noah benjamin thompson: Introducing Noah Benjamin Thompson

I have been meaning to write this post for the past three weeks, but as you can imagine we have been a little busy. My goal moving forward is to update the blog at least weekly with pictures and updates, so please check back and see how I do. As this may be a long post, feel free to jump to the sections you are interested in!

Leading up to Noah's arrival:
I had a post entitled '10 days and counting' drafted that I obviously never finished. In the days before he arrived, I was pretty busy getting ready for him. I ran what felt like a million errands, froze 8 meals for us, finished our Christmas shopping and wrapping and organized the house (our fridge and pantry have never looked so good!). We also attended several holiday parties and got to catch up with a lot of friends. Below are pictures of us the weekend before he arrived. I continued to feel great the entire time and we had no indication he was coming early since just 2 days before he arrived I was only 2cm dilated (and 100% effaced). I was absolutely certain he would be late and I would be induced.

Noah's arrival and my labor experience:
Noah arrived 9 days early on December 20th at 6:50pm. He weighed in at 6lbs 10.5oz and measured 20in long.

I had several people tell me what labor felt like for them and did a lot of reading about what to expect, but in spite of all that, I was convinced I was not in labor until I was pretty far along. I woke up the morning he was born and felt some mild cramps, so I figured I was 'preparing' for labor and went for my daily run. Then, when I was getting ready to meet Ben for lunch, I really started to not feel great (more cramping and quite a bit of nausea), so I called him to cancel but convinced him I was fine and just needed to rest (except that I soon discovered laying down was even worse than standing). I finally decided to call my OB around 12:30pm, and the nurse asked me to time my 'cramps' for an hour and call back. I timed them and found they were happening every 4-5 minutes (during this hour I continued to be extremely nauseous and even made a trip to CVS for a sprite). Despite the horrendous pain and timing of the 'cramps', I was still convinced it wasn't labor, but the nurse asked me to come in , so I had Ben to come home and drive me (too much pain to drive but not in labor, obvously). He rushed home and took me to the OB office (and yes, we left our bags at home since, like I said, this was not labor).

When we finally got to the office, they hooked me up to a machine to monitor the potential contractions, and low and behold, it was labor! The OB then checked me and discovered I was 5cm dilated, so she had us walk immediately to the hospital to check in. What should have been a 5 minute walk took us 20 because I had to stop every minute or so for a contraction. When we finally got to L&D and checked in it was around 3:30pm and I was ready for an epidural. Unfortunately I needed a bag of fluid first, so that took at least an hour thanks to our nurse trainee who couldn't start my IV. Finally by about 4:45pm I had the epidural and life was good again. At this point I sent Ben home to get our bags and take care of George. Ben got back right around 6pm when the OB came to check me and discovered I was 10cm dilated and ready to start pushing. Luckily I only had to push twice and Noah arrived!

I got to hold him as soon as he arrived and it was the best moment of my life. He was (is) perfect, and Ben and I couldn't be more in love. Here are some pictures from his birthday:

Our hospital stay:
Thankfully our stay was pretty uneventful. The nurses were nice and we had a few wonderful visitors, including my parents who arrived the morning after he was born. We did keep him with us both nights, and our lack of sleep was definitely more due to the nurses constantly checking us than him waking up. Thankfully there were no issues with me or Noah, so we got home less than 48 hours later. Here are some pictures from the rest of our stay:

Aunt Michelle

Grandma Bea

Grandpa Art

Going home!

His first month:

I can happily say this has been the best month of my life. Yes, I'm a little tired and have had a minor meltdown or two due to exhaustion but I wouldn't trade it for anything. He is generally a happy baby and only fusses when he's hungry. He has been sleeping in a bassinet in our room since we got home (Ben and George have been in the guest room) but may move to his crib soon. I will be sad to see him go but think it may help both of us sleep better. We are using the Moms on Call method and are working our way up to having him sleep from 9pm to 2am and then until 6 or 7am. So far we've gotten to 2am some nights but have had a few where we only got to 12:30 or 1am.

The first few days he was tired all the time and wasn't gaining weight so we had to supplement with formula. This was much harder on me than on him as he was more than happy to get milk out of a bottle (yes, he's a lazy eater or a 'snack and snoozer' as we like to call it). I felt like somewhat of a failure but have come to terms with it since it was best for him. Since week one I have been spending a lot of time pumping and he now only gets formula for his 9pm feeding (this is in an attempt to get him to sleep to 2am). I plan to keep pumping as long as possible, but it is starting to wear on me because I'm feeding him 7 times a day and then pumping 8-9 times a day.

We celebrated our first Christmas with just the family and it was wonderful. Noah got a million presents but slept through us opening most of them. We've also had a lot of visitors who have come bearing advice, food and great company.

Over this last month Noah has gradually become much more alert and is most awake in the mornings after his 9am and noon meals. We 'play' as much as possible then, and play pretty much involves him looking around the room (he is just starting to make eye contact and stare at objects), tummy time, swinging and lots of cuddling.

We try to do one outing most days, such as a grocery store trip or lunch with a friend. This is as much as we can handle since he still eats every three hours during the day. In the afternoons when it is nice we also go for a long walk in the neighborhood. He likes to sleep in his bassinet during our walks but will hopefully start being more alert for them.

I could go on for pages about everything that's happened so far, but to spare you all too much detail, I will stop now and just post highlight pictures. The last thing I will say is that we haven't forgotten our other two boys, and they are adjusting as well as could be expected. George needs a lot of attention from Ben but likes to lick Noah and shows great concern when he cries. The Nibby on the other hand pretends that Noah doesn't exist. The first two weeks he wouldn't even sit on the couch with us but has since resumed his normal position while continuing to ignore Noah.