Noah's Story

I know that most who read this already know Noah's story but I thought it would be fun to document the whole story.

During the summer of 2006 David and I decided we were ready to have a baby. Well maybe I had to convince David that we were ready. I told him that since I had been on birth control for so many years (eight to be exact every since we had been married) it would probably take awhile to conceive. So if we go off birth control now we may have a baby within a couple of years. Well that was in June. On a hot summer night in August I died. Well it felt like I was dying. While on the pill had never really had bad periods, this night I thought for sure I was about to start. The pain was so bad I fell out of bed and crawled to the bathroom. Weird I know. Well I never started so I tried to take a pregnancy test. I think it was a Sunday night and I just couldn't pee so I put the test back in the package and went to bed. The next morning when I got up to get ready for work I decided I would try again. AND it was POSITIVE. I ran to the bedroom which at the time was all of three feet away woke David up and handed him the test. I told him that I was terrified and excited. He was unresponsive due to the early hour. I decided I should take another test thinking that the fact that I had opened that one the night before could have messed it up. On my way to work I stopped to buy a "good" test you know a name brand one, I chose a 2 pack of course cause i just had to be sure. I told all the girls at work about the positive one that morning and that I was going to try again to be sure. So they were expectantly waiting as I exited the bathroom. If you know me at all you know that my face says it all so there was no hiding my excitement. I hate that they had to be the first to know but oh well. So needless to say I didn't get much work done that day. I called David and April I can't remember when I called Jenny. We waited a short while to tell mom and dad(I am sorry guys) because I was worried that they would respond negatively. But of course everyone was thrilled. So possible conception locations, well I like to think it was while we were at the beach in Savannah. Guess it could have been in small town in South Carolina on our way home or soon after arriving home from vacation.

I called my doctors office and they didn't want to see me until I was 10 weeks which was like a month away and I couldn't bear to wait that long. One of my customers worked for an OBGYN office so I ask her how early they would see a pregnancy and she said that it didn't matter how early. She told me of a new doctor that could see me the next day if I wanted. So I called to make an apt. This is how I came to find my new doctor Jack Rowland. David went with me to my first apt and indeed we were pregnant with a spot as we affectionately called it.

My pregnancy was great, no morning sickness or anything. I just ate and ate and ate. I was so thrilled to be having Emma that I was buying pink things before we knew what we were having. Ruby was able to attend the ultrasound that determined we had a penis, yep no Emma in there. I was disappointed for all of 5 seconds and then at that point I couldn't imagine it any other way. We had a penis and there was no denying it. Mom and Dad came with us to our 3D ultrasound which was a really cool experience.

We decided our penis would be named Noah(most righteous, Man of God) Robert(after my daddy). A few months and fifty pounds later it was time for Noah to arrive. I wanted nothing to do with an induced labor Jack and I had talked about this and he told me that I was a rare bird that most women wanted it over so bad that they didn't care. I just wanted the experience of going into labor on my own. Dan and Ruby were here but due to go back to Jamaica. My due date was May 14 and I got a call a few days before from Dr Jack. He told me that he would be out of town for a few days and that he reserved a room for me to be induced on Sunday May 13 Mothers day. He told me that I didn't have to go but that he wanted it to be an option for me. Dan had already returned to Jamaica and Ruby decided to stay an extra week to wait for Noah. David had already had his vacation scheduled for the week of my due date. So we decided we would go that night to be induced.

It was Sunday May 13 Mothers day. We skipped church thinking we would induce labor on our own but Ruby skipped church too soooo. We had lunch at Mamas with some of his family. We came home rested and prepared to go to the hospital that night. We left early to have dinner and buy a video camera. We had dinner at Chilis and bought an awesome video camera at Circuit City. We arrived at the hospital a little before eight and waited. I called work to let them know because I had been out of work for two weeks. It was time to head to our room.

The nurse we had that night was great. I was a little scared of the IV and such but thinking back it was a breeze. They gave me Cervadil that night to "ripen" my cervix. Shortly after I started to contract. My water broke at about 5 am. I called for David but he was snoring away so I had to call for the nurse. Later that morning they started Pit and things got rolling. Most everything else is a blur. I received three doses of something yummy that basically knocked me out and an epidural. I pushed for what seemed like forever. Ruby, Mom, and David were there and Jenny and April got to be there for most of the birth. April decided to check out a little early when the blood began to flow considering she was 6 months pregnant herself. Dad, Danny, Lynne' and Abby were close by awaiting Noah's arrival. I had pushed for quite a long time and Jack said he could "help me" if I wanted. Mom convinced me to let him "help me" which meant using forceps. I could feel them and remember sincerely saying"God help me" at 7:03 pm Noah Robert was born. I did not get to hold him immediately on my chest like normal and David didn't get to cut the cord. I still am not sure why. I ended up with a third degree tear and Jack took what seemed that a painful forever to sew me up. I held Noah during this time and didn't want to give him up even when Mom ask to hold him. At one point everyone left me and went to see Noah in the nursery. When they came back they told me that the nurses seemed to be concerned with a hole above his butt. Lynne' said that Abby had that and it wasn't anything to worry about.

While in the hospital we had several trials to overcome. My health was poor. My blood platelets were low and I couldn't control my bowel movements. Nice I know. Noah couldn't pass his hearing test, he had jaundice and they wanted to do an ultrasound on his hole to make sure it was sealed. We stayed in the hospital an extra day due to my blood platelets. We left on Thursday with a jaundiced baby who would have to be on Bili lights when he wasn't being feed.

The first few days at home were very challenging. I continued to have troubles and we kept having to take Noah back for blood work. I fought with the baby blues a little bit wondering what I had gotten myself into. I think having to care for your healing body and your new baby is a bit much.

The results from Noah's ultrasound told us that his hole was closed which was good. At a later date we were told that they wanted to do an MRI just to make sure. The name they were giving this was meningocele. Very scary if you google that. Ok so an MRI not so bad, but for a baby they have to give them anesthesia. That is the scary part. We show up for his MRI but they didn't want to do it because he had a cough. We waited a few weeks and scheduled another MRI. We learned to be very thankful in the waiting room that day. There were a few other kids there who had regular MRI's due to their conditions. We had to turn our baby over to the anesthesiologist. We were able to go see him as he was waking up, that was so sad. Then we went with him to a recovery room for a while. The results from his MRI showed nothing. HALLELUJAH!

Noah is now 14 months old and thriving. He is so much fun. God has been so good. Like I said most of you know Noah's story but fun to read it all together. Hope you enjoyed it!