Where to begin?! The last 3 weeks...

Oh my goodness where do I even start. This is quite possibly going to be the longest entry ever. I have got to get better at this blogging thing to try and hold on to each and every little memory of Noah. So I'll start with the 19th of February, Noah's due date.

And so it starts:

I was scheduled for an induction on the 21st because this little guy was just too snuggly in his mommy's belly. My sister, mom & dad had come in town already and we were sitting down to relax around 10ish Saturday night. My feet were killing me so my sweet hubs was giving me a little foot rub when all of a sudden my water broke. I wasn't sure at first...and then moments later was VERY sure. We were so excited!! Me and eric rushed to our room to grab the last few things...eric was literally jumping at one point he was so excited haha I love that man!! We were giddy at this point hurrying about trying to realize he had decided to come on his own...we had prayed and prayed for this and were overwhelmed at the detail of God in allowing it to happen! We told my fam goodbye, told them we'd call with news when we had it, and pulled out headed to the hospital. Such sweet/surreal moments driving to the hospital with my best friend/hubs.

The Hospital:

We checked in, got hooked up to the monitor, and settled in for what we thought would be a somewhat uneventful next couple of hours. At this point I could feel mild contractions but nothing that I couldn't handle for sure. I was offered the epidural but wanted to wait a while longer and see what my body could handle. Noah's little heart was beating away, and as a l/d nurse I was so proud to look at his tracing and see it look so "perfect". I was encouraged to walk but wanted to wait a little bit. I had gotten up briefly around 12ish and just as I had gotten myself (with eric's help) hooked back up to the monitors I heard Noah's heart rate drastically falling...slower slower slower. I hit the nurse call and was moving the monitor around on my belly trying to tell myself maybe it was picking up my heart rate vs. his and that everything was okay. Eric noticed me panicking trying to find it, the nurse came in as I was letting my bed down to lie flat in hopes of finding his heart rate. After 2-3 minutes of my nurse trying to remain calm I then saw her trying to not panic as she called for more help, hooked me up to oxygen, rolling me from side to side. At this point I'm praying, Eric's praying, I'm going through what is happening as a nurse and am literally fighting being scared to death for my baby and the possibility of a c-section. As another nurse came in, our Dr was called from home, and finally after 8 extremely long minutes Noah's little heart rate started to come back up slowly but surely. His heart rate had gotten down into the 60's. Ahh even typing that out makes my stomach turn. I was left with the oxygen on, eric & I were both shaken from the ordeal, but we tried to calm ourselves back down and his heart rate looked good again. My contractions were picking up by themselves (no pitocin needed woohoo) and were becoming pretty much unbareable. I went ahead and got the epidural, eric was amazing during all of this and was holding me up for the epidural. A couple of hours later we had a repeat of his heart rate falling into the 60-70's. Once again we were shaken up and I returned to praying frantically for God to touch our baby and began boldly claiming that his was not going to drop anymore...we had prayed to hard over this little boy and were believing in all of those prayers! Eric had made a worship mix that we were playing in the room and from that point on it became such an evident realization of God's mighty presence being in the room with us. We had been so scared but I could feel such a loving God assuring us Noah was okay. We read scripture and listened to that worship mix through the night and into the morning waiting on our little miracle to arrive. The night went on with no sleep for me and just a minute here and there for eric. Finally at about 6 I had made significant process to 5cm. Soon after I went from 5cm to 10cm in less than an hour...my nurse couldn't believe it and neither could I but I was ready!

The delivery:

Thankfully I never had to have pitocin during my labor but that did mean my contractions were a little more spaced out which made pushing a little bit longer. Eric did a phenomenal job of holding my head up and encouraging me to keep going. He was perfect...so very proud of him. I only had to push through about 7 contractions lasting for about 30 min of pushing. Our little man arrived at 8:20am that morning. As soon as he was out me and eric were kissing and crying and in awe of God's goodness in those moments. We couldn't believe how much hair Noah had. My dr dried him off (which seemed like an eternity) and then put our sweet baby on my chest...we were instantly in love. Noah immediately stopped crying as soon as he heard mine and Eric's voices and we couldn't stop loving on him. Sweetest thing ever to be so in love with your husband and then to hold the child the two of you now have together. Noah was perfect and we still don't know what his little heart was acting up for! He came out with 8/9 apgar scores and weighing in at 7lb 2oz and was 19 3/4 in. long.

The looks:

We had joked during my pregnancy that Noah was going to come out with a feaux hawk just like eric...and that's exactly what happened haha. Noah has hid daddy's hair (a full head of it too) and same style too. So cute. He has a cute button nose, my "duck" lip, both of our dimple chin, eric's smile dimples, my eyes, and the cutest chubby cheeks ever, oh and a kissable double chin. He is the sweetest little man in the world and we have been perfectly content to stare and kiss on him all day long.

Recap on 3 weeks:

The last 3 weeks have been a wonderful, tiring, rewarding, overwhelming blur. I've become incredibly more dependent on Jesus on showing us how to care for this precious gift he's entrusted us with. Noah really is a sweet baby who has been so alert and smiley from the day he was born! We went through a rough patch with feeding but are now pros at it. He is gaining weight like crazy & is now 9lb 4oz. and growing!! At 3 weeks he is finding our faces to focus on, smiling as a reaction (not just while sleeping), loving his bath time, calming down the minute he hears his daddy talk/sing/play guitar (he's obsessed with his daddy), snuggles with his mommy, loves his story time with his Jesus story book bible, and stealing every bit of his mommy & daddy's hearts!! Eric has been an amazing father and husband during every bit of my pregnancy and now into these last few weeks. I'm so thankful God gave me a man who loves me so selflessly and is making me a better person & is already showing his son what an amazing man looks like. My constant prayer is that Noah will fall in love with Jesus at the earliest possible age and become a man just like his daddy.

So there's the longest post ever. A snapshot of how incredible these last 3 weeks have been. I promise I'm trying to get better at blogging. I'll leave off with some pictures from these last weeks of Noah's arrival and little life.

Brand new

New family

best buddies

heading home

Cousin Carson

Nannie

going home

First day to the park

Smiley boy

So Sweet

Story time

Bath time