Noah’s Birth Story

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Baby’s name: Noah
Mama’s name: Allison
Baby’s birth date: June 8, 2017
Birth Location: Newport Beach, CA

Noah was born on June 8, 2017 at 7:36 in the morning. My pregnancy was wonderful in every way and I knew that baby boy was going to just as gentle, kind and active on the outside as he was in my belly. That’s why we thought the name Noah, which means “comfort,” was the perfect fit.

I started having continuous Braxton Hicks contractions, about ten minutes apart, all day Monday and Tuesday. I wasn’t sure if this was real labor because they were so far apart, not super painful and I couldn’t feel them in my back, where real contractions will start. Tuesday evening the contractions had slowed down a lot so I took a Benedryl to make sure I could sleep that night. Wednesday I woke up and didn’t feel anything all day, which was so disappointing because I was ready to meet our little boy! After a mellow day of checking on our house renovations and playing with my niece, my husband, Kevin, and I went for a long walk on the boardwalk by our house. We talked a lot about the baby and all of our name options. I had a few really strong contractions during the walk and when I got home decided to take a bath. That’s when everything picked up a lot. I used the timer app on my phone to see how far apart they were and things rapidly moved from 8 minutes apart to 5. We wanted to wait until they were at least 4 minutes apart to go to the hospital because I didn’t want to go back home if it was a false alarm. I got out of the bath when contractions became closer – I had to blow dry my hair and look somewhat presentable for the birth, of course. I was still in denial that this was the real deal, but eventually told Kevin that he should wrap up things with work and send everyone an email that we were going to the hospital. We frantically grabbed last items for our hospital bag, including all the coconut water my prenatal yoga instructor recommended we drink (never had time to do this or any of the counter pressure exercises we had practiced!), took our dog out for one last walk, loaded the car up and headed off to the hospital.

We parked in the parking garage and walked down to the building and I remember feeling so excited and giddy that we were actually here! This was really happening! Maybe. We checked into triage at 11pm and I remember saying “I feel like I’m over-reacting” but when the nurse checked me she said, “Nope, definitely not over reacting. You’re at 6 cm already!” We waited in triage for about half an hour, where they hooked up my IV and waited for a room in labor and delivery. By the time we left I was already at 8 cm and everyone kept commenting how they couldn’t believe I was walking down the hallway. In the labor room, everything got way more intense and I was on the floor the whole time, on my hands and knees and lying over a birthing ball. Nurses had mentioned that everything would feel much more painful once my waters broke and it was seeming to take forever to progress past 8 cm, so this is when I started to get really nervous and seriously consider an epidural. After two hours of waiting and only getting to 9cm in that time, I decided I wanted the epidural so things would hopefully speed up and I’d have enough energy to push. Since this was our first baby I assumed I’d be pushing for a while. But, the anesthesiologist had just headed to an emergency C-section and wouldn’t be able to give me any medication for another hour at least. I had to bear another hour of very intense contractions and my knees were starting to give out so I climbed on the bed and gripped handlebars to support myself in the hands and knees position for as long as I could. I was so scared to get an epidural, but Kevin reassured me the whole time and it was completely pain-free.

Once the epidural kicked in I felt so much relief and the nurses urged us to rest for a little while. Kevin took a nap but I only shut my eyes for five minutes before nurses started coming in again because baby’s heart rate was dipping with each contraction. They had me change sides every few minutes in case he was lying on the umbilical cord. Unfortunately the epidural did not speed things up, nor did breaking my waters, and we waited another two hours before I was even at 9.75 cm dilated. Around 6 am I was finally at a 10 and ready to push! We waited a bit longer in hopes that baby’s heart rate would stop dropping, but then at 6:30 the nurses decided we’d better give it a try because some babies do better while pushing. I pushed through two contractions but they were still only coming every 5 minutes,, so we agreed to a tiny bit of Pitocin to make them come faster. I had really wanted to avoid Pitocin but luckily we only had the smallest amount of it and only for an hour. The medication kicked in immediately and I pushed through two more contractions and then we had to wait a half hour until the doctor arrived to catch the baby. Two more pushes and he was out!

It was one of the most amazing and special moments, being handed our baby for the first time and seeing his precious face. It is so hard to describe the amount of joy I felt that this moment was actually here – this was our baby! He had the sweetest little face and button nose and opened his bright eyes to gaze around at us, so calm. I was a mom! And, Kevin was a dad! After an hour of skin to skin nurses weighed and measured him – 6 lbs and 2 oz and 19.75 inches long. He was tiny but strong and Kevin commented right away that he had my long fingers and grippy toes. I was so thrilled that he was here and in awe of his baby perfection that I barely remember what happened during this time. I just stared into his eyes and cuddled his teeny tiny body and then it was time to go to our room where we would stay for the next couple of days.

My parents, brother and sister came to visit us in the hospital. How surreal to introduce this little bundle to his family! We stayed all day Thursday and Friday and went home Saturday afternoon after a final check from my OB and the pediatrician. Noah and I were wheeled out of the hospital in a wheelchair while Daddy went to get the car. We loaded Noah in his new car seat and set off towards home. And, the rest is history! We were a family of three with the most precious baby boy we ever could have dreamed of.