A Baby Story

I'm still struggling with the concept of how a person goes from this:

 To this, all in the matter of a day or a morning. Still totally amazing and such an astounding concept to me!

Here's the story - in detail. It's more for me to finally write it all down, so my apologies if TMI! :)

So all week/weekend I'd had a TON of braxton hicks, even a few painful, crampy ones now and then but they never matriculated into anything, so as sore and waddly as I was, I just kept going with normal life (with less walking and more napping that last week...) But monday (8/20), Lucy and I ventured out to downtown wheaton, to the fountain, our usual stop and later that evening we all went out, walked to the little mini golf place and played a round. Ha. So I'm having contractions fairly regularly and they are feeling like they are getting stronger but never too bad. So I have feelings like tonight could be the night, but I just didn't want to read into it. My water broke with Lucy and I went to the hospital - it can't get much clearer than that, so I kept praying my water would break so that I would KNOW it was real. I was texting with Sari and Kylie that night trying to get insights and between what they said and what I felt, I really thought this could be the night but I was trying to be pesimistic, not wanting to get my hopes up that this baby would come at 38 weeks just like Lucy. Was trying to prepare myself for 1, 2 or even 3 more weeks of waiting (as impossible as it seemed...)

So after fairly regular contractions all evening, they seemed to taper off around 8:30 or 9 p.m. and I thought, well that's that. I went to bed and woke up with a real painful crampy contraction around 1 a.m. and really couldn't sleep after that because I was trying to focus on this whole timing contractions business....and though I was having some regular ones, the more painful ones were more like every 15-20 mins and then some time would pass with none....
After things felt stronger and real - I am thinking these are stronger than I remember with Lucy (*water broke, went into hospital and was a 4cm, kept having contractions for a couple hours, got an epidural and didn't feel another thing...) So since these felt stronger than I remembered - maybe close to comparing with my Lucy contractions pre-epidural, I called in the nurses/hospital line around 3 a.m. to say they were fairly strong. They said wellllll......you Could come in and we could see (Ok - why do they doubt me everytime like I don't know anything about what's going on in my body????) but you'd probably be more comfortable just letting it progress at home. Maybe wait until they are every 5 minutes like that and then we can see.......
OK. It was early in the a.m. and I didn't want to wake Joe or call his mom prematurely, so I just walked around, laid down and then took a bath. They were getting stronger and by 4:30 they were every 5 mins so I told Joe though then I would be like oh, I'm not sure, just wait a little, then I'd say, no it's real, it came again....haha, so at 5 a.m. he called his mom to come. She came very quickly and by that point I was not feeling so hot. (I had been thinking, this time around I want my hair to look decent and maybe wear makeup and look decent in those pics you take right away like some people do. Nope, when you feel like this - wet hair it is and none of it matters. at all.) So we jump in the car and speedy Joe gets another opportunity to fly through downtown wheaton. Threw up out the window on the way, begging him to slow the heck down because my hair is wet after all and it's not so pleasant to be doing all of that at 40 mph....

Get to the hospital - oh all the rigamorale I remember from last time. Checking in while bent over in pain, making me change into a gown and getting a pee sample - I told them I had just thrown up all the water I drank and had nothing to give....They asked me a bunch of questions and typed it all into the computer all while I'm having contractions every 4 or 5 mins that are not very nice. How are you supposed to talk and be normal through those little 1 min spells?! Finally they checked me - I was fully effaced and 7-8 cm dialated, WHAT?! Ummmm, can we get going here?! Mama is in pain!!! So I get to my room and they process my bloodwork, I'm asking every 5 mins when I can get an epidural. I warn them that they blew a vein or two last time they tried to hook up my IV and that that was the most painful part of my labor - sure enough they did it again. Guess my left arm veins are no good. So I got it in my right arm. Keep waiting and being in quite a bit of pain, waiting for my bloodwork to come back, feeling VERY strong contractions and so much pressure - a lovely nurse was in by now - somehow I always get there on shift changes...She helped me so so much through my contractions and asked if I felt the urge to push - I think I did but I didn't know since I hadn't had those feelings and pain before and I wasn't sure how to respond as I was greatly wanting the darn epidural. So it came thankfully and I went from excruiating pain and throwing up to relaxed, calm and peaceful. Was thanking the Lord all this time for modern medicine. Told the anithesiologist that he was my hero.......

So pretty sure I was fully dialated at this point, but they wanted me to wait for my water to break since it hadn't already. By 9:30, the nurse checked me and said I was ready to go and the head was right there and then sure enough my water breaks. The Dr. came and checked me and said they would let my uterus drop naturally since the baby still seemed a little high, so we hung out and waited. Not too long after he came back and baby's head was up instead of down, so he turned him. Nope didn't feel it thankfully. And just after that I pushed twice? And he was OUT at 10:49 a.m.! And it was a HE!!!!!!!! Boy did it all go fast at the end - couldn't believe it!! Praise the Lord, he was healthy and beautiful and I was SO happy to have a little boy even though I couldn't even picture it hours earlier.

What a blessing he is to us, such a sweet little man. So we held him there, looked at him in awe, told the Dr. and nurses his name, he got weighed and measured, held him more, enjoyed these first moments. Joe's mom and my parents came in to hear the news!! So fun to tell them and show him to them. Then I moved into recovery room and the family came in more then to see and hold him.
Our nights were pretty decent, after he seemed awake a little too much in the evening hours, we sent him to the nursery and they would bring him back when he woke up to nurse or they'd wake him up to nurse :) So we did that the next night as well and that was very helpful in getting some rest. Especially since I didn't sleep the night & morning that he was born. Special times in the hospital just Joe, Noah and me. Then my mom stayed with Lucy at the house and would bring her in for visits. That's been interesting. She loves him and at the same time wants to grab him, and rough him up a bit....Poor girl, it's been quite a change for her that she can' t understand. Daddy has been spending lots of good time with her and taking her out for walks and doing things that are normal for her, so that's good. And fortunately she has been still sleeping and napping well. That is huge. So here we are in the present. Not sleeping well because Noah likes to be up at night and sleep all day it seems but Joe and I are tag teaming and getting through it :) Thankful for Joe and the help he is to me. And thankful for these two precious babies. God is so good and has blessed us so, we don't deserve any of it. And praying that these two little loves will come to know Jesus as their Savior at a young age.

If you made it this far......thanks for reading :) And here are the photos of this little guys first days!

Almost forgot - we have liked the name Noah for quite awhile and talked about it a lot when Joe was studying Hebrew at Wheaton. Noah means rest, quiet, comfort. This name and meaning was comforting to us after miscarrying as well in 2009 and it's just always been our #1 boy name, if we should ever have a little guy. And of course Joseph as the middle name is for his wonderful daddy (it is also the name of my grandfather, uncle and cousins, so extra special for those reasons too :))