Perfect Cadence

Our baby is here! It took me a while to get to this point in the blog (as he is now a month old), so now it is time to share his birth story.

I'll start around the snow storm when I was to have my 37 week appointment but it got cancelled. I was getting worried because I always had a hard time getting an appointment at the clinic and sure enough the next available appointment was on my birthday, March 2nd. That would be 5 weeks in between the last appointment I had and when the next one could be. I advocated for myself and got a walk-in appointment to make sure everything was okay (he was breach last appointment). When I got the okay I asked for an induction date and he said March 1st was available. I was surprised there was one right on the day I turned 39 weeks and took it despite wondering if I should have taken a later date for me to "ripen up" a little bit more.

My parents drove down on February 27th to make sure they were here and got all the instructions to take care of our other three kiddos before we went to be induced on March 1st at 5am. February 28th I decided to have one last maternity shoot as I decided this would be our last baby. I would procrastinate and wait until the very last day to take pictures!

Look how massive I was!

Trying to not convey how done I felt.

We also celebrated my 29th birthday early since I would be in the hospital for my actual birthday. My mom ushered us to bed since we would be heading off to the hospital nice and early for a 5am induction. I thought, "hey, I've never labored during the day before!" Little did I know I would never experience that! Around 11:45pm I woke up wet and nudged Sam to let him know I felt my water break. I went to the bathroom to make sure it did indeed break and that I didn't pee myself and it was apparent as I walked around. I changed my clothes and took our bags I packed only a couple hours previous (thank goodness for the induction that helped me prepare ahead of time!) and left in Sam's car. My mom heard us shuffling around and thought it was odd we were still awake since we had to go to the hospital in the morning. Sam told her what happened and we were off. It was a little exhilarating to go into labor on my own (Joey was the last one I went on my own) and the first time my water broke before laboring. By the time we were driving on the freeway I noticed contractions starting. The hospital was half an hour away so I hoped we would get there without too many issues.

We entered through the emergency department since it was the middle of the night and made our way up to the L&D floor. Even though I registered already they still checked me in, asked a lot of questions and had us fill out paperwork. Luckily the contractions weren't too bad and was able to do this without too many issues. Since this wasn't our first rodeo, Sam made sure to let the front desk person know that I go fast and should probably get a room right away. They brought me back and started hooking me up to the monitor. When Sam was brought back the doctor came in and started to consent me to the various things that might happen in the delivery room. Meanwhile, I was poked a few times and got a few blown veins for my IV. With each yes I had to give during the consenting, my contractions picked up immensely and I had a hard time concentrating on what they were asking me. Soon I was begging for an epidural, which was code for "time to push". Sam let them know as much and the nurse with me made sure he was heard. They had the anesthetist come in for his portion of the consent, but I was already feeling the need to push so he kind of backed off while the doctors and nurses rushed to the bed side. I remember Sam facing me with a big smile and told me he was coming. From the time they started the process to the time I started pushing was 15 minutes! I had three good pushes and Noah Lane came into the world on March 1st at 1:33am weighing 8lbs 6 oz and 20.5 inches long.

It felt a little bit like de ja vu because the poor thing came out gray similar to Eden and after some furious rubbing to get him to breath they whipped him away to work on him. Sadly they didn't get the response they wanted so they took him to the NICU. I told Sam to stay with the baby and he rushed off with the NICU team. Meanwhile I got a COVID test and got the golden uterus massage until the results came back. When it came back negative I was able to go to the NICU to meet our baby. They had a really hard time getting a good stick for his IV and I could see the various pokes they had to do. They also had lines on him to monitor his vitals, an OG tube going to his stomach, and the most obvious, a CPAP machine pressing on his little nose. I couldn't feed him at the moment, so I caressed his little hand for a while then left to go to my new room. It felt weird being there without a baby and I had too much adrenaline to sleep, so I pumped some milk and watched all the videos the hospital required us to watch before we could leave. They ended up giving Noah some antibiotics as a precaution in case he had pneumonia, so his stay extended to 48 hours. We got a cool chest x-ray out of the process but it so far looked clear.

Everything looked good!

The CPAP helped open his lungs.

These were the first pictures I received of him while I was still in L&D.

Meeting my baby boy! The biggest baby in the NICU.

Receiving his footprints.

They originally wanted him to stay because his breathing was a little funky (and the ABG showed high CO2 levels which means he was not ventilating well on his own). However, his blood sugars were looking good and slowly but surely they started taking him off everything, including the CPAP. Soon we were able to hold our little guy and I was able to feed him. He ate very well (foreshadowing his current voracious appetite). Sam ended up going home to see the other kids and get some good sleep (our room only had a chair other than the hospital bed). The next day was my birthday and Noah was still in the NICU. Sam had to work so a good portion of the day I sat twiddling my thumbs. The nurses were amazing and brought me flowers for my birthday and the best present was Noah was finally released from the NICU and got to spend the evening with me! Sam came from work to spend time with me and eventually took a call room to sleep so he could be there in the morning to drive us home. We were released in great time the next day and Sam was able to make it to his appointments he had with patients after dropping me off at the house.

CPAP off!

OG tube out!

He was no longer that gray color but a healthy pink!

Right before I got to feed him for the first time.

Bonding time in the NICU.

A nice weight holding something in place (maybe a line?).

Getting ready to leave the NICU!

The flowers all the nurses pitched in to get me!

I was able to bust him out of the NICU!

Now for some skin to skin!

Sam visiting on my birthday.

It was a true miracle because if I did not have the induction scheduled when I did my parents would have left on March 1st to be there. I would have had to find someone in the middle of the night to be with the kids and there would have been a good possibility that I would have had Noah in the car! I am so appreciative of my parents being there with the kids while I spent a couple days in the hospital.

It was also surreal that I went into labor as early as I did. If I stuck with the March 2nd appointment I would not have had any prenatal care during the final weeks of my pregnancy. I always assumed this kid would come after my birthday too so it's fun (I think) to almost share a birthday with him. Sam's mom was not a fan of our plan of induction and let us know as much, so she was so happy to know it didn't happen after all, but I am extremely grateful it was scheduled regardless! However, even though it happened on its own, it happened so fast I think it really shocked our poor baby. He was acting more like a c-section baby because his lungs weren't compressed enough due to popping out so quick. Luckily it was a quick NICU stay. I think having to trek to the NICU to see my baby helped me get up and moving faster. It was my hardest pregnancy but the fastest recovery overall!

As for Noah, he is a funny boy. He still sleeps a lot, but during his first few weeks, if he was awake, he acted famished! He likes to eat and eat and eat. I eventually had to get formula to make sure he got everything he was asking for. Noah prefers the bottle, but he will eat from the boob (especially when he's sleepy and not upset). He already gained his birth weight back and then some at 9lbs 1 oz at this 2 week appointment. Noah is now one month old and I am interested to see how much he weights, although he won't have another appointment until 2 months.

The kids adore him and I feel his meshes with our family quite well. I'm so glad to see that Eden doesn't have major jealousy and doesn't mind that I hold the baby much more than I hold her. I try to soak this time in because this very well could be our last baby. And it's hard to believe that we've had him for a month! Time really stops for no one and it's so bittersweet. We love you, Noah!