On the night he was born!

Its been eight weeks since Noah was born and I’ve finally got a minute to journal about all that has gone on in his short life thus far.  Here’s the highlights as best I remember (I won't start writing to Noah until the "2 Month" post):

On the night he was born: As the end of July wound down, Dave and I had a wonderful weekend together.  I had also been in the mood for chocolate cake for a few days, so I decided to make one from scratch as we watched a tv movie.  This guilty pleasure ended up being a prophetic birthday cake for Noah as he was only hours from arriving, not that we knew it at the time. 

Anyway, at about 11:00 pm, we finally went to bed.  About a half hour later, I started feeling some cramps, but they were really mild, so I figured I’d wait and see if any more came.  A couple more came and I started timing the time in between, about 8 to 10 minutes.  I figured I’d wait until I felt three more to wake Dave up, all the while continuing to time them with my cell phone in the dark!  Once I’d felt six, I decided to wait until I’d felt ten and then decided to wait until 1:00 am to wake Dave up (I wanted to be pretty sure this was it before waking Dave, who needed good sleep for work the next day).  At 1:00 I started walking around and by 1:30 I woke Dave up, informed him of what was going on only for him to ask, “Is it Braxton Hicks?” Ah, no!  Two hours straight about 5-6 min. apart.  He woke up with me, I got in the tub to relax and kept timing for another hour.  From 2:00-3:00 am they were suddenly all about 2-3 minutes apart, lasting about 30 seconds.  The pain was still manageable and I was doing good.  At 3:00 I decided to call the doctor and get her ok to go on to the hospital.  We called our neighbor and Dave took Rylee over while I called Mom and Lynn to let them know what was happening. 

Around 3:30 we finally left with bags packed.  The ride in the car was really hard as I was unable to move around, let alone walk, as I had been doing and feeling some control and comfort from while at the house.  I just kept thinking, “We’re going to have a baby in just a few hours.”  We got to the hospital about 3:45, checked in (deciding to go ahead and make his name official by writing Noah on all the forms) and got in my room to get hooked up on all the monitors and IV bag, all of which also hindered any movement except to stand next to the bed, which I did.  At this point, I was 5 cm and still feeling the pain was bad, but manageable, besides throwing up a few times.  Dave was overall quiet but still doing good encouraging me and telling me I was strong and doing good, which made me feel a little better.  But at 4:30 the pain seemed to go to a new level and I immediately began saying, “This is NOT fun.”  Between contractions I was still pretty talkative as I find expressing myself and my feelings to be comforting as well.  I had to wait an hour with the IV before getting the epidural, so by 5:15 am I was more than ready and asking the nurses to make sure the anestheologist was going to be here the moment I could get it.  By 5:30 am I was 7cm, beginning to go numb and praising the epidural as a type of “get out of jail free” card and how lucky I was compare to some women in the world who do not have access to it!  I was finally able to relax and call mom and Lynn back and later, Marc and Dave’s parents and brother, too.  I laid there thinking that in a matter of hours we were going to not just be a couple anymore, but be a family of three. 

By 8:30 am they told me I was ready to push.  It was just one nurse, Dave and me for about 25 minutes and was very calm in the room, although I became instantly exhausted about 15 minutes after pushing.  Right before 9:00 am, my doctor arrived, and Noah’s heartbeat began to drop.   I looked at Dave and said to pray for our little baby and did the same myself-still feeling pretty calm.  Right after that his heart rate went back to normal and I kept pushing.  Shortly after, he came out and the room erupted in happy sighs as my doctor said, “Lori, where did you hide him? He’s huge!”  Noah was wisked away to a team of people right in the room who checked him out before they placed him on my chest.  He had been crying his scream and “oh, oh, oh” vocal cry, but I was so exhausted I only felt relief and no pain of hoping he was happy.  Thankfully, our 8 lb. 13 oz. baby was completely healthy.  As they brought him over I believe I said something to the effect of, “Hi buddy, Hi little guy, I love you!” with laughter and tears at the same time. 

A few minutes later, our nurse bathed him and I devoured a huge breakfast before they moved us to our new room, complete with a nice view of crate myrtle tress outside.  We spent the day calling people, learning to feed and change Noah and trying to relax and recoup although with not more than an hour and a half sleep.  Noah was so alert for a newborn and barely slept the whole day.  Instead, he just kept looking all around and taking in his surroundings (much like his daddy)!  By that afternoon, Dave’s parents came and met Noah and then took Dave out to eat while I stayed and held and loved on Noah.  Mom and Jackie arrived from FL in the early evening and we all took lots of pictures.  Aunt Anne, Fritzie and Lynn all had beautiful flowers delivered and I uploaded pictures on Facebook that night with Noah under my arms sleeping in the dimcomputer light.  Eventually, we all fell asleep, at least until Noah needed feeding.  We had a really nice nurse and aside from walking ourselves out without a wheelchair, felt well cared for in the hospital and pretty confident as new parents by the time we left two days later.   Driving away, though, we both felt the major responsibility of caring for and providing for Noah on now one income.  We said a prayer in the car on the way home and drove really slowly, with Noah and me in the backseat.  The labor and delivery (thanks to it being only about 9 ½ hours long, no complications, the epidural and a healthy baby) went as smoothly and safely as I had hoped and prayed it would.  Praise God!