Happy Birthday Nora Jayne!!

This is long, but I had to include the exciting story (and video) of Nora's birth for posterity sake. Enjoy!

You can see how behind I am on everything because Nora's birthday was on March 18th! We were in Utah, and I cannot get my act together. Here are a couple of pictures from the celebration(s)!

GrandMary had party at her house for St. Patricks Day, Easter, and the March birthdays. Here is Nora with her birthday tutu on Crew's scooter! She loved pretending on that thing.

Here she is on her actual birthday at my sister Heather's house. She is patiently waiting for the cupcakes.

Not so patient after a while!

The time has arrived!!

Making a wish and blowing out the candles!

It was WAY low key this year, but she didn't seem to mind! Don't you love that adorable crown headband that GrandMary got for her? It was a perfect birthday girl accessory for the day!

I found the video clip we sent to people after her birth...in our car. Yes, she was born in the car! I will post it below. Everyone asks me if I was freaking out. The answer is actually NO! I wasn't nervous at all...just shocked! I mean, that doesn't happen to rational people...that live 5 minutes from the hospital!! I'm sure a lot of it had to do with the fact that Paul was born in the car and I had heard the story so many times that I knew it could be done.

Anyway, here is the story for documentation purposes. Nora is child #4 in 5 years. I had relatively fast labors with my first two, and a really fast one with #3. So, I knew it was possible for this one to be fast too. Ella was 9 days early, Jack was 11 days late (can you imagine my state of mind), and Max was just a day late. Here I was 4 days overdue having just endured a house fire. I will post about that later...scary scary scary!! Anyway, I had been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off for the last 5 days with the whole fire thing and was actually grateful that the baby was safely inside me at that time.

The night after all the fire cleanup was finished I woke up with contractions at about 2:00am. I knew this was probably it, but I hate waiting around the hospital so I decided to go and watch some T.V. to wait a while. After a half an hour I thought that I should call the hospital and see if the "birthing center" (a special room available on a first come first serve basis for mothers who are having natural births) was available. I figured if it was available I'd rush down there to get it. They told me it wasn't so I decided to sit in the bath and wait a while since I'd be in a regular room when I got there. Once I got in the bath the contractions were a lot stronger and less than 3 minutes apart. It has only been about an hour since I woke up at this point, and I convinced myself that they were stronger and closer because I was up and moving around getting the bath ready. I was sure they would settle down once I relaxed in the tub. NOPE! After ten minutes I figured I better get to the hospital and sit in their birthing tub. As I tried to get out of the tub and get dried off I only had about 30 seconds between contractions. I woke up Paul and told him we had to go. He rolled out of bed and started getting dressed. I had the hardest time getting dressed because I was hunched over waiting out the contractions.

I think Paul knew I meant business when we were about to walk out the door and I told him to go wake up my Mom and tell her we were leaving (thank goodness she was there). He said she would figure it out, but at this point I was on all fours and barked at him, "I'm not moving for at least one minute...GO TELL HER!" Once that contraction passed we got in the car. We weren't 1/4 mile away when yes, we got pulled over!!! I felt like I was in a bad sitcom!! Paul was tempted to keep going, but I was afraid we'd cause a much bigger incident. I HATE how long it takes officers to come to your window these days. Plus, they hang back and lean into the window like your going to lash out at them or something. When he came up to the window Paul just told him I was in labor and we needed to get to the hospital. He looked at me and said, "I'm also a medic...can I help?" NO!!! JUST LET ME GO TO THE HOSPITAL!!! Anyway, he let us go and followed us. Paul was on the phone most of the time with the hospital giving them the play by play. It's kinda nice when your hubby knows most of the staff. I don't think he realized the gravity of the situation because he kept calmly telling the ER, "She says we won't make it up to the delivery floor," or "She says we aren't going to make it to the ER."

Well, about a minute after the officer let us go my water broke! For me that means a baby is coming. This is my favorite part of the story. I told Paul that she was coming on the next contraction and proceeded to pull my pants down. He looks at me in horror and says "don't pull your pants down!!!" As if that's going to stave off the birth of the baby or something. I just looked at him and said, "I have to!" Just as I thought her head came out with the next contraction. I had been trying to lay my seat down but the dang carseat behind me wouldn't allow it!! We were in the hospital parking lot at this point and as her shoulders came out we were pulling into the ambulance bay. There was a line of doctors and nurses lined up with warm blankets and equipment. It was 15 degrees outside that March day.

We pulled up and they opened my door and started their work. Paul jumped in the backseat to unbuckle the carseat behind me and realized once he was finished that he couldn't get out because the car was surrounded. So, with his quick thinking he grabbed the video camera and started filming. Here is a short clip of what transpired after that. Don't worry, the over the shoulder shot makes for a completely PG viewing. The guy saying "go, go" is the police officer. Right before this shot he had asked me if I was mad at him. No, I wasn't, but I'm sure it made for some good stories for his buddies.

So, there you go! The first exciting minutes of our sweet Nora Jayne's life...two years ago! I was thinking that some good may come from this and that we would get a break on the hospital costs...not so! We actually got charged MORE!! They charged us with an ER fee, and a delivery fee. Their justificaiton was that they count the delivery as the place where the placenta is delivered...WHAT?!!! So, we got charged for the whole shabang and then some!! In hindsight, I just should have stayed home and had her there. Oh well, live and learn. We are so glad she is ours no matter how she came! We cannot imagine our life without her. She has the hearts of everyone in this family.