Noah Tyler Creel

To not bury the lead, Noah was born at 6:50pm on Sunday, February 5th.  He weighed 7lb 8oz and was 20 1/4 inches long:

 

Bethany was up through the night with contractions that were increasing in intensity.  She called the doctor around 8:30am to check in (she had several contractions that were 3 minutes apart!) and she told us to head to the hospital.  We went into the “OB Triage” department where we hung out for about an hour until they finished checking things out and admitted us (Bethany was 5cm dilated).

We went upstairs and got settled into our Labor and Delivery room.  After a couple hours of contractions, she was still only at 5cm.  Bethany’s epidural helped relieve the pain of the contractions but made her very sleepy (to which she was certainly entitled – she had been up through the night and hadn’t had anything to eat or drink all day so far!).  We closed the blinds, turned out the lights, and put on the Disney Lullaby music that we play for Lilly and Josiah – it made for a nice relaxing atmosphere to get some rest (I might have stolen a quick nap too) while we could.

After a few more hours, there had been no increase in her dilation so the doctor discussed a choice between a C-section or using Pitocin to increase the contractions.  Because of her previous C-section, the Pitocin brought increased risks of ruptures that she had discussed with her doctor previously and didn’t want to even consider.

It was very strange to be entertaining a C-section again.  We’ve been back and forth so many times during the pregnancy trying to know what to expect.  This last-minute change of plans wasn’t something we’d even given thought to.  The doctor wanted to give her another half hour before the last exam to see if there had been any change.  After the half hour, there still wasn’t any change but the doctor tried manually dilating and she instantly went up to 10cm!

Since he was still very high, Bethany was sitting up to let him work his way down.  Again, she was able to close her eyes to rest (and the nurses made sure I got something to eat, not wanting me to pass out at an inopportune time).

Tomorrow, I’ll sit down and finish out the rest of the story.

When the twins were born, I stayed up late each night updating the blog and am so glad I did.  With Noah, we are getting rest (him too!) and enjoying the day.  Once we’re home, it will be easier (relatively speaking) to get the time to sit down and finish up our stories.

In the meantime, enjoy these pictures: