The Leptuch Family: Happy Birthday Noah Adam Leptuch

Noah Adam Leptuch was born on January 9th, 2011 at 5:44am. He weighed 9 lbs, 2 oz's and was 22" long.

Here is my story.....

At 9 pm on 1/8/2011, my mom started having contractions. They were coming about every 10-12 minutes. She knew that it was going to be a long night. After 2 hours of counting contractions, she told daddy that she had been having contractions and wasn't sure what to do. The excitement and nervousness grew in both of them. By 1am, her contractions were about 4-6 minutes apart, but not very strong. She was told that if she had contractions for more than 2 hours, she should go and get checked out, so that is what her and daddy decided to do. She called my aunt Jackie to come over to watch my big sister and off they went. They hooked mommy up to the monitors and watched my heart rate and her contractions for about an hour. After an hour of contractions that were 4-6 minutes apart, the nurse did an examination. Mommy was only a 1/2 centimeter dilated. She was not happy. She thought that they were going to send her home. The nurse said that they would monitor mommy for another hour and check her cervix again and if there was a cervical change, then they would move forward with my delivery. After an hour, the contractions were getting stronger and mommy dilated to 1 1/2 cm. The doctor said, prep her for surgery, we will have this baby at 8 am. Why 8 am? Well, around midnight before mommy came into the hospital, mommy had 4 saltine crackers and because of that, they wanted to wait 8 hours before she had surgery. The only thing that would change that time would be if her contractions got stronger and her pain level to a 9. They don't want the contractions to get too strong for a repeat c-section because of the scar. After getting the information that we were going in at 8 am, mommy's contractions were a 9, so they prepped her for surgery. Yay! I was getting ready to meet my mom and dad!! And that is my story..... Here are some pictures from the OR...

When the nurses put me on this table, I thought I would greet them by peeing all over everyone. He!he!he!

Daddy cutting the cord

My first family portrait

This was a repeat c-section for me, as you can plainly see! I don't remember a lot of how it all went down from Ava's birth because I was so tired by the time I had the c-section I didn't care about the pain. Plus, they don't call it pregnancy brain for nothing (that means that you forget a lot of what happens to you before, during and after delivery, so that you will have more children!) So I wasn't really prepared for the events ahead. The spinal hurt and the delivery hurt. I don't remember that from Ava. Now at this point, I had not slept since I woke up on the morning of 1/8/11 at 6 am, therefore I had now been up for 24 hours. That is why I look so puffy and tired. After surgery, I went to recovery for about an hour and then off to our room. We got a really nice big room off in the corner, so it has been nice and quiet. I am recovering nice this time around. I was able to get up and walk around on the first try. With Ava, I could only sit up in the bed and it wasn't until day 2 that I started walking. It took me a little bit longer to get rid of the nausea and be able to eat solid foods this time around, but I am up and moving really good.

How is Ava doing? Well, she has been staying at home with grammie (my mom). She came to the hospital on Sunday afternoon and did as I expected. She was excited to see the baby. She just kept saying "baby". She happened to walk in when I was trying to get up and walk for the first time. Now, remember, I was tired and puffy and there were a lot of IV's etc. hooked up to me, so I believe it scared her. She sat down next to me in the bed, but really didn't get close. Here is our first family picture...

Ava is holding Lashes, the bunny that Noah gave to her.

Ava came back on Monday as well, and this time, she didn't really want anything to do with me. I had anticipated this, but it still didn't make it any easier. She sat next to me, but wouldn't look at me or talk to me. It is heartbreaking, but I am not taking it personal. We decided to not have her come down today. I am trying to get discharged today. There shouldn't be a problem with it. We just have to get Noah circumcised and then we can hopefully go (after an hour or so of observation). So far, he doesn't have jaundice, but it is only 7:30 on day 2. Last night he was borderline and because he didn't feed too much, it might have put him over the edge. Speaking of feeding, Noah has done as good as can be expected. He has been really tired, so trying to get him up to feed is hard. Last night, he went on a power feed of an HOUR, yes an hour of breastfeeding and then didn't feed too much last night. I thought for sure, he was going to cluster feed, but he didn't.

Here are some pictures from our stay so far....