Noah Jay

I found out I was pregnant in February, due in October and this time it wasn't much different than the previous two, except for being sick for about a month longer this time around. I lost a ton of weight, but of course I always gain it back by the end.  The kids were SO excited the whole time asking each and every day when the baby would be born, He was so pumped for a little brother and Emma was in denial for a time telling everyone it's a girl. Moving houses went great without any hiccups and I did the best I could with packing and unpacking, the only time I hurt was if I worked out in the yard for too long. As the weeks went by my dr. had me really worried about how big he was growing and he wanted to schedule an induction, as I am cursed with inheriting my mother's inability to go into labor on my own. (kidding mom, it's not a curse!) My in-laws were huge babies so my dr. would ask every time to please think about induction.  I really, really wanted to feel contractions and to labor for a while on my own so I said let's wait.  There also was the fact that Matt and I were invited to a fancy shmancy place in the Park City area 5 days before I was due, and he had to give a presentation at it, so we crossed our fingers that Noah wouldn't be born in Park City and went ahead anyways. My dr. thought I was crazy. I'm not sure if it's because I turned down being induced early or going out of town that close to being due. It was a great weekend with Matt, he did so well in his presentation and it didn't hurt that some very important people were there to listen to him.  It ended with us playing in Park City and gorging ourselves on Rocky Mtn. Chocolate and going down the Alpine Coaster as many times as we wanted. WAY FUN! Even all the jostling didn't make the babe budge.  We had a relaxing rest of the weekend and the day after I was due we drove up to the hospital to be induced.  I had some great nurses and I did finally get to feel what contractions feel like a little bit.  YAY! (I had briefly entertained the thought of birthing natural until my dr. swore a 9 lb baby) I started getting pitocin at 10 am and by 4 I was ready to push, as I started pushing we found he was faced up instead of down so my dr. laid me on my left side with my right leg in the stirrup for 2 hours. Yes, 2 hours!! He said that usually makes the babies turn. I felt bad after we had called both our parents and they arrived and ended up having to wait over an hour, but they entertained Adam and Emma pretty well. Two hours later my dr came back and I started pushing and found Noah hadn't turned at all (thank heavens I didn't do that naturally!!).  The doc said I would just have to push extra, extra hard. So after pushing for 25 minutes and feeling that I have never tried so hard at anything in my life Noah Jay was born!!  He was 8 lbs 13 oz, and just over 21 inches long. My dr said he was super impressed that I could push him out, he explained when babies are born face up they don't bend the way they're supposed to and so it's like adding on another whole pound to the babe. It took me a couple days to figure out why my arms and shoulders were so sore, I hadn't had to push so hard with my first two babies! Because Noah was born face up, when all the fluid in his lungs got squeezed out he ended up swallowing it, and I was told that babies can't digest amniotic fluid, so he was spitting up, gagging, and choking constantly.  It was really scary each time we had to turn him over and softly pound him on the back, they ended up doing a deep suction on him and that seemed to help a little. He is a great sleeper and has always gone 5-6 hours at night, even in the hospital. I'm told that's the perk of bigger babies. Noah's birth couldn't have gone better, it was super relaxing in the hospital before and after and I was taken care of so well by my dr. I loved my nurses until it came to blood draws, I had two blood draws in two different places on my arms I didn't know you could draw blood from, my nurse messed up on two of my veins and so they collapsed and had to call the phlebotomist. One funny thing was when the nurse tried a different vein, she tried it on the same arm as my IV that was in the back of my hand and so instead of getting blood she just got pink tinged fluid, so that was a no-go too.  She was so cute and apologizing I couldn't help but forgive her! From the moment we brought Noah home he has been loved by all. I don't even have to tell Adam and Emma to be soft with him, they always are so careful. We haven't yet had an issue of sibling rivalry so I'm crossing my fingers that it won't surface at all. I keep joking with Matt that since we've never had any of our kids get jealous of a new baby and because they have all been superb sleepers that we need to have a whole brood of them. Little does he know I'm not kidding! Life has settled into a comfortable pace now that I've figured out how to juggle breakfast for the kids and Noah's morning feeding, 3 kids isn't quite as hard as everyone says, people made it sound like I would never be able to get out of the house again.

I love that Noah is staring at me in this picture.

Morning of the delivery

Sorry he's all gross, I realized too late that we didn't take nearly enough hospital pictures of Noah and this is about all we've got.

I love this last picture of Emma, like she's realized that thing in my arms is coming home with us.

 A thumb sucker from the beginning, but I pushed the binky. Now I'm not sure I would do the same if given a chance to do it over.

Matt got to take the whole week off after Noah's birth, boy was it nice! This is what happened pretty much everyday of the week he was home.

 Legos with Dad is Adam's favorite activity.

 Emma's too cool for Legos, she loves to snooze on Adam's bed instead of her own.

 Adam lost his first tooth the morning I dropped him off at my mom's while I was on my way to the hospital, the tooth fairy set a high standard of $2 instead of $1.  Thanks Mom. 

I sure love this little man, he is so good and content to just lay and watch everyone!

He lost all of his hair from the middle of his head forward, it's now grown back in by double. Yay!

These are some of the things that I remember right now that were said to me while pregnant;

ward member:  Are you having twins?
me: no, just a big baby (laughing uncomfortably)
ward member: Oh, you'll probably have a c-section right?
me: I hope not! (wondering if I really look that big)

stranger: Oh, you must be close to delivering!
me: no, I still have 8 weeks left.
stranger: you must have a healthy baby then! (staring wide-eyed at my belly)

My first week back to church a cute older sister stopped to talk with me...

her: I thought you were ready to deliver right when you moved into our ward,(that would have been May) but I just kept seeing you each week getting bigger and bigger...I mean your stomach not you. (as she backtracks realizing how that sounded)

Two weeks before I was due I gave the closing prayer in Sacrament, which right after a sister walked up to me and asked if I was having twins, when I said no, she said her husband insisted I must be having twins.  To his credit he's a guy and may not realize he shouldn't say that out loud. Luckily people weren't being unkind when they said these things, it just makes me smile.