Noah Thomas White was born at 6:26 pm on Friday March 7, 2008!
Weighing 8 lbs. 13 oz and 21.25 inches long!
Here are some of the details of his entry into our lives:
For those of you who don't know, I was scheduled to be induced on Monday March 10th if Noah hadn't come on his own yet. My doctor estimated my due date to be March 3 and based on my history of high BP's and what she was anticipating to be a tight fit with Noah's size (little did we know how right she would be) she didn't want me to go past that date. So, we were excited when my water finally broke on it's own around 10:30 pm on Thursday March 6 right as we were getting ready for bed.
We decided to see if we could get some rest since nothing else was happening at that point. No such luck. Contractions started and were fairly close together by 11:30pm. We decided to pack up and got to the hospital around 1 am on the 7th.
When we got to the hospital we discovered that I had meconium in my fluid surrounding Noah. Basically, that means he passed part of his stool while still inside. His heart rate was good and strong on the monitors so they weren't really worried about it at that point, but it just meant we would have to watch him more closely to make sure everything was ok.
For the first 12-13 hours of labor, with LOTS of help and support from Mike and my wonderful L&D nurse, Stephanie (a close friend from nursing school), I was able to labor naturally. Most of my contractions were very painful in my lower back (in other words, back labor) so we suspected that Noah may have been turned the wrong direction. Sure enough, we eventually discovered he was "OP" or "sunny side up" meaning he was facing my back instead of the front of my pelvis. This position can sometimes make it harder for the baby to come out.
Unfortunately, my contractions sort of stalled out mid-morning. We had to add some pitocin (a drug similar to the hormone your body makes to trigger contractions) which just made the contractions more intense and painful, but didn't make them any more effective. Finally around 1pm I gave into the epidural, hoping we could then up the pitocin enough to help the contractions so we could progess a little further. I was around 8 cm at that point, so we really didn't have too much further to go!
Finally around 4pm I reached 10 cm and it was time to start pushing! We pushed for 2 hours, were able to see Noah's head, but couldn't get him to come down any further. Our doctor felt like his head wasn't moving further at all, but instead he was just getting more swelling at the top of his head as I tried to push him out. Finally we decided the safest thing would be to deliver him by C-section.
So, I was wheeled away...Mike was told to change into his lovely OR outfit, and less than 30 minutes later, our son was born! All the staff in the OR immediately commented on how big he was...especially how big his head was! There was no way he was coming out if we hadn't done the C-section. As you can see in some of the pictures, he had quite the cone head with lots of swelling from all the pushing during the labor process. Poor Noah looked quite stunned when he first came out, but he was beautiful to us anyway!
Overall, my labor last over 19 hours...not only was that a long time, but Mike and I were both running on empty as we had gotten no sleep the night before. So, it was quite exhausting. I can't say enough about how amazing Mike was...he was so supportive and there's no way I would've made it through that without him. Stephanie was also great...we know we are so blessed to have had her there by our side supporting us through the whole process as well.
So, that's the story of how little Noah White came into our world. While it's not the story we anticipated having, it's our story and to us it is beautiful. And in the end, we have the most important thing...a wonderful, healthy baby boy!!
Weighing 8 lbs. 13 oz and 21.25 inches long!
Here are some of the details of his entry into our lives:
For those of you who don't know, I was scheduled to be induced on Monday March 10th if Noah hadn't come on his own yet. My doctor estimated my due date to be March 3 and based on my history of high BP's and what she was anticipating to be a tight fit with Noah's size (little did we know how right she would be) she didn't want me to go past that date. So, we were excited when my water finally broke on it's own around 10:30 pm on Thursday March 6 right as we were getting ready for bed.
We decided to see if we could get some rest since nothing else was happening at that point. No such luck. Contractions started and were fairly close together by 11:30pm. We decided to pack up and got to the hospital around 1 am on the 7th.
When we got to the hospital we discovered that I had meconium in my fluid surrounding Noah. Basically, that means he passed part of his stool while still inside. His heart rate was good and strong on the monitors so they weren't really worried about it at that point, but it just meant we would have to watch him more closely to make sure everything was ok.
For the first 12-13 hours of labor, with LOTS of help and support from Mike and my wonderful L&D nurse, Stephanie (a close friend from nursing school), I was able to labor naturally. Most of my contractions were very painful in my lower back (in other words, back labor) so we suspected that Noah may have been turned the wrong direction. Sure enough, we eventually discovered he was "OP" or "sunny side up" meaning he was facing my back instead of the front of my pelvis. This position can sometimes make it harder for the baby to come out.
Unfortunately, my contractions sort of stalled out mid-morning. We had to add some pitocin (a drug similar to the hormone your body makes to trigger contractions) which just made the contractions more intense and painful, but didn't make them any more effective. Finally around 1pm I gave into the epidural, hoping we could then up the pitocin enough to help the contractions so we could progess a little further. I was around 8 cm at that point, so we really didn't have too much further to go!
Finally around 4pm I reached 10 cm and it was time to start pushing! We pushed for 2 hours, were able to see Noah's head, but couldn't get him to come down any further. Our doctor felt like his head wasn't moving further at all, but instead he was just getting more swelling at the top of his head as I tried to push him out. Finally we decided the safest thing would be to deliver him by C-section.
So, I was wheeled away...Mike was told to change into his lovely OR outfit, and less than 30 minutes later, our son was born! All the staff in the OR immediately commented on how big he was...especially how big his head was! There was no way he was coming out if we hadn't done the C-section. As you can see in some of the pictures, he had quite the cone head with lots of swelling from all the pushing during the labor process. Poor Noah looked quite stunned when he first came out, but he was beautiful to us anyway!
Overall, my labor last over 19 hours...not only was that a long time, but Mike and I were both running on empty as we had gotten no sleep the night before. So, it was quite exhausting. I can't say enough about how amazing Mike was...he was so supportive and there's no way I would've made it through that without him. Stephanie was also great...we know we are so blessed to have had her there by our side supporting us through the whole process as well.
So, that's the story of how little Noah White came into our world. While it's not the story we anticipated having, it's our story and to us it is beautiful. And in the end, we have the most important thing...a wonderful, healthy baby boy!!
Liz and Stephanie, our good friend and L&D nurse
Noah, right after birth. Because of the meconium the NICU team was called to check his airway and breathing
Finally, we meet!
Proud Daddy introduces Noah to the rest of the family
Big Boy!
After recovery, Mom FINALLY gets to hold her little boy
2 comments:
That is great that Stephanie was at the hospital when you went into labor. That must have been comforting.
I love seeing your pictures and reading YOUR STORY! I can't wait to come by and see the Whites very soon! I love you!
Post a Comment