And baby makes Three...: Noah Tomek Helwig's Birth Day!

Well we have figured out Noah's first trait like one of his parents. He is impatient like his momma! He was due July 24th but decided that he wanted to be here for the Fireworks on the 4th of July! I REALLY did not want him to be born on the 4th and have to share his birthday with a holiday, so he came ONE day early for me and was born on July 3rd....

This is Noah's Birth Story.... :)

It was Thursday July 2nd and we had been to our weekly Dr apt that day. We were 37 weeks and I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. She said that I could go early or go all the way to our due date. But we had 3 weeks to go at that point. So my mom bought her plane tickets out here for one week later! She would be here Thursday July 9th.

Shawn's friend Big Greg was in town visiting us for the 4th of July. That Thursday July 2nd, we were all out at a really nice bar in town that Shawn's friend owns, called the Patterson House. Now I had been having mild contractions every night for about 2 weeks so when I started having mild contractions while we were out, I didn't think anything of it. From 9-midnight I could tell they were getting mildly worse so I started timing them and they were about 4 min apart.

This was typical so again, I was not too worried. I was just starting to get tired and I didn't want to ruin their good time so I decided to head home. Shawn was really worried and didn't want to let me go home alone but I really down played my contractions and convinced him that I was ok. So I headed home alone and Shawn and Greg stayed out with a few of his friends.

On the way home I could tell the contractions were getting a little stronger but again, nothing that I was too concerned about. Now by the time I got home, they were starting to actually hurt. Like major period cramps. I started walking the hallway and breathing through them.

I called my really good friend Candice who is a labor and delivery nurse at the hospital that we were delivering at. And low and behold, she had just headed out of town with her husband for the weekend. They literally had left abut 2 hours before. The whole reason that we were delivering at her hospital was so that she could deliver the baby. LOL...

So she starts walking me through the contractions. She tells me to take a nice warm bath and drink a large glass of water. This really seemed to work and my contractions slowed down to 20 min apart. I took some Tylenol PM and got into bed. The contractions were still really strong when they came and I had to breathe through them but they were at least slowing down.

So about 3am Shawn and Greg get home but they don't have a house key so I have to get up to let them in. Well that was all it took to jump start those contractions back to every 4 minutes apart and they were getting stronger.

Well poor Shawn has no idea that I am even having contractions he thinks I went home and went to bed and that I am in our room sleeping. So him and Greg are up having fun and laughing and having a great old time. After about and hour he comes in our room to check on me and I start screaming at him to Keep it down out there and that I am trying to relax in here!!!! LOL. He immediately realizes that something is wrong and is in shock when he realizes that I could actually be in labor.

We tried the warm bath again but it was not slowing anything down so after about 15 min he says.... I will put the bags in the car (he had had them packed for about a month at this point.... lol).... so I stayed in the bathtub while he got everything together. He threw his car keys at Greg and said "we are going to the hospital, here are my keys if you need to go anywhere". Greg thought I was in false labor and that we would be back home in a few hours.

So we get in the car and head to the hospital. I always wondered what that ride would be like. When it was actually happening and we were really headed there in LABOR. But you know I was not scared or freaking out or anything. I had a few good contractions in the car and I would just press my head against the passenger window and breathe through them. Shawn was a super star and really helped me stay focused and just encouraged me through each contraction. He truly was amazing and we really were working through it together as a team.

We got to the hospital and they take you to the "check in" floor first to make sure that you are really in labor. The 2 nurses were super nice and I was only there for about 15 min. By this time I was 100% effaced but only 1.5 cm dilated. 1.5 .... ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! I was on my hands and knees on the bed breathing through each contraction. After 15 minutes they determined that I really was in labor and they were going to admit me.

Shawn told them that I wanted an epidural and we wanted it as soon as possible. Since we knew we were getting one..... why wait right? LOL. So we had to call my mom at this point and let her know that I was really in labor. It was about 2:30 AM her time. She was bummed that she was not here but she was so excited for us.

We got to the hospital around 4:30 am and they had us admitted and in my room by about 5:15. The epidural guy was already in my room waiting for us when we got there (NICE). It only took him about 5 minutes to put it in and it was not bad at all. I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy and painless that part was.

I was numb in about 5-10 min. And it was smooth sailing from there on out! I got on my cell phone and started texting everyone telling them I was in labor and had my epidural. The epidural slowed my labor just a bit so after an hour the Dr. came in and broke my water. With in one hour of that I had dilated from 2cm - 6cm. So Shawn decided to go get himself something to eat at the Subway inside the hospital. I went to sleep (I was sooooo tired from not only being up all night, but I still had not slept on the Tylenol PM that I had taken).

The epidural made me itchy so then they gave me a shot of Benedryl which REALLY knocked me out. LOL. So I was sleeping away when the nurse came in and woke me up. She said I was dilated to 10 and it was time to start pushing. I looked at her half asleep and said "Can I please sleep for another hour?". LOL. So i had to call Shawn and tell him to get his butt back cause it was time to push. I could hear him start RUNNING. LOL.

So about that time my neighbor Julie showed up. Shawn and I asked her to be in the room with us when Noah was born. She was so excited and it was a huge blessing to have her there. She took lots of precious pictures and captured every wonderful moment while we got to enjoy the arrival of our baby.

Shawn got back just in time and we got in position to push with the nurse. She wanted to see how well I could push before she called the Dr. I pushed about 5 times and she started yelling "Ok, stop stop stop" Apparently she almost delivered Noah. LOL. So while she called the Dr.,we called our parents. I had one cell phone on one shoulder and the other cell phone on the other shoulder. Even though they were no there in person, at least they could hear what was going on.

The Dr showed up and Shawn put his head against mine and we pushed together. He was truly amazing. We pushed maybe 3 times and Noah's head was out! I was still numb from the epidural so I was having a great time. I was feeling no pain. The cord was wrapped around his head really tight and the Dr. could not slip it over his head so she had to cut me a little bit in order to cut the cord from around his neck so I have a few stitches. Then one more push and he was out. And perfect. And on my chest. And from this moment, life has not been the same....

There he was! A little blue but soooo perfect and warm and all ours! Shawn and I just cried and kissed him and could not believe this was all happening. It was perfect and amazing and better than I could have ever expected. A perfect pregnancy, a perfect labor, and a perfect delivery!

He was perfect: