Noah Jackson Barnes

The waiting is over! No more baby countdowns on here, no more creepy floating baby thingy, no more heartburn, no more swelling, no more sleep, no more being a cute pregnant lady, no more clean house :)

Noah Jackson Barnes arrived right on schedule at 7:31am on Friday, May 28th. He was huge, as I thought...8lbs 4oz and 21.5 inches long. We are home and doing well a week later!

I've been wanting to post on here for days now, but it's just such a daunting project...so many photos, so many stories and so many details that I just bailed on it entirely! But now, I'm sitting down to get started and we'll see how far I get in this sitting. Hopefully I'll finish it and have it posted tonight but being honest...that's doubtful! Noah will surely want to eat sometime in the next 30 minutes, I should eat at somepoint, Connor's bedtime is creeping up and I've got stuff on tivo! But, we'll see.

We struggled out of bed at 4am when our alarm went off on Friday morning and got started on our day. Jeffrey got in the shower and sleepwalked though getting ready. I flatironed my hair and packed those last minute items that couldn't get in the hospital bag until the very last minute-glasses, contact cast, hairbrush, etc. We were out the door at 4:45 and headed to the hospital. It was odd driving there and not being in labor...just a casual drive to the hospital to have a baby. No big.

We got there at 5 and got checked in. We were taken to triage where I was given the largest hospital gown ever-aparently they are one size fits all. The nurse told me that she hates the new gowns but they are pretty great because they can regulate your temp. I'm always cold so you can seriously set it to warm you up. Awesome. They started with the saline iv, did some paperwork and then we just waited, somewhat patiently. I of course had to pee 47 times after the IV was in which means that the nurse has to take me. I'm sure they love that. Eventually, the anesthesiologist was ready for me and I was taken to the OR for the spinal. With Connor I had an epidural because it was assumed that I'd deliver vaginally...but no. This time I got the spinal which hurt way worse and feels uber creepy. Like you are paralyzed from the chest down. Creepy.

Jeff came in a few moments later all decked out in his OR scrubs and we got started. It was pretty fast once I was back in the OR-they had me all prepped before Jeff even came back. Seriously, as soon as he came back they started cutting. I don't remember any other details, just because of the reality of the situation but a spinal is strange. You can't feel anything like pain or the actual cutting, but you can feel that your skin, muscles and even organs are being messed with. Double Creepy. You feel quite a bit of pressure, but that's about it. After a few minutes I started hearing things from my doctor who had been talking to me all along about a ton of hair, and how big Noah was. I heard a nurse say that he was beautiful and then I felt him being lifted out of me. Triple Creepy. At this point, you just wait to hear that cry and when you hear it, amazing. There's still so much checking and double checking that they do to be sure he's ok, but as a mom laying there the cry is the signal that all is well. At this point, they clean him up a bit and Jeffrey goes over and cuts the cord. Turns out that the cord was around Noah's neck three times. Yes, three times. OMG. Thank God I don't deliver naturally.

After Noah is out, they do my tubal and my doctor tells me about some issues he came across when he got me open. Turns out that my uterus was stretched so thin due to Noah's size that it was dangerous for me-and Noah. Fortunately, he didn't get anxious and decide to come early because the contractions could have been really dangerous. Later, when I wasn't wide open on the OR table, my doctor told me that he would have recommended doing a tubal at that point anyway, because it's highly unlikely that I would have been able to carry a third pregnancy. He told me that if I'd gone into labor myself with Noah and my uterus ruptured or something, the best case outcome would have been a complete hysterectomy. That's scary and I'm glad he waited to tell me this until I'm safely stitched up and sitting in my hospital bed with both of my perfect little boys with me.

So that's pretty much the somewhat quick and dirty delivery story. All ended well and they called us from the nursery after they took Noah to tell us that he was 8lbs 4oz and 21.5 inches. Holy crap. That's more than 2lbs bigger than Connor and more than 2inches bigger. That's quite a difference.

We got into our post partum room and the family started pouring in immediately. My mom and dad, Jeff's parents and Connor, Jeff's sister Sarah, Chuck and Jalen and followed immediately by Jeff's sister Megan, Ryan, Kaden, Jacob and Madison. Thankfully, I think it was a combo of having a friend as a nurse and the other nurses seeing the mass of family waiting for us to come out that they gave us a HUGE room to stay in. Awesome. We had 16 people in that room at one time...I'm sure the nurses loved us, but that's how we roll.

Ok, now that the long, story is done here are pics from Noah's birthday and a couple days later!

we stopped before heading to the hospital to take a quick pic in Noah's room!

here we are in OB triage around 6am. I've got my huge gown, I've peed 4 times in an hour and we're just waiting to hear that it's go time!

just like with connor, i take an amazing pre-op photo. at this point, i'm all prepped, jeff is in the room and they are just about to get started.

go time

this photo was taken at 7:32am...allowing for a difference between the hospital clock and my camera clock of course...this was literally right after he was born. You can also tell by all the cheesy goodness all over him. this looks exactly like him.

all the family outside the nursery eagerly awaiting Noah's arrival. See Connor's little face in the window? Love.

love this picture. Connor brought his little camera with him to the hospital and without anyone even suggesting it, he started taking pics of Noah through the nursery window. I think that's really cute. I've been told all of this happened btw...i'm still in surgery for about another 45 minutes at this point.

graphic nudity? check. Here's the proof...8lbs 4oz. Ouch.

This is right after I'm out of surgery and I'm back in OB triage for a bit. I don't remember why? Maybe they just monitor me...maybe they are waiting for a room to be ready...maybe they are counting family members and wondering where the hell they are going to put us :) Regardless...this was the first time I got to hold Noah! Seriously a few minutes after this was taken he ripped off his hat and tossed it back on the bed. I didn't blame him-he knew I'd bring cuter ones.

Noah gave Connor presents that we gave to him at the hospital. He got this Doc car, a couple baseball books, and some hockey movies. He was thrilled.

Mama, Dada & Noah

Here's my Noah. He has a ton of coal black hair and very, very dark blue eyes. He looks exactly like Connor when he was born. I'll post comparrison pics at some point, but trust...they def look like brothers :)

Jeffrey, the master burper, and Noah

The hospital photographer taking Noah's newborn pics

Papa Van Hook & Noah

Carly visting Noah & I

Grammy Van Hook & Noah

Patricia & Noah

Grammy & Papa Barnes with the boys

Connor taking more photos of Noah

Brothers :)

My big goal was to get a great family pic in the hospital bed, this wasn't really it. I love the pic but Connor was clearly not interested.

My dad can sit and hold Noah (and Connor back in the day) for hours.

Carly & Noah

Sara & Noah

Noah arrived Friday morning and we stayed Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights. Monday morning we were released around 10am and were thrilled to go home. Being in the hospital is nice, but there is just a point where it's time to head home. We loaded Noah in the carseat and hit the road.

teeny in his carseat with his puppy Cinnamon and his owl blanket

Connor and Noah waiting for Dada to pull the car up and take us home!

I'm going to wrap this up here for now, but I promise to write more about recovering from the c-section the second time around (way worse) and about Jeffrey's birthday. Shockingly, there are lots more photos to post as well!