Noah’s birthday was Tuesday, and we celebrated Friday night at the park. His friends were there, Grandmama and Papa were there, and he loved all of his presents. It was a good party. Saturday, Kevin took the boys fishing and Natalie and I had some girl time - we went out to lunch, shopped, had ice cream, and went to a neighbor’s party.
I searched the archives, and there isn’t a birth story post for Noah, so here it is. Feel free to click away if birth stories aren’t your thing! It won’t hurt my feelings, honest. 
Noah’s birth was my only “normal” one: I wasn’t induced, and it didn’t end in a c-section. I was induced with Natalie, so I really had no idea what labor was supposed to be like.
I was due on June 9, 1998, which came and went with nary a sign of baby. As did June 10th, 11th, 12th - you get the idea. I tried everything I could think of or had read on the net - short of drinking castor oil. I went out for spicy Mexican food with my parents, then drove home on a bumpy highway in my dad’s trucks that had very poor shocks. Thump, thump, thump - and heartburn - but no baby. Kevin and I tried the other thing, which isn’t exactly graceful when you’re nine-plus months pregnant. No baby.
On the night of the 18th, I walked laps around the house every few minutes. We went to bed, and I woke up at 2 a.m. with contractions. They were fairly mild and I was able to sleep in between them until about 6 a.m. Kevin got up, and I told him I thought it would be a while, so to go ahead to work and I’d call him when it was time to go to the hospital. Of course, right after he left the contractions started coming harder and faster, about 5 minutes apart. We were about 15 minutes from the hospital, so I called Kevin, and Mom and I headed off. I’m trying to remember now who we left Natalie with - she was 18 months old - but I think my youngest sister Marni was living at home. (We lived with my parents in a huge house.)
By the time we reached the hospital, I was having to breathe through the contractions and was getting pretty uncomfortable. We checked in, I got gowned up and put on a monitor and all that jazz. I knew I wanted an epidural, so they started an IV. Kevin got there shortly after we did. I had a little pain medicine in my IV, which had the effect of making me sleepy between the contractions, but didn’t really take the pain away.
As soon as I was dilated enough, I was given an intrathecal. This is like an epidural, but not as strong. It takes away the pain in the uterus and back, but does not completely numb you, so you can still feel to push. I remember thinking this would be just fine. I hadn’t felt the pushing with Natalie’s birth, as I received an epidural right before I was fully dilated, and my sister Andrea had told me that after going through labor, the pushing didn’t really hurt at all. Needless to say, I was very surprised when it came time to push and it hurt like all get out! Thank God, I only had to push three times, and Noah was born. I believe it was sometime around 1 in the afternoon.
He was 7 pounds, 5 ounces, the same as Josiah would weigh when he was born. They were my biggest babies.
I was starving, and so Kevin went out and got me a sandwich from Subway. Not a good idea. I didn’t realize that one of the side effects of the intrathecal was nausea. (The other was itching, which we’ll get into later.) I immediately was sick, and so they gave me some inapsine, a drug for nausea. It’s amazing how at the hospital they give you medicine for everything, where as if I was at home and felt nauseated, I wouldn’t eat much and would just wait for it to pass.
It turned out that I was allergic to inapsine, and it caused me to shake uncontrollably. If I laid perfectly still, the shaking would stop, but if I moved at all, it would start all over again, and I would be shaking so hard the whole bed would vibrate. Remember the itching? Well, it started, so I’d lay still for as long as possible to keep the shaking at bay, but then my face would itch something fierce, and I’d reach up to rub it, and the shaking would start all over again. It took three doses of Benadryl to finally stop it.
My pastor’s wife and her son, who I think was around 8 years old, stopped by during this time, and I think he thought I was dying, with all the shaking and everything. His eyes were like saucers by the time he left. The most amazing thing was that Noah slept through the whole thing, and didn’t wake up until later that afternoon after the shaking had stopped. Good thing, cause I don’t think I could’ve picked him up without dropping him on the floor.
I went home the next day. It was by far my easiest delivery, and he was our easiest baby. He slept through the night at four weeks, a habit he continued until he was several months old. Then teething would wake him up, and he got in the habit of us rocking and feeding him back to sleep. He kept up this habit until long after Jonathan was born when Noah was 15 months old. There is a period of about two years that are simply a sleep-deprived haze. Good thing they’re so worth it.
So that’s the story of how Noah came into the world. We named him Noah because we liked it, and it has since become more and more popular. His middle name is Blair, the same as my father’s middle name and his father’s before him. Since my dad had four daughters, I wanted to pass on his middle name. His father was Robert Blair, my dad is Rodney Blair, and now we have a Noah Blair.
At nine years old, Noah is all boy. He loves to draw, to build Bionicles and with Magnetix and the gear kit we got him, to play Pokemon, and to ride his bike. He also loves his GameBoy, but we’ve been having an extended break from all electronic games, and he’s been spending more time doing creative things and reading. He’s sensitive, and cries at sad movies with me. Bridge to Terabithia just about killed him. He’s still sad about Lucy, our hamster, who died two weeks ago. I thought he had gotten over it, but we saw a segment about hamsters on Blue’s Clues, and he teared up. His Grandma and Papa got him Sea Monkeys for his birthday, and he is very excited to add the eggs to the water tomorrow afternoon, after the water purifier has had time to work.
He is not as affectionate as he used to be, but he will always willingly give me a hug when I ask. He tells me he loves me every day, and sometimes even snuggles up next to me all on his own. He has a special smile that is reserved just for me, and it makes my heart sing every time I see it. He also likes to wink at me from across the room. I, of course, always wink back.
I love you, Noah! I am so proud of the young man you are becoming.
