At only three weeks old, Noah received his first piece of mail (his Social Security card)! He was so excited he decided to balance it on his head. He was even more excited when his Daddy came home from a week away in Charlotte...
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Noah is Tech Savvy!
While Dave was in Charlotte, NC on another College Board trip in August, he received a very special text message:
Goodnight, Daddy. I can't wait to see you! Love, Noah
Goodnight, Daddy. I can't wait to see you! Love, Noah
The First Night-mare
Dave & I took Noah home from the hospital in the late afternoon on Saturday, July 28. Heading into our first night alone with him, we were tired, overwhelmed, & all of those things that new parents are.
Unfortunately, we were dealing with additional stress: Dave got violently ill that night & was also preparing to leave the next morning. Long ago, when we thought Noah would be born early, Dave scheduled a three-day College Board work trip that ended up falling days after Noah was born. That didn't seem too bad, until Dave ended up spending the night in the downstairs bathroom with me upstairs trying to figure out what to do with Noah. It was horrible! We really wondered what we had gotten ourselves into.
But thankfully the morning came, and "every day is fresh with no mistakes in it" (gotta love Anne of Green Gables), and things seemed much better. We're glad that first night-mare is over!
Unfortunately, we were dealing with additional stress: Dave got violently ill that night & was also preparing to leave the next morning. Long ago, when we thought Noah would be born early, Dave scheduled a three-day College Board work trip that ended up falling days after Noah was born. That didn't seem too bad, until Dave ended up spending the night in the downstairs bathroom with me upstairs trying to figure out what to do with Noah. It was horrible! We really wondered what we had gotten ourselves into.
But thankfully the morning came, and "every day is fresh with no mistakes in it" (gotta love Anne of Green Gables), and things seemed much better. We're glad that first night-mare is over!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
The Hospital Stay
We stayed at St. Luke's for two days/nights. A few highlights of our time there:
* We love that they offered us the option to "sleep" and have Noah in the nursery. Great in concept, but in reality we were up every two hours or so, between feeding Noah, getting my vitals checked, and taking medicine!
* Nurse Kamron is the best baby floor nurse around. She spent hours with us, listening, sharing, and teaching us everything we might need to know. We would have been lost without her! (I'm sorry to report that she has moved on to another dept. at St. Luke's & is no longer on the 8th floor!)
* I ate the most amazing German chocolate cake while in the hospital. NO, it wasn't St. Luke's cuisine - Dave's fabulous sister Jennifer got it for me from Cottonwood Grille. Seriously - go get some. You have to try that stuff!
* I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I actually ordered & consumed cajun chicken. Problematic for two reasons: "cajun" in hospital speak just means "overly peppered," and most breastfeeding mothers have already figured out that this isn't a good idea...
* So many wonderful folks stopped by to see Noah: my parents & sister Heather; Dave's mom & sister Jennifer; Dave's supervisor Sage & classmate Amy; my supervisor Mary, co-worker Anne & her daughter Madeleine; and our friends Aaron & Carrie and Diane.
* It took us forever to leave the hospital, with feeding Noah forty times, figuring out the carseat, waiting for the wheelchair & getting the massive amount of stuff we accumulated to the car.
* The ride home was quite an experience! I sat in the back of the van with Noah with my pinkie in his mouth (a trick we learned from the nurses - we hadn't discovered pacifiers yet). Dave drove like a grandpa, he was so afraid that Noah's little neck would snap if we turned corners too quickly!
* We love that they offered us the option to "sleep" and have Noah in the nursery. Great in concept, but in reality we were up every two hours or so, between feeding Noah, getting my vitals checked, and taking medicine!
* Nurse Kamron is the best baby floor nurse around. She spent hours with us, listening, sharing, and teaching us everything we might need to know. We would have been lost without her! (I'm sorry to report that she has moved on to another dept. at St. Luke's & is no longer on the 8th floor!)
* I ate the most amazing German chocolate cake while in the hospital. NO, it wasn't St. Luke's cuisine - Dave's fabulous sister Jennifer got it for me from Cottonwood Grille. Seriously - go get some. You have to try that stuff!
* I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I actually ordered & consumed cajun chicken. Problematic for two reasons: "cajun" in hospital speak just means "overly peppered," and most breastfeeding mothers have already figured out that this isn't a good idea...
* So many wonderful folks stopped by to see Noah: my parents & sister Heather; Dave's mom & sister Jennifer; Dave's supervisor Sage & classmate Amy; my supervisor Mary, co-worker Anne & her daughter Madeleine; and our friends Aaron & Carrie and Diane.
* It took us forever to leave the hospital, with feeding Noah forty times, figuring out the carseat, waiting for the wheelchair & getting the massive amount of stuff we accumulated to the car.
* The ride home was quite an experience! I sat in the back of the van with Noah with my pinkie in his mouth (a trick we learned from the nurses - we hadn't discovered pacifiers yet). Dave drove like a grandpa, he was so afraid that Noah's little neck would snap if we turned corners too quickly!
Memories from the Delivery Room...
Here are a few of the little things we want to remember from the delivery room...
* While we waited for the pitocin to kick in, we turned on the TV and watched a bit of Best in Show. That movie is hilarious, even when you're in labor!
* When Noah's head poked out, Dr. Maybach told me to look down (I was concentrating on pushing). The first thing out of my mouth? "Oh my goodness - this is like a sci fi movie!"
* I'll never forget Dave's smile. They gave Noah to the NICU staff first, and he kept running back and forth between Noah and me, saying, "Did you see him?! He's so beautiful!"
* It was amazing to look at Noah for the first time, and to run my finger over his little head...
* While we waited for the pitocin to kick in, we turned on the TV and watched a bit of Best in Show. That movie is hilarious, even when you're in labor!
* When Noah's head poked out, Dr. Maybach told me to look down (I was concentrating on pushing). The first thing out of my mouth? "Oh my goodness - this is like a sci fi movie!"
* I'll never forget Dave's smile. They gave Noah to the NICU staff first, and he kept running back and forth between Noah and me, saying, "Did you see him?! He's so beautiful!"
* It was amazing to look at Noah for the first time, and to run my finger over his little head...
* Shortly after he was born, my parents, sister, and Dave's mom came in to meet him for the first time. That was amazing to watch!
Monday, September 10, 2007
The Big Day
Little Man Jones wasn't quite ready to enter the world on his own, so we had to push him a little bit...
Dave & I made our way to St. Luke's downtown on Thursday, July 26 at 7:00 a.m. It felt a bit odd walking into the hospital, not rushed and knowing that I would leave without a belly and with a baby! By 8:00 a.m., I was changed and ready to go, and Dr. Maybach arrived to break my water (that was crazy, feeling like I was peeing everywhere!) and turn on the pitocin. We weren't sure how quickly things would get moving, so when Maryann (the best L/D nurse ever) checked me at 9:00 and I had only progressed from 3 to 4 cm, I figured it was going to take forever...
And boy, was I wrong! By the time my parents and sister Heather arrived, the contractions were really going. And by 10:15 or so, they were so rapid and intense that I declared I was done and was going home (and I even tried to get out of the bed at that point). Maryann tipped me off that it might be a great time for an epidural (thank God for her!) and by 10:45, relief was mine. She checked me after the epidural, and I was already at 9.5 cm! We rested a bit, turned on my Enya cd, and I started pushing at about 11:15. Once I got the hang of it, he got moving and Mr. Noah David Jones entered the world at 12:08 p.m. He took his time at first, but once he made up his mind there was no stopping him!
The dr. discovered a bit of meconium when my water broke, so the NICU staff had to be on hand to make sure all was well when he was born. And it was - he was a healthy 7 lb., 12 oz. boy at 20 inches long!
"Relaxing" the Wednesday Before
In preparation for my scheduled induction on Thursday, July 26, Dave and I took work off the Wednesday before to "relax and prepare."
The day had a lovely beginning: sleeping in and a lovely lunch at Goldy's. But after two frustrating hours on the phone trying to accomplish seemingly simple tasks with horrible customer service employees, my blood pressure was up and the day wasn't feeling so relaxing. In an attempt to redeem the evening, Dave decided to get dinner from one of our favorite Boise stops: Guido's. He set out intending to run a few quick errands before picking it up, but that went south, too -- three horrible hours later, he finally came home with our lukewarm dinner and a headache to boot!
We were able to laugh about it while having a lovely meal on our back patio, despite the fact that we started eating dinner at the time we intended to be heading to bed! Oh well...maybe this was meant to prepare us for the uncertainties of parenting?!
The day had a lovely beginning: sleeping in and a lovely lunch at Goldy's. But after two frustrating hours on the phone trying to accomplish seemingly simple tasks with horrible customer service employees, my blood pressure was up and the day wasn't feeling so relaxing. In an attempt to redeem the evening, Dave decided to get dinner from one of our favorite Boise stops: Guido's. He set out intending to run a few quick errands before picking it up, but that went south, too -- three horrible hours later, he finally came home with our lukewarm dinner and a headache to boot!
We were able to laugh about it while having a lovely meal on our back patio, despite the fact that we started eating dinner at the time we intended to be heading to bed! Oh well...maybe this was meant to prepare us for the uncertainties of parenting?!
Long Time, No Blog!
I know, I know - it's been a long time! But we've been a bit busy...Noah is now 6 weeks and 4 days old, and we have dozens of stories (and hundreds of pictures!) to share with all of you. So, without further ado, we'll do our best to give you at least the really good highlights thus far...
(We're working on our blog from Java - Noah loves coffeeshops!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)