The life of Norah actually starts roughly 3.5 years before she was born. Jason and I were married in Estes Park, Colorado on September 11, 2011. It was a beautiful wedding and reception and we decided that we would no longer “prevent” pregnancy since we wanted to share our life with a precious baby of our own whenever it might happen.

Through a series of losses, we found a wonderful doctor who suggested genetic testing for me. In doing so, they found me to have a MTHFR mutation which meant that to sustain a pregnancy I would have to give myself daily injections of a blood thinner to prevent clotting in my uterus. I did so willingly but painfully from 6 weeks pregnant till the day before Norah was born. At 18 weeks I also had to have a cerclage placed because my cervix was opening far too soon and I would have experienced another more devastating miscarriage otherwise.

Finally my due date arrived: January 6, 2015. I went in to the doctor that morning feeling pretty good but anxious to finally meet my baby. Low and behold I was dilated 6cm without even knowing it, so the nursing staff immediately got on the phone with nearby hospitals trying to get us a delivery room. We ended up going to Summerlin hospital at 4 that afternoon, meeting my Doula, Sarah, there at the hospital. I felt fine with no major contractions until the decided to have a laborist break my water at 9pm. Less than 5 minutes later I was in the full swing of labor. By 12:30am on January 7, 2015, we came face to face with our long-awaited baby!

She weighed 7lbs 15oz, was 19.5″ long and was totally perfect in our eyes. Not long after she was born we decided to name her Norah Lois Booth (Lois is after her Great Grandmother on Jason’s side since she has been an important part of Jason & my life). We got to take her home Friday afternoon and were tired but thrilled to be parents of this beautiful little girl!