Noah Has Arrived!

It's been a while since I updated anything here, but I was waiting for Noah to make his debut so that I could share it with you.
Then, I waited some more.
Then, we had to wait for him to come out of the NICU.
Then...but, I'm getting ahead of myself.


Noah William Head arrived on January 19, 2014 at 12:32 a.m., via emergency c section.


All day, I had been not-so-patiently wishing he would hurry up and show us his beautiful face. It was, after all, my due date, and I had never made it all the way to my due date with either of my other pregnancies. It was time, already!
At 11:30 that night, my water broke and I woke Dan to tell him the good news. I asked him to bring me my phone so I could call the doctor and then take a shower, get dressed, and make our way to the hospital to have this baby. I told the doctor on call that my water had broken, and he cheerfully said that he would see me at the hospital shortly.
I went into the bathroom and noticed that something just didn't feel right. Although I didn't know what it was called at the time, I had an umbilical cord prolapse. I don't want to go into all the details here, but here is a link, if you're curious about what exactly happens when the cord is born before the baby:
http://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/pregnancy-health/complications/cord-prolapse.aspx


This wasn't a problem I had ever read about before, but of course, nothing is outside the realm of possibility, so I was alarmed, but not hysterical. I thought it might complicate the delivery a bit, but I had no idea how serious it was.


When we arrived at the hospital - and, no, I didn't take the time to shower and make myself look presentable - I told the nurse at the front desk that my water had broken and that I could see the cord. (She later told me she was amazed at how calm I was when I revealed the information about the cord) The next thing I knew, I was being wheeled on all fours into a room to get prepped for an emergency c section. I still was not really panicking because, again, neither Dan nor I had any sense of the gravity of the situation.


They put me to sleep and the next thing I knew, the doctor was in the recovery room, asking me if I was ready to see my miracle baby. We arrived at the hospital at 12:21. Noah was born at 12:32. According to the recovery room nurse, it is really something when a baby survives an umbilical cord prolapse, especially when it happens at home, and just a few more minutes could have had disastrous results. His APGAR score at birth was 1. Five minutes later, it was 6. Five minutes later, by the grace of our merciful God, it was 8.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_center/q_a/apgar.html# (If you're unfamiliar with APGAR, here you go)




Noah came into the world at 8 lbs, 13 oz and 20.5 inches long. He's certainly the biggest of the three! We're also guessing he might have been the biggest baby in the NICU, but I'm guessing they see a lot of preemies.


Thanks to God, the prayers of our friends and family, and the NICU staff at Brookwood, he thrived and came home after a week. It's as if there were never any complications at all. We will still need to keep an eye on him to be sure he meets all his milestones and continues to grow the way healthy little boys should, because he did lose some oxygen during the ordeal, and his carbon dioxide levels were very high at birth.
But, as for now, he is our perfect Noah, beloved by all who see his sweet face as hold his warm little body.


Thank you, everyone who prayed for us and everyone who has brought us meals and offered to help out. It's good to know we have people we can count on. :) I wish I could list all the people to whom we owe a debt of gratitude, but a list that long would take an awfully long time to make.
Lately, I have been so worried and, honestly, angry about a list of prayers I felt were bouncing off the ceiling like a rubber ball. But, what if Dan had found a job? What if his responsibilities hadn't allowed him to stay at the hospital, in the NICU with Noah and me? What if we had bought a house that's just the right size for our family, but it had been 10 minutes farther away from the hospital? What would have happened to Noah? Maybe our prayers aren't really going unanswered. Maybe God is just looking out for us in ways that we can't see. And, maybe that sounds too simple, but I have to believe in his providence, otherwise nothing makes sense.


I promise I'll post pictures when Blogger lets me.


"The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes." Psalm 118:23