Noah's arrival!!

*Warning: the following blog contains some icky details

Monday July 20th started like any other normal day. While the carpet was being cleaned that morning I went to walmart and target to get some of the last things I wanted/needed for Noah. I came home, organized his room and washed his newest clothes. I then had a doctor's appointment at 12:50. I was about to eat lunch and get ready for the appt when I discovered I was bleeding. Knowing this was not a good thing I quickly packed a bag for the hospital just in case, threw on some clothes, and left for my appointment early without eating lunch. I called Pete and told him to meet me at the Dr's office and called my mom to alert her. Once I got to the Dr he checked me out and decided to send me to the hospital to be monitored. They did a sonogram and we waited to hear from the doc. When Dr. Thompson arrived he said that he did not know why I was bleeding, but that the sonogram showed low fluid so he felt it was best to go ahead and induce labor.

Pete ran to the house to get my bag and change clothes and while he was gone the Dr broke my water (I was suprised at how it did not hurt at all). They gave me pitocin threw my IV to start labor. I felt a few contractions, but nothing too painful. We sat there for a couple of hours and discovered some things we forgot at home. When my friend Amie arrived Pete decided to go home again to gather a couple of things. Contractions got harder so they decided I could have my epidural. Luckily Amie was there with me because Pete had not made it back yet. Pete walked into the room seconds before he inserted the needle so I was glad to have Pete to hold on to.

After the epidural I had more visitors and felt great. My mom arried from Emory and my dad, sister and brother-in-law arrived shortly after. I progressed really slow at first, then at about 12:15am the nurse told me I was 9 1/2 centimeters and it was time to push. They called the doc to come back up, got the room ready and I was pushing in no time. Thank goodness I had gone to the birthing class 3 days earlier! After about an hour of pushing little Noah arrived. The labor and delivery was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be thanks to the awesome epidural. Pete was a great coach and offered a lot of encouragement.

This is Pete loving on me during the early contractions.

Noah's first few moments. It is crazy how I thought he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and was brought to tears even when he looked like that!

Arrival time: 1:29 am

Date: July 21, 2009

Weight: 6lbs 12 oz

length: 19.25 inches

Our new family of 3 moments after delivery.

Noah trying to figure out what just happened while at the Nursery. Pete got to go help get him ready. They did not make it back to the recovery room with me until about 5 am. During that time I was moved to our new room and given a check up and cleaning. The most painful part of the whole experience is when the nurse pushed aggressively on my stomach (she said to keep me from clotting) after my epidural wore off. Ugh.

The next day we had a lot of visitors, took a lot of pictures and worked on recovering. Noah latched on easily and nursing has been a good experience for us both. He seems very content and usually whines when he needs something instead of full out crying. I can't count how many times I have kissed his face and my new favorite hobby is staring at him. Pete and I can get choked up so easily just talking about how much we love him. Noah already has Pete wrapped around his little finger. I love looking at Pete hold him. My two favorite boys!