Noah

After a long 40 weeks.. (aka 9 months), Noah is finally here!!!! What a journey we have already had together, it is a beautiful thing having him in my arms.


I went into labor on my birthday, I started feeling cramping at 9:30 am... it continued through the day getting slightly stronger. "Nothing to be alarmed at" said my midwife... "you could feel this cramping for a while before you actually go into labor... you never know you could have him tomorrow or the next day." With this in mind, I decided I was going to suck up the pain and go to dinner on my birthday... ( it was my birthday after all... and I could eat a big ol chicken fried steak if I wanted to). After our tummies were full, we decided to call my midwife to inform her my cramps were more intense. She told me I was not in active labor and that I was not ready to make the hospital trip yet. So, even though I was in a whole lot of pain we went home to rest.

Rest was the last thing that was going to happen once we were home. I tried relaxing, a hot bath, but nothing was working. How could I not be in active labor? If this was not active labor... I did not want to see what "active labor" was going to be like. Almost in tears I made another phone call to my midwife, she came up with the bright idea of us both going to sleep. She told me to call her back if things got worse.

Thirty minutes to an hour later, with both my Mom and Josh not letting me wait any longer I called my midwife back to tell her I was on my way to the hospital. Arriving at the hospital and getting checked in the nurse (Rebecca) was surprised I was already 5 centimeters along... (so much for not being in active labor). Rebecca was amazing, she started my I.V. and was able to rush the epidural (just a side note... the epidural was awesome, just took a couple of minutes to kick in and then everything was suddenly okay allowing me to get through the birth). I am not sure how some chicks get through the birthing process without an epidural... that Sh** hurts!!!!! Mean while, my midwife finally got herself out of bed and to the hospital. They broke my water and in no time I was dilated to a 9... This meant it was go time!

I started pushing during contractions (although hard to tell when a contraction was happening due to the epidural... but that was okay with me). Noah's heart rate was low, shooting down into the low 70's (they wanted it to stay in the 100's). So, without any kind of notice, they were rushing me to the operating room with an emergency c-section in mind. For those of you who know me pretty well... I am scared to death about surgery... scars... or just anyone cutting me open in general. The word c-section was my worst nightmare... but I sucked it up and was ready to roll whatever way we had to go. Josh was a huge support during the delivery, I was so happy he was able to come into the operating room with me (and the other 9 people in there... one thing labor teaches you is that lots of people are going to see your goods). Lucky for both Noah and I once in the operating room Noah's heart rate picked up enough to allow me to keep pushing. However, he could not get passed me pubic bone. I pushed and pushed... oh and pushed some more... but no luck...they had to get him out and it had to be by vacuum.

Noah was born at 4:00 am... not a second later. He held out long enough to have his own birthday and not have to share his with his Mom. A healthy 7.8 lbs 21 1/2 inch baby boy.

All ten toes :)

Proud Daddy

Meeting Grandma

Meeting Grandpa