Happy 2012! It's been so nice to have a few quiet days to usher in the start of a new year - psyche! We are happy to report that on Monday, January 2nd at 11:55am our baby boy, Jack Harold Noble, entered the world at 5lb 5oz, 18.5 inches long at 34 weeks and 2 days :) To say that we were surprised at his arrival is the understatement of the century, but I think in the long run it helped me cope with labor and delivery better if that makes any sense. I feel like I would have spent the next 6 weeks reading into every ache or pain, or stalked the mommy blogs for stories of long and traumatic deliveries to get me good and anxious for the big day, but this way I didn't have any other choice but to just go with it. I want to get the whole story down so that we always remember, though I think this one will be hard to forget!
On NYE, after a rousing game of Illiniopoly and a viewing of "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" we went to bed around 1am. Around 2:30am I woke up to some pains in my abdomen. I was able to doze through them a bit, but woke up again at 3:30 and they were a bit more consistent and happening every few minutes and my tummy was tightening and bulging in places every time. It was at this point that I started to realize they were contractions...but as I hadn't even experienced one contraction prior to this, surely they were just Braxton Hicks contractions. As the time went on so did the contractions and finally at 6am I woke Andrew up and told him I thought I needed to call the doc. Spoke to the doc on call and he said to give it another hour and if they were still happening to go ahead to l&d to get checked out. So, for the next hour we kept telling ourselves that no way this was it, but as the handy contraction calculator kept tracking the contractions at 2-3 mins apart we half assed packed a hospital bag and set off for the hospital.
They brought us in to l&d and got me hooked up on the monitors and confirmed that I was having contractions. Ok no worries, surely these are just some random ones that will go away I thought. Then the resident came in and checked me and said I was dilated to 3cm..and this was the point where the fog officially set in. She said that they would continue to monitor me and that there was a good chance the contractions would stop but her gut was telling her "this was it." Holy shit. She explained that b/c I was at 34 weeks, the baby's lungs were well enough developed that they wouldn't do anything to stop the labor, but they wouldn't do anything to speed it up either. So we just needed to wait it out and see what happened. Over the next couple of hours I dilated to 4 and the contractions slowed a bit. Well, they didn't ever really slow, they just moved lower to where the monitor was no longer picking them up so the nurses told me they weren't happening anymore so they decided to take me off the monitors and move me to a room for overnight observation.
We moved into a reg room on the same floor around 3pm and I was told that if I started to have contractions again to let the nurse know. Confusing, b/c I thought I was still having contractions...but ok. So for the rest of the afternoon and evening when a nurse came in I would explain the cross between a bad period cramp and gas cramp pain I was having and was told that there was nothing I could take for that b/c they ddin't want to mask any "real labor" pains. 1 nurse even appeased me and put me back on the monitor but again told me they weren't real contractions b/c the top of my uterus wasn't contracting at all. So I continued to suffer through these "mystery pains" until about 4am when my new nurse (and knight in shining armour) decided to put me back on the monitor and MOVE THE DAMN BELT LOWER to where the pain was happening. And lo and behold, guess who was having contractions?! The resident was then called in and confirmed I was at 6cm, and they were moving me back to l&d and more importantly meant I was ready for an epidural!!!!!
All I will say is that whoever invented the epidural is my hero. And I will also say that those women that can make it through all of labor and delivery without one has my respect for life x2. Once getting the epidural I was finally able to get a few hours of sleep before they broke my water followed shortly by another check around 10am that I was ready to start pushing. And finally at 11:55am I heard the word from Andrew's mouth "it's a boy!"
Jack was quickly taken over across the room for observation by the NICU team and I was only able to hold him for about a minute before they took him downstairs to NICU. I'll never forget his sweet little face the first time I saw him - he was so perfect and adorable. I mean really adorable! I had finally gotten the 3 things I always wanted in a baby: a boy named Jack, with a lot of hair and with the Kobler family crooked toe!
I'm spent after writing this entry so I'll follow up on Jack's condition and pics in my next post but, he's doing great and is one tough little nugget! Welcome to the world, Baby Jack - we love you so much it hurts!!!
On NYE, after a rousing game of Illiniopoly and a viewing of "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" we went to bed around 1am. Around 2:30am I woke up to some pains in my abdomen. I was able to doze through them a bit, but woke up again at 3:30 and they were a bit more consistent and happening every few minutes and my tummy was tightening and bulging in places every time. It was at this point that I started to realize they were contractions...but as I hadn't even experienced one contraction prior to this, surely they were just Braxton Hicks contractions. As the time went on so did the contractions and finally at 6am I woke Andrew up and told him I thought I needed to call the doc. Spoke to the doc on call and he said to give it another hour and if they were still happening to go ahead to l&d to get checked out. So, for the next hour we kept telling ourselves that no way this was it, but as the handy contraction calculator kept tracking the contractions at 2-3 mins apart we half assed packed a hospital bag and set off for the hospital.
They brought us in to l&d and got me hooked up on the monitors and confirmed that I was having contractions. Ok no worries, surely these are just some random ones that will go away I thought. Then the resident came in and checked me and said I was dilated to 3cm..and this was the point where the fog officially set in. She said that they would continue to monitor me and that there was a good chance the contractions would stop but her gut was telling her "this was it." Holy shit. She explained that b/c I was at 34 weeks, the baby's lungs were well enough developed that they wouldn't do anything to stop the labor, but they wouldn't do anything to speed it up either. So we just needed to wait it out and see what happened. Over the next couple of hours I dilated to 4 and the contractions slowed a bit. Well, they didn't ever really slow, they just moved lower to where the monitor was no longer picking them up so the nurses told me they weren't happening anymore so they decided to take me off the monitors and move me to a room for overnight observation.
We moved into a reg room on the same floor around 3pm and I was told that if I started to have contractions again to let the nurse know. Confusing, b/c I thought I was still having contractions...but ok. So for the rest of the afternoon and evening when a nurse came in I would explain the cross between a bad period cramp and gas cramp pain I was having and was told that there was nothing I could take for that b/c they ddin't want to mask any "real labor" pains. 1 nurse even appeased me and put me back on the monitor but again told me they weren't real contractions b/c the top of my uterus wasn't contracting at all. So I continued to suffer through these "mystery pains" until about 4am when my new nurse (and knight in shining armour) decided to put me back on the monitor and MOVE THE DAMN BELT LOWER to where the pain was happening. And lo and behold, guess who was having contractions?! The resident was then called in and confirmed I was at 6cm, and they were moving me back to l&d and more importantly meant I was ready for an epidural!!!!!
All I will say is that whoever invented the epidural is my hero. And I will also say that those women that can make it through all of labor and delivery without one has my respect for life x2. Once getting the epidural I was finally able to get a few hours of sleep before they broke my water followed shortly by another check around 10am that I was ready to start pushing. And finally at 11:55am I heard the word from Andrew's mouth "it's a boy!"
Jack was quickly taken over across the room for observation by the NICU team and I was only able to hold him for about a minute before they took him downstairs to NICU. I'll never forget his sweet little face the first time I saw him - he was so perfect and adorable. I mean really adorable! I had finally gotten the 3 things I always wanted in a baby: a boy named Jack, with a lot of hair and with the Kobler family crooked toe!
I'm spent after writing this entry so I'll follow up on Jack's condition and pics in my next post but, he's doing great and is one tough little nugget! Welcome to the world, Baby Jack - we love you so much it hurts!!!
Aw! We love you all!
ReplyDeleteYAY!! Welcome to the world Jack the baby (as he is affectionately known as at our house). We love you to pieces!!
ReplyDelete