My Birth Story: Sweet Noah

My sweet Noah! You have brought me such an immense joy since the day I found out you were coming. Although I was praying for you, you were still a lovely sweet surprise. And the day I found out you were a precious boy was even more of a surprise! So I guess it was only fitting that your birth day would come to me as a total surprise as well! Here is your birth story. 

Sunday, November 10- A usual Sunday. Went to church, went to the groundbreaking ceremony of Grace, had lunch with Sel and Nick at Pizzeria Testa. In fact we were celebrating my 26th birthday from the week before with them and they took us out to lunch. Later that evening we were hanging out at the house with them watching Sunday night football. Then my phone rang...

That sunday before church Fred wanted to take a picture of me because
he thought I looked pretty!

It was a private caller and I don't answer private calls ever! They kept calling and calling and I kept ignoring, ignoring! I thought if it's important they can leave a message! The night went on as usual.

A few weeks before I had been having a really hard time sleeping at night because I had terrible itchiness all over my body that would keep me up. My doctor had done some blood work to check my liver because she thought that might be what was causing the itchiness. She wanted to check if it was Cholestasis, it's really rare goes away after birth but sometimes it happens in late pregnancy and high liver biles cause the itching and could be harmful to baby. I was a little freaked out but I knew I had to trust in the Lord that we were going to be ok and Noah was going to be healthy.

I went to sleep that Sunday night and surprisingly the Lord blessed me with the best sleep I had had in days! I also didn't realize that I had a voicemail on my phone, maybe that call was important? 

Monday, November 11- It was Veteran's day. Unfortunately school didn't close on Veterans day and Fred still had to work. I woke up that morning refreshed from the great sleep I had had. Morning went on as usual. I got Luke out of his room, made chorizo for breakfast and then I started doing the dishes. Luke had been playing on my phone and was in the kitchen with me. I looked down and realized Fred was trying to face time me. I got excited because he usually just calls so its a real treat when I get to see him even if its just through a face time call! I answered it and was not prepared for what he told me!

Snapped a screen shot because I wanted to remember this call forever!

Me: Hey Babe! 

Fred: Do you have your phone on silent? 

Me: I don't know, Luke's been playing with it.

Fred: I just got off the phone with your doctor and it looks like we're having this baby today!

Me: WHAT! You're kidding.

Fred: Nope, she wants you to have this baby today, she was trying to call you last night and has been trying to get a hold of you this morning but you're not answering your phone so she decided to call me.

Me: WHAT!!!

Fred: She said to call her as soon as possible.

Me: You're kidding!

Fred: Nope, call her and then call me back to see what she says.

Me: OH MY GOSH! REALLY? WE'RE HAVING THIS BABY TODAY?

I was in total shock! I thought it was pretty sweet that Fred was the one that got to break the news to me! 

So I called my doctor and she said my results came in and my liver biles were in fact high and the best thing to do was to get induced early. She told me to get my things ready and head to the hospital and she would meet me there to induce me!

Thankfully I already had most of my hospital bag packed but there were still a ton of things I would have wanted to get done before Noah's arrival! I was actually thankful I didn't get that call the night before because knowing me I would have stayed up all night trying to clean, tidy, get Luke's meals ready, do laundry, rethink my hospital pj's, I would have been a mess and I would've been up all night!

So Fred's mom arrived that morning, she was going to watch Luke. She's so sweet she immedialty started doing dishes while I got my stuff ready! She actually ended up cleaning my whole house that day! Fred got a sub, took off from work and arrived home to get me!

When I imagined what it would be like saying bye to Luke before leaving to the hospital I though I was going to be in tears as I said bye for the last time to my one and only baby boy, next time I saw him it wouldn't be just him and it made me a little sad to think of it. Maybe it was the adrenaline, maybe it was the Lord but I just had a peace about everything. Ok, it was the Lord! I held and played with Luke in the playroom. He had no idea what was going on! I took in the moment and thought our lives are about to change completely and I was full of excitement that we were about to meet Noah and Luke was about to become a big brother and I a mommy of two!  

Our last picture before heading to the hospital.

So Fred and I took off and I was starving! I really wanted In-n-Out to be my last fat perggo meal but it wasn't opened yet, neither was any other burger joint I like so I had to settle for Burger King. The ride there was peaceful, we were joking, felt nervous, grabbed food and I felt so strange riding to the hospital painless to have a baby!

We arrived at Plano Medical Center, checked in, my mom met us there and before I knew it I was in a room changing into a gown and getting an IV! My doctor got there around 11:30am broke my water and started pitocin. Selina got there and now it was a waiting game!

The nurse slowly increased the pitocin and then I started to feel those contractions! My pain went from a happy face 0 to a not so happy face 5 in about 3 hours. By 3pm the contractions were getting pretty strong and I asked Fred for his hand so I could start squeezing the crap out of it! We were watching Ellen and my goal was to make it to the end of the show before I got an epidural. I didn't want to get it too early because I was only dilated to about a 4-5 and I didn't want it to wear off by the time I had to push.

So Ellen was over and I finally asked for an epidural! By this time my pain had gone to a not so smily 7! And by this time I regretted waiting for Ellen to be over because I had to wait almost an hour for them to put in the epidural! They first had to fill me up with like 2 bags of IV and then the lady could put the epirual in. By 5pm my contractions were really strong and I started the painful moanings! My pain was definitely a 10! 

He would whisper beautiful things in my ear and remind me to breath through my painful contractions.

After the epidural I was a happy smily 1 again! I relaxed and dosed off a few times.

By around 8pm I was fully dilated and was starting to get the urge to push! We did a practice push and then they called my doctor in! They set up, she got there, I pushed, then I pushed again but she said OK STOP! And all of a sudden my heart completely stopped and melted as I saw my sweet Noah for the first time! 8:19pm he decided to surprise me once again by coming out so fast! 

Holding mommy's hand for the first time!

Daddy got to cut the cord as I held sweet baby Noah who weighed 6lb 1oz and measured 18.5 inches!  I was so grateful to the Lord that Noah was born healthy and great because there was a risk that his lungs might not have been developed all the way at 37 weeks. But he was born in God's perfect time with perfect lungs that let out the most precious cries!

My recovery wasn't as smooth as the labor and birth. I had a lot of bleeding and I had a terrible case of the shivers. Although I was able to hold Noah right away for a few minutes I wasn't able to do skin to skin and feed him right away as I was hoping because they had to lay me flat and massage my belly for what seemed like an eternity! Fred was happy though because he got to hold Noah for a long time and cuddle with him. He didn't even let grandma hold him! Mostly because I think he knew how sad I was that I couldn't hold him and didn't want any one else to really hold him and cuddle him before I could.

Proud daddy! One of my favorite picture of my love.

I finally I got to hold my little guy and breastfeed and bond although I still had some pretty bad bleeding. He was perfect and beautiful, latched on right away and had his eyes wide open to the world! Then I threw up like twice and I felt horrible! Once my mom and Sel left I just started crying because I felt awful I could not stop shivering my teeth kept rattling but I wasn't cold and then top it off with throw up! I remember being a little shivery with Luke during labor but this was different and worse. My sweet Fred prayed for me and comforted me and I was finally able to get calm, stop shaking and dose off into some sleep. 

He still managed to get me a push gift! Another Tiffany heart to add to the heart
necklace he had gotten me when Luke was born.

After a few hours and a ton of belly massaging from the nurse I was able to get sent to a postpartum room but the night was pretty awful because they had to check on me like every hour because of my bleeding. But praise the Lord by the morning I felt a ton better, showered, ordered a yummy breakfast and was anxious to see Luke that day! Thank you to all our friends and family that prayed for us that day, the Lord was faithful and good to us as he blessed us with another beautiful healthy baby boy!