Our first week home

We've been home with Noah for a week now. It's been a great week. Exhausting and exhillarating all at the same time. Noah is now eating (and pooping!) like a champ! We went for a follow up visit with the pediatrician the day after we left the hospital last week and he'd gained 8 oz in one day! We go back for his 2 week check up on Friday and Mike and I can't wait to see how much he's gained now. The doctor also looked him over and decided that his color was looking so much better that we didn't even need to do another blood test to check his bilirubin level. Mom and Dad were glad we didn't have to take him for another poke after all he had to have in the hospital!

Noah has been such a good baby so far...he rarely cries unless he really needs something, he gives me plenty of warning when it's time to eat, and while we would love for him to sleep better, for a newborn he's doing pretty well. The only complaint so far is that his awake and alert phase the last few nights has been from 11 pm-1230am. We're working on trying to figure out his routine and really all just learning and adjusting to each other so far.

It's been great introducing Noah to lots of friends and family this past week. My mom brought my Grandmother and Great Aunt up to meet him earlier this week. This is my Grandmother's first Great-Grandchild and she just turned 94 so it was really special to have her be able to see and get to know him.

Mike and I are constantly amazed that this wonderful little person came from us and is ours...he is such a blessing and we feel so honored that God chose us to be his parents!

Noah's first sponge bathAhhh, that's better! Eskimo kisses from MomAunt Vanessa

Uncle Thomas

Why does everyone keep taking my picture??

Meeting Great Grandmother

Great-Great Aunt GeorgieGreat Grandmother 4 Generations

The Stephensons-they came all the way from Wisconsin to meet me!!

Not sure if I like this swing thing...maybe I do...

Hospital Days

We had quite the hospital stay with our little guy. The combination of my long labor, and the doctor's attempts to turn Noah during the delivery process left him with some head trauma. Mostly just swelling and bruising and some abraisons on the top of his head and side of his neck. As the swelling and bruising went down, it led to an elevated bilirubin level which gave Noah a bad case of jaundice (bilirubin is what is left over when the body breaks down old red blood cells). We woke to this news early on Sunday morning and were told he would have to use special UV lights to help breakdown the bilirubin so he could get better. So he wore these bright blue UV lights from Sunday-Wednesday.

We were in the hospital till Wednesday waiting for him to get better. A combination of several things led to him being sleepy most of the time so it was difficult to get him to eat. Then he lost more weight than the doctors wanted so that caused some concern as well. Mom and Dad spent the majority of Monday and Tuesday trying to get him to eat as much and as often as possible (not only did he need to gain weight, but another way to get rid of the bilirubin is to poop it out, so he needed to eat, so he could poop!). We had a great day on Tuesday and were able to take him off the special lights and finally go home on Wednesday!

While in the hospital, we did get to enjoy lots of visitors who were eager to meet Noah. Here are a few pictures from those hospital days with some of our visitors and the lights Noah had to wear.

Hello, World! Nice to meet ya! While it looks like he's jammin' to some tunes, this is really Noah's hearing screening...he passed!

Grandma and Granddad Tilton

Aunt Kristi

Our little family...

Stephanie (our friend and L&D nurse) actually gets to enjoy the baby she helped deliver for a change!
Noah with the bili-blanket (UV lights for his jaundice)

Watching the Texas basketball game with Dad. Note Noah is appropriately dressed in his first Texas onsie.

Our little glow wormGoing home, FINALLY!

Happy Birthday Noah!

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!!

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

The Final Countdown...

Well, here we are...38 weeks (officially "full term") and on the final count down till Baby White decides to make his grand entrance into this world. While our "official" due date is just under 2 weeks away on March 6th, we could be meeting him any day now, or still sitting here 3 weeks from now wondering when he'll arrive. Till then, we're trying to enjoy these last few days of life as just the two of us.

For those of you that don't know, I've been at home now for the last week on "limited activity" due to some high blood pressure issues I was having in weeks 36 and 37. While my blood pressure would easily go down to a normal level as soon as I laid down on my left side, my OB thought it was best to stay at home and spend as much time resting as possible in order to keep my BP low and avoid any additional health concerns for either myself or baby (after all, during a normal day I don't really spend all that much time just laying around). It's been interesting being told to essentially "do nothing" as this is not so much in my nature, but Mike's been super supportive and we've had plenty of family and friends offering to come visit, bring food, etc. so that's been really nice. All in all, we are feeling good and still expecting a healthy baby and delivery sometime soon!

I've posted some pics of our nursery and one belly picture from earlier this week. Mike and I are both wondering just how much more room this little guy could possibly take up inside mom's tummy!

Please keep us in your prayers as we wait for the arrival of our little boy...we're excited that we'll be posting pictures of him for you soon!

Christmas 2007

We were able to spend time with both our families for Christmas this year...we first spent several days in Angleton with the Tiltons, then came back up to Kyle to finish out the holidays with the Whites. Good times were had by all!

All the Whites

(it took several takes to get this one!)

From Mike's Dad...I think Mike wants one in his size...

Baby White's first stocking at the Tilton house

We did a gingerbread tree this year...

San Francisco

We were able to take a "pre-baby" get away to San Francisco in December. We were there Dec 13-17 and had a blast! We did a good combination of sight seeing as well as just being lazy and enjoying time together. We like to joke that we sort of "ate" our way through the city...making sure we got a taste of the local cuisine in many of the different neighborhoods of the city.





Our hotel was within walking distance of Ghiradelli square and Fisherman's Wharf. Of course this means we visited Ghiradelli several times for hot chocolate and sundaes (hey, the pregnant lady can't enjoy beer and wine, so I might as well eat chocolate!!) and also had crab and a chowder bowl down on the Wharf. Being in California we also made sure to do lunch at In & Out Burger one day (it was Mike's first time to have it!). We also had Italian Food in North Beach, Dim Sum in China Town, and hit up a small cafe for brunch in Haight Ashbury (we were also offered drugs several times in Haight Ashbury which in itself was an experience). We also did some sight seeing--we went out to Alcatraz, walked along Golden Gate Bridge, saw the sea lions on Pier 39, and walked the "crookedest street" on Lombard.





Overall it was a great, much needed trip!

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge

Chinatown

Ghiradelli Square

Enjoying a Sundae at Ghiradelli

Alcatraz

Alcatraz-San Francisco Bay and City in Background

Lombard "Crookedest Street"

Union Square