Noah's Arrival

He's (finally) here!!!

The short version:

After the aforementioned waiting game, I finally

went into labor around/after dinner on Thursday night, labored at home with B, my mom and two midwives for support and gave birth to Noah at 3:57 a.m. in an almost water birth ;-) He clocked in at 8 lbs. 4 oz and was a whopping 21" long.

The full version:

Happily, all it seemed to take to get him to come was a good dose of maternal despair :)

Aprox. 24 hrs after writing my last post I was in my other (hospital) midwife's office hearing that I was now 3 cm dilated, 80% effaced and could go anytime! Woo hoo! Sure enough, a 1.5 hr walk with B, and some Olive Garden for dinner had me wondering if the odd mixture of intermittent tightening/gas pains/menstrual-like cramps I was feeling was finally N conceding to come (I'd

never been to Olive Garden, maybe this was a typical reaction!).

Not wanting to get anyone's hopes up I didn't say much about it. T went for a sleepover at the grandparents' hotel as planned and B and I headed home to watch some T.V. before an "early" night. Half way through our second program I realized that I was needing B to rub my lower back in order to concentrate - not exactly gas pains anymore! I began timing the pressure waves (aka contractions) on a handy phone app, while B started rushing around preparing the tub, supplies and calling our home birth midwives. I started listening to my Hypnobabies tracks but had to keep stopping to time my surges which were about a 1-1.5 min long and coming 3-5 min apart.

Mom came over after a call at midnight and the midwives arrived around 1 a.m. The one thing I dreaded after T - back labor - had returned with N, but while it prevented me from having a completely comfortable birth, the hypnobabies training meant that instead of being a screaming banshee like I was with T, I was able to make it through active labor with only "Shhh"-ing sounds during pressure waves, and B or mom rubbing my back. For transition (considered the hardest part of labor) I changed to low moans and "Ahhh"-ing and was able to cope in the tub pretty well. Hooray for hypnobabies! :)

Pushing, however, was a different matter! I'll spare you the details, except to say he was born half on the caul (very rare and supposedly good luck), but with shoulder dystocia. So while things got a bit hairy for a couple minutes as/after he was born, I actually didn't know how hairy until debriefing with the midwife today. Save to say, we had an incredibly experienced midwife team, Noah is a little fighter and things worked out fine.

Now that he's here I can say he's beautiful (in one mama's humble, unbiased opinion), a great nurser (maybe a little too great at times...), and has spent his first 36 hrs of life dedicatedly nursing, sleeping, pooping and when he's not snoozing, gazing around and being cuddled by his big sister.

She's taken to him with unbridled enthusiasm, though it's been a challenge to explain all the new limitations of having a little, live baby to receive her love, who's decidedly less robust than her resilient (plastic) baby doll.

It's been great reading the well-wishes and love pouring in over e-mail, text, phone and facebook. I've been urged to stay home for a few days (not how I normally roll as many readers know) but we're looking forward to a few visitors over the coming days/week and hopefully, a short-notice apt. at the office of vital records so N, T, B & I can make our flights to Canada next week! We look forward to as many of you as possible meeting him then, if not sooner.