Noah's story

 

Noah Mark Henson
Born September 3, 2012 at 8:02 pm
Weight 4 pounds 5 ounces
Length: 17 1/2 inches

     I will preface this blog entry by saying that typically I would not post my "birth story" on the internet, but because of so many amazing circumstances surrounding the birth of Noah, I feel like it is only appropriate to share. We credit all of the happenings during the birth to the prayers of all of our friends and family that the Lord graciously answered. The Lord once again provided and protected our family in amazing ways!

   So, on Monday September 3 we went to our obstetrician's office around 9 am to start the induction process. It was wonderful that my parents were able to stay home with Luke and Nathan's parents were able to go with us to the visit. The doctor performed another ultrasound to check my fluid levels as well as see if Noah had grown over the past 5 or 6 days. It revealed that he had not grown, and had possibly even lost a bit of weight. Our obstetrician was convinced that the decision to proceed with the induction was the correct decision. So we began the induction then in his office and were told to return around 4 pm for another dose of medicine if I was not having contractions less than 10 minutes apart. Now this was a bit different for us because in the States, most of the time an induction is started in the hospital. That is not the case here. They only admit women in active labor to the hospital. So we chose to spend our day at the mall. Why not? The mall in Lima has very yummy food (including frozen yogurt!). All morning and into the afternoon we ate our way through the Lima mall. My last meal being wings from Chili's! Around 3:00 pm we were walking around a Home-Depot-like store and I was having some mild pain and pressure, but nothing significant. All of a sudden my water broke while walking through the store. Nathan called the obstrician and he told us to meet him at the hospital. That is when the fun began! Nathan, his parents and I crammed into a taxi and headed to the hospital in the Lima traffic. I was definitely in labor and was praying that we would get to the hospital quickly!

3 weeks old 

   We arrived at the hospital and I was taken to the labor area. At that point I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes. I was connected to the monitor, which revealed that Noah seemed to be doing ok. I was only 1 cm dilated, so at that point we were thinking it was going to be a long night. I continued to labor with contractions every 3-5 minutes until about 5:30 pm when I was ready for an epidural. I was about 4 cm dilated at that point. I quickly learned that the epidurals here are not quite as strong as I was thinking, but it did help to alleviate the pain a bit.

  Around 7:15 pm I was in a pretty good bit of pain with contractions every 2-3 minutes. The nurse came into the room with a bag of pitocin, because she had noticed that the contractions had slowed and were not as strong on the monitor. I explained to her that I was having pretty significant contractions and that maybe she should check me again. Sure enough I was 10 cm dilated and the head was crowning. So, the monitor was not reading my contractions because Noah had moved and was ready to be born.

   Within 10 minutes there was much activity in my room with everyone getting ready for the birth. My obstetrician arrived by about 7:30 and confirmed that it was time for Noah to arrive. After about 15 more minutes of preparation I began pushing and Noah was born at 8:00pm. Thankfully he entered the world screaming loudly and we were able to hold him for about 2 minutes. He was taken to the nursery to be examined and to determine that everything was ok. About 2 hours later we were truly able to meet him for the first time. What a precious moment that was!

   Throughout our hospital stay Noah did very well. He was able to maintain his body temperature as well as his blood sugars. These are things that can be a problem with small babies. He was able to leave the hospital with us on Wednesday afternoon and has been growing like a weed since then.

2 weeks old 

   We returned to Cusco when Noah was 2 weeks old and we were a bit nervous about how well he would acclimatize to the altitude. Thankfully he has done really well and has not seemed to show any signs that he is not acclimatizing well. Today, we went to our clinic to have him weighed and he has gained almost 2 pounds since he was born, and he is not quite even 4 weeks old. This is truly amazing.

   Overall, we are doing well. We are tired, as is to be expected with a newborn but are loving being parents to our two sweet boys. Luke has adjusted well to having a brother and really enjoyed the time that he had with his grandparents while we were in Lima. Luke did turn one on September 12, so we were able to celebrate his special day with his grandparents as well.

Luke's first birthday 

  In looking back over the past month and a half we are truly in awe of God's goodness and provision for us. We are amazed at how uncomplicated and quick the birth of Noah was. To God be the glory, great things He has done!