The Day of Noah - My son, not that Noah

I had this typed up before shortly after the birth of my Noah...but the cd it is saved on is now unaccessible- technology go figure...anywho I will try to remember everything I typed then and have it here for display. Enjoy

September 2000 - I was watching the 700 Club and they had a segment on how the birth control pill is not fool proof when it comes to preventing ovulation and so if you were to become pregnant it could kill the baby. I was convicted at that moment to stop taking the pill that I had been taking since Feb. Prior to this I had been reading the Take Charge of Your Fertility book and so I knew about the charting/position/mucus method. So I went off the pill and had the initial w/d af and then nothing. My temp was all over the place and no mucus at all and I couldn't find my cervix so whatever.

January 2001 - My temp had finally for the past 19+ days been normal so I decided to take an hpt because according to the book a temp over one's coverline for 19+ days indicates pregnancy...well I had no coverline and seeing as how it was only 1 cycle - that lasted a really long time - there was nothing to compare it to. The hpt was positive. This was early in the morning and my DH would be coming home from the night shift soon so I kept the test out to show him. He looked at it and then at me and together we both said, "How are we going to afford this?" then we laughed. I was able to take my BBT chart and back track and finally figure out a coverline and saw that I ovulated on December 3rd, 2000. Now according to the book you count forward 9 months from the date of conception and subtract 7 days to get the due date. Now at the medical offices and even those cutesy pregnancy trackers, they start counting 40 weeks from 2 weeks before conception...so the math could be off by a 3 days or so with the different methods.

[well this year I put my temps from the year 2000 into a website called fertility friend and they had new calculations...you can see those below in a graph form at the bottom of the page....so my calculated due date was off by 4 days...due date should have been 8/23/01 so DS was born about 3.5 weeks early...not considered a big deal and good thing too...YHWH is so in control, I mean I am 5 foot 3.25 inches tall and it was my first and I am so thankful he only weighed 5 punds and 10 ounces. And anymore they say babies born around what they consider 38 weeks gestation is starting to be the norm. so he made it to 36.5 weeks gestation. But DS could still barely use his jaws, had no eyelashes (which he has the thickest eyelashes that girls would be jealous of these days), and did have blood sugar level problems the first 24 hours out of the womb.]

I had my first prenatal appointment at about 8 weeks along. I took my BBT chart because I knew that since I hadn't had a menses since October of 2000, they would try and tell me I was further along than I knew I was. And I was right, based on the first day of my last menses they said I was over 3 months along. I then had to explain the ovulation that took place on the 60th day of my cycle. The doctor I was assigned was mean. She was so used to seeing welfare momma's come in to pop out another kid just for more gov't handouts that she treated me like she would treat them. Also when it's your first baby doctors try to jerk you around because they assume you don't know anything. She would not believe that my due date as calculated according to the book would be August 27th....She wrongly said June something.

I skipped the next appointment because it would have been the one where they stick a needle into the womb and I knew that was dangerous so didn't go.

March/April 2001 - Got to hear the babies heartbeat and get measured and easy visit and was told most of them until closer to the due date would be just the same. Was given instructions on the need to drink 24 ounces of water just before coming to next visit because that would be ultrasound visit. On April 7th, I was there when another gal had her baby. Not for the birth part but during her labor and I remember she was mean and throwing things and cursing at her husband and I remember asking the LORD to keep me nice and not mean when I have my baby.

May 2001- I was about 24 weeks along when I went for the ultrasound. DH and I had thought that if we were having a boy his name would be Logan Michael and for a girl Lindsay June. The ultrasound showed it was a boy for sure no doubt about it and that was the first time the doctors finally listened to me because based on the babies measurements he was right on target for an August 27th due date. After hearing that he was for sure a boy - something that I had suspected all along and I hear it's common for many moms to just know what gender the child is before confirmation via ultrasound or birth - I was given a name and that was Noah...so I had to approach DH with the name. I presented my case well. Logan is the name of a character on the X-Men movies and I don't think they are a good movie. I wanted to have a water birth and so we met with a midwife but it required $3500 to have her assistance and since I was further along than most new patients we wouldn't have as long to come up with the money, she expected payment in full by the 30th week along because she had been cheated before by people who didn't pay up front. Understandable. The only other person that was supportive of my decision to home birth was my sisters then boyfriend who said he would be willing to catch the baby...kinda creepy.

June 2001- glucose tolerance test. this was "fun". I barfed on the floor after they took my blood. Nurse said it happens all the time...well if so you think they'd have a barf bucket in there just in case. Shortly after the nurse left with my tube of blood I told my mom I felt sick like I was going to spew chunks any moment...so she quickly left the room and since she left the door open I could hear her trying to flag someone down and as they were on their way to the room I leaned over the edge of the bed/table and let it flow. Then I immediately felt better and got up and left. I am still not sure if it was a combo of the sweet drink and blood withdrawal or maybe "morning sickness" because my glucose test came back normal.

July 21, 2001 - I went bowling. I actually bowled the highest score of my life so far and thought maybe my dad was right when he used to say a big butt would help you get that ball down the lane with force.

July 22, 2001 - I was having contractions and so I thought I would do as my MIL said and after each contraction do squats. The rest of the family went to church while I stayed home to pace and squat. When my MIL came home from church she took me to the hospital. Turns out I was dialating but it was too early and apparently I had strep b and that was causing me to go into labor early. So got hooked up to IV antibiotics and stayed in the hospital for 48 hours. By that time I was very cranky and just wanted to go home. The IV fluids were making swell up and that was not fun. So they finally said I could go home but had to be on bedrest and take that antibiotic every 6 hours. So for the next week I only got out of bed to go to the bathroom or to go lay on the couch for a different place to lay down at during the day.

Monday July 30, 2001 - It's evening and everyone is home and making plans to go to Hyvee to get food and to blockbuster to rent a movie. MIL and DH agree that I have been a good girl and a short outing should be ok. I can remember running around inside Hyvee like a kid with freedom. We got digiorno pizza and probably something sweet that I can't remember. We rented the movie called "Proof of Life" from blockbuster. We went back home and ate and watched the movie.

July 31, 2001 - Begin week 36 gestation -
It was 1 AM before DH and I retired to our room above the garage. DH and I did the thing married couples are allowed to do and then as I was going over near our dressers for clean clothes, DH said Jump...and so I did...from where I was standing to where he was on the bed...a good half way of our floor...and then he got mad at me for jumping so hard but he told me to and I had no idea why. Turns out there was a huge bug and he saw it by me and I didn't notice. So after all the excitement we finally settle down to sleep. At this time in my pregnancy our mattress on the floor was uncomfortable to me so DH slept on it and I slept in a twin bed that was elevated off the floor next to it.

I remember having a dream where we (DH, my sister, his 2 sisters, and me) were riding in a Jeep (probably since my sister had a jeep at one time and we all used to ride in it) and in the dream we were driving over railroad tracks and in my dream my pregnant belly could feel the baby bouncing inside as we drove over the tracks. And then I felt all wet. I suddenly woke up and felt the sheets, all wet. So I woke DH up and told him that I had something to say that may be embarassing because I either wet the bed or my water broke. DH bolted up in bed with a shocked look.

This was about 3:30 AM. I went downstairs to the bathroom to check and MIL's then husband was on the couch playing playstation...I told him I was going to check to see if my water broke. While I was in the bathroom, MIL overheard me and came running out to the living room because she had been on edge for a while because she felt that any day now I could have the baby. and when I came out she told me that since it is my first baby I should go back to sleep and rest before going to the hospital.

I went back upstairs to find DH still sitting in bed with a shocked look on his face. I literally told him to snap out of it. I told him I was having the baby not him and I needed his help. SO he got up and went down to talk to his mom. I was left upstairs trying to put on dry undies and pack my bag. About this time, I started to have to double over because the contractions -which really just felt like the worse cramps of my life - had started. So it took me a while to get back downstairs dressed and ready to go. While DH was downstairs he must have paged the doctor on call because at 5:30 AM I remember talking to Dr. Proverbs (yes that was her name...what a YHWH thing that that was the doc on call when I went into labor! and her name is on DS's birth certificate as the delivering doctor) I told her about the water and the pain and she said it sounded like a true story and to come on in. The ride to the hospital was uncomfortable...I didn't know that it would feel like I had to poop but knew I couldn't push.

Just before 6AM we arrive at the hospital and have to use the emergency entrance and then take the elevator to the right floor and no, no one told me to sit in a wheel chair like on the TV...they just let me walk to my room. I called my mom and sister to tell them I was at the hospital. My sister says she thought that since it was my first baby that she would go to work and come by when she got off to see me and be there when I had the baby.

It wasn't too bad until a nurse tried like 7 times to start an IV and then the million questions that I know I answered the week before when I was in here can't they just use it and then since I still felt the need to push but was only at like a 4cm when we first arrived assumed it would be best to try and hold it and wasn't sure since it being my first and all the horror stories of 12+ hours of labor I said yes to the epidural. So more questions. Then the needle and then the test amount of 7cc's...just to make sure no headaches would appear. I can remember at one point politely yet with through grit teeth saying, "Please don't ask me anymore questions" and that was thankfully and in answer to prayer the "meanest" I got.

It was just before 7AM at this time so before they administered a full dose of the epidural to numb things, they checked me and I was 9 cm's so they decided not to administer the full dose of the epidural.

Just after 7AM I was able to start pushing. I felt everything, the whole time I was contracting it was mostly felt on my lower left front. I think the sensation I felt was the cervix doing its thing. I didn't feel like my whole abdomen was tightening like some women explain. I can remember being in the stirrups and my mom and MIL walk in the room, take a good look down there and then ask if I need anything...I blurted something out about a camera and off they went.

After 3 pushes, the Dr explained that she knew I didn't want an episiotomy but with her and DH and the nice nurses confirmation each time I pushed the head was right there but unable to come the rest of the way out. The Dr said it would only be 4 stitches tops, just a 1/4 inch cut. So I said ok. I didn't feel the cutting but I think it was because that area had already been through so much what was one more thing, ya know.... and at 7:38 AM Noah Skylar was born.

The dr lifted him up and he peed on me...silly boy.

By the time I had delivered the placenta and been sown up and was just cuddling our baby, my mom and MIL finally arrived to take some poor lighted pictures...

Before 8AM I called my sister on her cell phone and said "He's here." She came right over. She says she didn't know I would deliver so soon.

That's right, did you catch the above...my first baby was born 4 weeks early and my water broke at 3:30AM and at 7:38AM my son was here....that 4 hours and 8 minutes and it would have been sooner if I had elected for an episiotomy earlier in the delivery part. SO MIL later jokingly said that if I get pregnant again I better just stay at the hospital the whole time...LOL

Noah's blood sugar level wasn't stable the first night so he was in the NICU.

My sister picked my dad up and brought him out and she happened to have an E.T. thing with her and tried to pass it off like a picture of his grandson.

DH's oldest sister put one of the newborn hats on her head, we told her it was the one her nephew had on his head immediately after exiting my womb and she got all grossed out.

My cousin and Nanna (my mom's mom) was there during that first day to visit also.


I called DH's dad in LA and he asked if his grandson had red hair...I said no, it's brown w/blonde chunks (seriously it looked like a dye job) and DH's dad replied "Thank God".

I know on my original one I typed up I recorded how big his head circumference was and how big around his chest was...but off the top of my head, I want to say the chest was 11 inches and the head was 13.25 ....I think that sounds right....I have hear stories of women delivering babies with 14 and 15 inch heads ---OUCH!!

My regular doctor came in later and I jokingly told her I wouldn't be into her office that day for my 36th week scheduled appointment and she jokingly said she would let me off the hook this time since I had a good excuse.

Noah Skylar
July 31, 2001 (36th week of gestation)
7:38 AM
5 pounds and 10 ounces