Our Beautiful Baby Boy

As many of you know, we had our baby boy, Noah Nathaniel Christensen, yesterday July 10, 2009 at 2:03 pm. He weighed 8 pounds .08 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. Sound familiar? That's because those are almost the exact same numbers for Gabbie when she was born. Anyway, here is his birth story...

I went in to my doctors appointment on Thursday July 9 and after checking me and finding out I was dilated to a 4 almost 5, my doctor said I could be induced if I wanted to be. Now this was something I was super excited to hear. I had been very swollen for the entire last month of pregnancy and nothing I did made it go down. There was extreme pressure every time I moved I shouted out in pain and it was way too hot to be so pregnant. So we called over to the hospital and they had an opening for Friday at 8am. We jumped on it.

When we got to the hospital, they hooked me up to an iv, did some blood work, asked a bunch of questions, and started me on pitocin by 8:20. My doctor got there at 8:45, checked me and broke my water. I was dilated to a 6 almost 7 at that point. I had talked about never having a baby without an epi but over the last few weeks, I had really been feeling like I wanted to try it without one. So, I did. Kyle was amazing as he sat beside me and let me squeeze his hand when a strong contraction came on. He was wonderful! I labored for 6 hours, I think. They checked me again and had me do one initial push to get Noah down in position. Kyle knows more of what happened next so ask him to explain it in more detail. My doctor came in, they transformed the bed and I was ready to push. With one hard push, Noah started to crown. This is where everything is pretty vague in my memory but he was crowning for a good ten minutes. My contractions would happen, I'd push, and then nothing...no contraction for a stretch of time, twice. I finally got the energy to keep pushing and three pushes later, he was out. He totally just slid right out because I could not stop pushing when the doctor told me to. Sorry for the long story but this way I only have to tell it once. Here are the inital pictures from the day:

getting ready...

Noah getting his vitals checked.

Daddy holding his little guy for the first time. (He even cut the cord this time around!)

Every time Noah tried to open his eyes he would start wimpering because the light hurt. Kyle was trying to shield him a little bit so he could see. Noah has the cutest lip quiver when he is upset. We'll try to get it on video sometime so all you guys can see it.

Yes, I do look drugged. That's because I was! They gave me some pain meds instead of the epi and they made me super loopy. There are things Kyle said I did that I have no recollection of at all (my cheeks are super puffy because my tooth infection is back...thank goodness I can now go get that root canal finished).

I feel so blessed to have made it through another safe delivery of a baby. I did end up getting second to third degree tears but I think overall, the experience without an epi was much more enjoyable and rewarding. Hope everyone loves the pictures we will be posting over the next few weeks. We love you all and thanks for your support during my pregnancy, move, and delivery.