The Story of Noah's Birth

This post is simply to help me remember Noah's birth. Because, as any mom will tell you, you forget much about that day.

I was hoping to go into labor on my own, early. Really hoping. But instead I went in on April 19, three days after my due date, to be induced. Darren went with me and we settled into our hospital room, hoping not to be there all day. I was in labor with Davis for eight hours and I was hoping for a shorter labor with this baby. Dr. Wood broke my water and then we waited. Not much happened. So they started pitocin. And the baby's heart beat went up too far, so they stopped it. And we waited. Then they started it up again. And the contractions came and so did the epidural. I will forever be grateful for the wonderful medical scientists who developed epidurals. It was fantastic. And we waited. Wait. Maybe the epidural came earlier. See, I can't remember and it was only two weeks ago. Anyway, Darren and I finally started a movie, "Stargate," to help pass the time and 30 minutes into it, the nurse came in to check how far along I was and, viola!, that baby was ready to come. With Davis, my epidural was so complete that I couldn't feel anything. This time, I could feel the pressure of the contractions and of the baby moving down. And I loved it. After 30 - 45 minutes of pushing, out popped a perfect baby boy with lots of hair. As he was coming, the nurses kept trying to tell us what color hair it was. One said it was dark, dark hair. Another said it was very light hair. How could it look so different to at the same time? But when he came out, he had dark hair with very distinct "highlights" that almost looked silvery. So everyone was right. At this point, he has dark hair, that looks much lighter when he is in the light. It was a total of 6 1/2 hours of labor and another great experience giving birth.

Going to the hospital, we had narrowed down the name of our new baby to Eli or Noah. I had thought that if the baby had dark hair, he would be an Eli. Light hair would be a Noah. But I was wrong. As soon as he came out, I knew he was a Noah. When they brought the paperwork for the birth certificate, we left his name blank, though, because we both had to be sure. The next day, they came back to check everything and we were able to fill in his name as Noah Max Buttars. I hope he agrees with our choice when he is old enough to care.