Now that Noah has been home for over a week and things have settled down a bit, I have a minute to describe what happened with his birth. At 12:00 pm on Tuesday, Sept. 30, Jessica was scheduled for a c-section. However, some lady who had been in labor for some time without a successful delivery cut in line for a c-section before Jessica. While, for Jessica, this certainly wasn't an amusement park ride, she did have to stand in line (lay in bed awaiting spinal anesthesia, actually). This meant that the birth did not happen till 1:24 pm.
Unlike with Luke's birth, I got to watch the surgical team cut and pull out the baby. When Luke was born, I was told that I had to stay out of viewing range since they feared a queasy, fainting father. As the surgery to delivery Noah progressed, I felt anything but queasy and was able to capture most of it on video. I'm working to put some clips together for friends' and family's viewing pleasure. Ok, so the c-section part may be a bit gory, but it is miraculous to see Noah pulled from the womb and preserve his first moments.
Just postpartum, Jessica was able to have the new little baby lifted up to her. She tells me from watching the video that she doesn't remember those moments real well. Thanks to my parents who gave us the video camera, at least she can see the video to remember better than through a drugged haze darkly.
Speaking of postpartum, Jessica is such an attentive, encouraging. mother. She loves Luke so much and is happy to have another little one to care for.
Jessica just had her staples out and has done well with her recovery, or so she tells me. Apparently, while still painful, the whole experience has been easier than what happened with Luke. She has had some pain and no longer has Vicodin to combat that. I jokingly told her that I could look online for some to purchase without a prescription from Mexico, but I believe that she is feeling better from day to day.
Anyway, returning to the birth, I was able to take Tuesday through Friday off from work. At Luke's birth, I had hardly any leave accrued and only took a couple days. I may have taken more time off still, but Jessica's mother was here, and now her sister, Kim, is visiting. We're so appreciative of all their help!
Speaking of the name Noah, I had held out on what to name the baby till I could see him. Jessica had originally liked the name Noah the most, but we also liked Andrew. Luke and Hamilton are both ancestor's names, and we also wanted the new baby to have a name with a family connection too.
I found it much easier to come up with names that would never work than names that would. For example, I ruled out Ahmadinejad Bernotski. That would be a definite no-no. However, Andrew P. Anderson was my great-grandfather on my mother's side, and we considered Andrew as a name. Noah Packard is a relative on my dad's side who was in Nauvoo and is actually mentioned once in the Doctrine and Covenants as a a leader in the high priests. Dalton, similarly, is the maiden name of Jessica's grandmother.
After seeing the baby, I liked Noah Dalton as a name, and Jessica had already picked that as a favorite name. We will probably bless and name the baby around Christmastime when we're visiting family. While we have already named him now, naming and blessing by the power of the priesthood gives the name a divine meaning and seal of approval.
Anyway, Jessica and the baby stayed in the hospital for three days due to hemorrhaging Jessica was having. There was a large clot that was keeping the uterus from contracting back to size. The nurses kept pushing on Jessica and 2.5 pounds of ick came out! Then, even after that, hospital staff wouldn't let Jessica have anything to eat or even drink for three days until her bowels were functioning.
This isn't meant to be a graphic novel, so I will leave out further illustrations. Suffice it to say that Jessica made it past the "clear liquids only" stage. She was able to leave the hospital on Friday and return home. In Noah's case, he was ready to come home. He didn't have any problems feeding and has even had his first bottle now without issue. He is a good eater and has a sweet disposition. He sleeps about two to three hours between feedings. I don't know if we can have two that are as good as Luke, but we'll wait and see. We feel so blessed to have both he and Luke in our family!
PLEASE go to this website and enjoy this amazing video. It's produced by The College of Fine Arts and Communications at BYU. The song, “Joy to Everyone This Christmas,” was written and produced by Stephen Jones, dean of the college, in collaboration with Emmy-award winning composer and producer Sam Cardon and vocalists Jenny Jordan Frogley and David Osmond. The music video features images from university photographer Mark Philbrick.
Speaking of being a bad blogger... I have been remiss in expressing gratitude to all who helped me since Noah's birth. My Mom, Kim, and Jared's Mom came out and were wonderful. They cooked, cleaned, got up during the night, bought gifts, and, in general, made me feel pampered, easing the transition to having a new little one.
Grandma Bernotski was able to help so much when she was here. I couldn't have made it without her great help. She is wonderful and I don't know who misses her more, the kids or me.
Halloween was perfect. The YW were in charge of the ward trunk-or-treat and chili cookoff. I was in charge of doing the table decorations. We made fun pumpkins out of paper. They turned out cute. By the end of the night, people were wearing them as hats.
Grandma stayed home with Noah on candy duty while we took Luke around the neighborhood trick-or-treating. Luke didn't quite get the whole candy thing at first, but he quickly caught on that this Halloween thing is a GOOD deal!!
Noah is also growing by leaps and bounds. Sometimes I look at this darling little guy and think that he looks bigger all the time. We get comments on his cute face and mounds of black hair everyday!
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