My Baby is FOUR!

My baby is FOUR today!


I can't believe how much time has passed. I know that every parent thinks this about their children, but Noah is such a wonderful little boy and there is nothing I take more joy in than watching him grow and change. Last night, completely unpromoted by me, he put his arms around me, kissed my cheek, and said, "mommy, I love you." Needless to say, I melted.

In honor of his birthday, I thought I would share his birth story. Enjoy!

I had a very normal and blissfully uneventful pregnancy. I am also living proof that you can be dilated and effaced for weeks without labor being imminent. At my 36 week appointment my doctor told me that I was 1-2 cm and 50% effaced. I walked around like this until Wednesday, September 8th, which was my 39.5 week visit. My doctor told me that I was 3-4 cm and 90% effaced and he stripped my membranes to see if that would speed things along. At the time, he thought that I would have Noah within the next few days but just in case he told me to make an appointment for the following week. His EXACT words were “I don’t think you’ll need the appointment but you better make it. If you don’t, you’ll probably need it.” I made the appointment, Dan’s mom flew out and we waited. Nothing happened. I went back to the OB on September 15th, hot and tired of being pregnant, and we decided to schedule an induction for Monday, September 20th.

I was 100% convinced that Noah was not going to come on his own. Dan and I had tried every trick in the book to induce labor (sex, spicy food, raspberries, pineapple, walking) and nothing worked. I woke up on Saturday, September 18th and noticed that I was having strange stomach pains. I went the entire pregnancy without having any Braxton-Hicks contractions so I wasn’t sure if this was labor or not. The contractions were noticeable, but not painful, and at the time they did not seem very consistent so I went about my day. That afternoon Dan and I went to the movies with our moms and my sister and during the movie the contractions were getting a bit stronger but were still somewhat irregular (Silver City, terrible flick BTW). We got home at 4:30 p.m. and I went into the bedroom to lie down. Dan was supposed to work that night and to be safe I decided to time the contractions.

The contractions were irregular (4 minutes apart, 7 minutes, 5 minutes, etc.) but they were getting more and more painful and lasting for about a minute each. I called Dan into the room at 6’ish and told him that we needed to call the doctor because I thought it was time to have the baby. By the time we got organized and got to the hospital it was about 6:45 p.m. and the contractions were coming one after the other and they were VERY painful. At 7:30 p.m. the nurse examined me, said I was 5-6 cm, and started the paperwork to get me in a room. I said I wanted an epidural.

The worst part of labor for me was waiting for the epidural. I was having 2-3 minute long contractions, still one right after the other, which made me vomit a couple of times (sorry, TMI). I kept making the nurse promise me that the anesthesiologist was physically in the building and on his way to my room. By 9pm I had received my epidural and I felt better almost immediately. I was SOO relaxed and for me it was worth every penny ($1,666.00 to be exact). I was complete by 9:30 p.m. and the nurse told me I did not have to push if I didn’t have the urge. So I didn’t. I got the urge to push at 10:30 p.m. so we got started. Those of you who know me know that when I get nervous I get chatty so the I was have a ball getting to know my nurse in between pushes. At the same time, my sister kept poking her head in the curtain to see what was going on. She was getting anxious in the waiting room so we finally invited her to come and watch the show. After about an hour of pushing and talking I decided to get serious about delivering Noah. I put my mind to it and Noah bounced into the world on Sunday, September 19 at 12:29 a.m.

And today, he is a my happy, healthy FOUR-year old.