Noah's birth story

I woke up Sunday morning with irregular contractions and feeling generally nauseas. At this point, nothing was very pressing to me that I was near giving birth. The contractions were spread between 8 and 10 minutes apart and none of them hurt at all but the general feeling of being sick was a little worrisome to me. When I had Emma her labor started with the most awful feeling nausea ever! So we decided to skip church and walk around a lot to see if we could either make the contractions closer together or stop all together and also to get last minute stuff done just in case he really was coming.

We walked and walked and walked and nothing really seemed to be happening. They never stopped but they didn't get any stronger or closer together. Finally, around 6 that evening, the contractions became painful enough to start me thinking it might be real. At that point, I moved into active labor. I was still contracting about every 8 minutes and the pain was nowhere near unbearable but since it was in my back and not just my stomach, I felt more certain it was going to happen soon.

Brandon ordered the kids some pizza for supper. While they were eating, the contractions grew steadily stronger but not closer. (Just for a little bit of background, with Abby and Emma, I BOUNCED into the hospital with a smile on my face and pretty much no pain at all. I was 4 cm and they kept me. The pain happened at about 6 cm with the girls. With Isaiah, I went to the hospital 2 times feeling about like I had with the girls with contractions at 2-3 minute intervals just like with the girls, and was sent home. They told me, "You'll be crying when it's real." So, when I finally did go to the hospital with him, it was with contractions that were 2-3 minutes apart and I was crying, not able to talk through the contractions, and in a lot of pain. I was admitted at 4 cm with Isaiah.) Knowing this is how it went before, I suspected that it got more painful with each kid sooner and so since the pain had just started and the contractions were still so "far" apart, it seemed reasonable to me that we were just barely in the "keeper" zone for the hospital. Not wanting to drop the kids off with a babysitter and have to pick them right back up we wanted to be sure it was real.

At 7pm (just an hour after the pain started) the pain was now strong enough that I thought, "Okay, this is real and we're probably about 4 cm now so they'll keep us." (I was still contracting at 8-10 min intervals and so I was in a little bit of doubt that labor was impending since the other three had been at 2-3 min intervals.) We dropped the kids off at about 7 and the pain at this point was pretty strong on each contraction. I was thanking God over and over and over for the lucid moments between contractions which were still 8-10 minutes long. We forgot my ID so we had to go back to the house (good thing we live practically across the street from the person who watched our kids...) and we finally left the house for good and were en route to the hospital at 7:35. At this time, the contractions were pretty painful and I was chewing a washrag and screaming when they came but they were still 8-10 minutes apart.

It takes around 30 minutes to get to the hospital from our house. During the drive, the pain became much worse and the timing went from 8-10 min intervals to 2-3 min intervals. When they checked us in at the hospital it was probably about 8 pm. I lost track of the time at that point but knowing it takes about 30 minutes, we were probably there at around 8. The pain was pretty much unbearable at this time and I was screaming and writhing. They checked me and I was at 7 cm. They wheeled me down the hall to the birthing room and during that short journey, I went from 7 to 10. They put me on the new bed and were asking me questions and I was like, "Um, I just almost feel like I really have to push." So they checked me again and that's when they discovered that I was at 10. I had been in the birthing room for like 3 minutes. The doctor was walking in, slapping on gloves. I kept saying, "I'm not trying to push but it's happening anyway."

They asked me if I still wanted the epidural I had requested. Knowing that it would take about the same amount of time for the epidural to kick in as for the baby to come out, I said no. At this point, I'm not sure I could have sat up for one anyway. My body was pushing despite me. I pushed for something like 5-10 minutes and at 8:39 pm, he was born. We had been IN the hospital for at most 39 minutes. (All night long, I kept thanking God that we had not delivered on the side of the road.)

It felt like a dream. This kind of stuff only happens in TV, right? I just kept thinking I was going to wake up back at home with Sunday just starting, or maybe having slipped off to sleep while Brandon and the kids ate pizza...it couldn't possibly be REAL...

Noah weighed 7 lbs 5 oz (for reference, Abby was 7 lbs 6 oz, Emma was 6 lbs 7 oz, and Isaiah was 7 lbs 13 oz). He was 21 inches long. (for reference, Abby was 19.5 inches long, Emma was 20 inches long, and Isaiah was 21 inches long) Also, for reference, I had my first contractions with Abby at about 6 am and she was born at 4:53 pm. Emma's first contractions started around 9 pm and she was born at 7:45 the next morning. Isaiah (if you don't count the 2 weeks of solid contractions he put me through with running to the hospital twice...) started around noon and was born at 3:53 am the next morning.