the rest of the work down there.

They later explained to me that Noa’s left shoulder had gotten stuck in my pelvis, her heart rate kept dropping (which is normal to some extent), and they had to do the “cork screw move” to get her out ASAP. Noa, being baby #2, did a bit less damage on her way out, leaving with me with only 1st degree tears.

That night went as expected. We were so excited that she was finally here we didn’t end up going to bed until almost after midnight. Noa was very noisy. When she was sleeping it sounded like she was choking all the time. The nurses told us that she was just “erpy” but it still freaked us out. Because of COVID, we couldn’t have any visitors. I was okay with this for the most part. There was only one person that I really really needed to meet Noa – Big sister Raegan. Thankfully Labor and Delivery was on the first floor so we were able to explain to our families how to find our room and showed Noa off through the window as if we were zoo animals on display. We put each other on speaker phone, sat on the couch against the window and introduced Noa to her sister, grandparents, and a few other special people. It wasn’t ideal but it was definitely memorable.

I felt so different this time around! Different in a good way. With Raegan I could barely walk or do anything. This time my body was ready. I showered, did my makeup, and I was walking around. Nine pounds nine ounces got nothin’ on this mama! Ok, not really. But it was much more tolerable. Because I felt so good, we were anxious to get home. Initially they told us that we needed to stay until Noa was 24 hours old, but we ended up leaving when she was about 20 hours old because they needed the room. We were completely fine with this. I wanted to get home to see my big girl!

We got home around 5pm and my heart felt whole. Most of my anxiety was gone. We gave birth during a pandemic! My little family was all together and we were ALL healthy. Raegan held Noa for the first time and Raegan cried the sweetest happy tears. My heart could barely handle it it was so cute. We settled into that 4th trimester and life was pretty great. Noa was the sleepiest baby I’ve ever seen due to high bilirubin levels but she was doing great with breastfeeding when we could finally wake her up. Physically, I was feeling awesome. But the hormones were flowing and I would spontaneously cry for all kinds of reasons.

The first 5 days at home, Noa had to go to the doctor for daily blood work and used a biliblanket to help her jaundice. But on day 5, her bilirubin was too high and had to be admitted to the Children’s hospital for hospital grade light therapy. They told us that if her bilirubin got much higher (it was at 21) they would start worrying about brain damage but she was never in any life threatening danger. I knew she was going to be ok, but this was really hard for me. I was wearing my own diaper, my body was so sore, I couldn’t hold my baby, my boobs were like boulders as my milk came in, I had crazy postpartum hot flashes, and watching her laying in that little bed covered in tubes, lights and goggles shattered my heart. I needed her, but she needed the lights more. And this was the same exact place where we had learned about Raegan’s heart issues when she was just a few days old. Then to top it off, the people at the clinic told us that only one of us could stay with her due to COVID. My mom anxiety was running SO high and my hormones were everywhere and I was sobbing so hard I could barely see where I was walking as Shane dropped us off at the door and the nurse helped me carry all our things and my sleeping Noa to our room. Thankfully, shortly after I got there we learned that the clinic was wrong and that both Shane and I could stay with Noa. I called him immediately. He went home to drop Raegan off with Grandma, grabbed a bag for himself, and came right back. I was so thankful to have him there with me. I think I was still crying when he got there hahaha. I would sit in the chair next to her bed and wrap her swaddle blanket (which stunk like spit up) around my neck like a scarf. While we were there we were only allowed to take her out from under the lights for 15 minutes every 3 hours. This meant lots of pumping for me! And we would feed her with a bottle while sitting her up in her hospital bed so she could have as much light exposure as possible. Most of time we were there I just stared at her naked little body on the bed. She didn’t love the heal sticks and blood work every few hours, her little foot and hand was black and blue by the time we left, but she LOVED the warm lights! The NICU team was so incredible. After a 36 hour stay her bilirubin was down to 15 and she was ready to go home! We were finally in the clear!

Noa is our little pandemic baby. She may have been born during a crazy and awful time in this world, but she brings so much joy to our family!