July 12, 2020

Sweet 16


As I start this post, it was exactly 16 years ago that I was in the hospital being induced into labor to deliver Noah. Tomorrow night at this time, it'll be 16 years to the minute that I was in hard labor. It was a Tuesday--I only remember this because I did not want to miss watching The Shield which was on FX at 10:00 pm on Tuesday evenings. Haha!

The Shield was playing on the TV in my hospital room, although at some point I stopped even trying to watch it between pushes. Noah was born at 10:46 PM. Thankfully, my labor wasn't horrible. My pregnancy was complete misery. I had "intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy"--ICP for short--which is a liver condition that basically makes your BLOOD itch.

My entire body was so itchy that I was going crazy. One night, I begged Jerry to cut off my feet (and I was serious). I even became suicidal toward the end, and that's why my OB doctor finally decided to induce my labor two weeks early.

Jerry and I were so young when we had Noah--he was 23 and I was 22. We had only been married for 11 months when he was born, so we didn't even really have time to be "newlyweds" before I was pregnant. But we were so excited!

I remember thinking, while in the hospital, "Ohmygod. We have a baby now. There is no going back. We can't just "return" him if we suck as parents. This is 100% permanent!" Haha! It's not that I was regretting it; I was just realizing how permanent this life change was.

(It's funny... a couple of years later, when I was in labor with Eli, I remember telling the doctor that I quit--that I just didn't want to do it and I was done. Forget it.)

Jerry had been working the night shift when we brought Noah home, and he had two weeks off, but he maintained that schedule. So, it was convenient--I was awake with Noah all day, and Jerry was awake all night. (I was physiologically unable to breastfeed--my boobs are broken--so Jerry could do the nighttime feedings with formula.)

After two weeks, it was time for Jerry to go back to work, and it was a pretty humorous situation. We realized that we'd been holding Noah for two weeks and with Jerry going back to work, Noah would have to sleep in his crib. It felt so weird! We'd been spoiled (or spoiled him?) by holding him almost constantly for two weeks. Haha!

Noah was the cutest baby (of course, every mom says that). But when he started talking, his voice would just melt your heart! Eli was born when Noah was only 18 months old, and Noah was the best older brother. He was always doing what he could to make Eli laugh.

He bonded with Jerry from the moment he was born. Jerry has always been his favorite parent (although he won't admit it, because he doesn't want to hurt my feelings). Jerry has always been such a "big kid" which made him a great dad. He did all the fun stuff!

As he's grown, Noah is much like me--I understand him so well. And I love that he has always been so open with me about his feelings and about what's going on in his life. He tells me everything! Someday, I'm sure he'll be embarrassed by the things he's told me, but I would never betray his trust and I always validate his feelings.

Tomorrow, July 13th, Noah will be 16 years old. That's so crazy to me! When I started this blog, Noah was 6 years old. He was one of the reasons that I started my blog in the first place. I remember him telling me one day in kindergarten that he had a "fat" mom. I love that kids just tell it like it is!

When it was time for him to learn to ride a bicycle without training wheels (at age 5), I physically couldn't do it. I was too out of breath and out of shape to be able to run alongside his bike. And I felt like a horrible mom! I vowed that when it was Eli's turn to ride a bike, I'd be able to do it. (And I did, a couple of years later).

Anyway, here are some of my favorite pictures of Noah through the years :)  (These aren't in order... I tried, but the file names got confusing!)






































I'm so lucky to have such a great kid! :)

12 comments:

  1. I had easy pregnancies but I had non-medicated labors (I'm way too scared of needles and the epidural made me have a panic attack. Luckily I got through them without it). During my second labor, which was only 4 hours so basically just transition, I told my husband to kill me. I was so serious. It sounds ridiculous but the contractions were right on top of each other and for some reason my nurse kept insisting I had hours to go. Baby was born 5 minutes later, ha!

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  2. I also had Cholestasis during my last pregnancy. I didn’t have as intense of itching as it sounds like you had! I’m surprised it took until 38 weeks for your doctor to induce you! My doctor said going past 37 weeks wasn’t ideal because of all the risks to the baby.

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  3. Happy 16th Birthday!!! I cant believe how old he’s getting!!!

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  4. Happy Birthday Noah!! I hope he has a fun filled day!

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  5. Our kiddo turns 13 this month. crazy how the time flies!! I was a huge barfer during pregnancy, thankfully, labour and delivery was totally unmedicated and manageable. Totally relate to how you said you realized how permanent it was. I remember realizing that I was responsible for keeping our child alive and how that make me completely panic. Here we are, 13 years later, so far, so good. Parenting is THE toughest job, but so worth it.

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  6. I'm 37 weeks pregnant with my first, a boy, and your boys and your relationship with them give me a lot of hope! You've raised such outstanding young men! I hope to be as lucky ;)

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  7. Happy Birthday Noah! It's funny looking at your pics because I feel like I have watched him grow up and it's gone by so fast! You are blessed!

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  8. Happy Birthday to Noah! Is that Joey in the picture with him? The reason I ask is because it doesn't seem like you've had Joey that long but Noah looks so young in the pic (and I remember when you made that quilt with your old jeans that didn't fit anymore!)

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  9. I don't think I need to tell people how much of an awesome person this kid is. He's 1/3 of my world and I'm so lucky to be his dad...

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    Replies
    1. I love all of the pictures and what an awesome thing to write on his birthday! Lots of kids get stuck with dads that are not suited for the job at all. My favorite of all the pictures is Dr Noah in the lab coat!

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  10. What a precious kiddo! Every single photo is a gem. Congratulations on being AMAZING parents!

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  11. Happy birthday to Noah! Love the pictures! The one where he looks like he's falling off a wall - I had to look twice, because it looked like it could be Jerry :)

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