OH BOY. Where to begin…
Monday, March 9 , 2020 at 5:04 PM we met our sweet Noah Clark Scolamiero , at 8lb 13 oz + 21 3/4 inches long .
All photos by the BEST photographer Katie Wilson.
Okay, so let’s back track a bit to the week before Noah was born. For those who are new around here (hi!) , my husband plays professional baseball and had been gone for the season the last month of my pregnancy. He was supposed to come home from Arizona for the birth and then return three days after. At my 38 week check up my doctor mentioned that Noah looked pretty big and since I was having some major swollen veins in my groin and legs - that she would be willing to schedule an induction. This was huge for us! We were super unsure whether Clark would make it to the birth if I suddenly went into labor. So she scheduled for me to come in the night of March 8th for induction.
During this week I had to go into the hospital because I was nervous about some sudden swelling in my legs. I only stayed for a few hours of monitoring, but while I was there the nurse noticed I was having back to back contractions. I hadn’t really had any braxton-hicks / contractions what so ever before, and honestly still didn’t even feel the spiking contractions showing on the screen. They check my cervix and I was barely 1 cm dilated so they sent me home after this. She thought it was strange to be having so many little contractions within minutes of each other but no change in dilation / intensity. This made me feel a lot better about induction honestly. If these contractions weren’t doing much for me it would have been likely that I would have gone past 40 weeks..
Clark came home the 7th and we were able to spend one last day together as just the two of us ( + our fur baby). We nervously packed our bags and had my mom come down to stay at our place and love on our pup as we headed into the hospital the next day. On our drive to the hospital we stopped and grabbed food and suddenly all of my excitement from having Clark home and getting ready to finally meet our babe, turned into sheer anxiety. I could barely eat anything and just wanted to turn around and wait another day haha. I began to feel pains and couldn’t figure out if it was the panic I was physically feeling or if I was actually starting to feel these mini contractions I had been having for a week without noticing.
Of course, as we started to unload our stuff and head into the hospital we received a call asking if we would be okay with them pushing my induction back until the following day. I knew there was no way Clark could stay longer than he was already given so the answer was a short and sweet no. lol Thankfully they figured out a way to get us in still but we had to sit for a few hours before we could head in. Those few hours waiting in the hospital parking lot felt like forever and I swear they set me into actually feeling any bit of labor I was having.
The Induction
We settled into our room and pretty soon after I was hooked up to monitors and IVs. We were blessed big time by having one of our nurses be the mom of a player on Clark’s baseball team he coached in the off season. (thank u for being awesome Candice) I had been planning on receiving a Cervidil - but to my surprise the doctor on call that night had been planning on doing a Foley Bulb. Needless to say - it wasn’t the best way to start things off. After a lot of research and back and forth with the doctor, and reassurance of the nurses, I finally agreed and had the Foley Bulb. If you don’t know what it is - I’ll spare you details , feel free to google yourself , but essentially the Cervidil dilates you through medicine that makes you have contractions and the Foley Bulb manually dilates you…yup. Super fun.
After three tries of putting the Foley Bulb in place and a whole lot of pain, they finally had it set. Unfortunately for me this set off a serious round of labor contractions and I had zero medication in me at this point. I started throwing up any little food I ate for dinner and became so nauseous. I was given some morphine and nauseous medicine. Thankfully soon after I was asleep for the night!
I woke up the next morning, March 9th, and was told that the Foley Bulb worked and I was now 4 cm dilated! I was then given Pitocin + had my water broken and the real labor process began. I have never wanted food so bad in my life and the hospital popsicles tasted like cough medicine - so I had Clark grab some of my favorite fruit bars from the store and continually ate them over the next 5 hours.
I had been having contractions every 3-5 minutes since I arrived but with the Pitocin I started feeling them more and more as dosage increased. I knew I wanted an epidural but honestly was terrified to get it. My plan was to labor naturally until it hurt so bad that I wouldn’t care if the epidural hurt because it would make the labor pain go away…and it worked ! Once the contractions became too intense I asked for the epidural and within ten minutes it was in place and I was feeling GREAT. PSA: my epidural really didn’t hurt at all. The process was smooth and seamless and numbed me completely from waist down, I just made a point to not even get a glimpse of the needle…so don’t let all the horrible stories of it make you as nervous as I was!
The Birth
I was feeling a bit nauseous around 12 pm so I was given some Zofran. I don’t know if I was just exhausted from all of the commotion of nurses coming in and out and the emotions from knowing I was about to have a baby or the Zofran - but I passed out. I napped throughout the day in between having to roll over to keep the epidural balanced and having my cervix checked, but when I woke up around 4 ish I mentioned to the nurse I was starting to feel a little pressure. She thought I still had a little while to go because I didn’t think it was super intense pressure so I fell back asleep happily. Around 5 pm a nurse came in to check on me and I was half asleep when I mentioned the pressure was a bit more intense. She checked my dilation and gasped so loud. She called Clark over and immediately paged for a doctor because Noah’s head was already showing. Little bud was ready to come on into the world. I was so disoriented from still being half asleep that it took me a solid five minutes to understand what the heck was going on.
The nurse told me not to make any movements or pushing and to stay put until they could find the doctor and get them into the room. Once it hit me that I was about to give birth, the shakes took over. This is something I had never been prepared for but it is totally common after talking with nurses and other mamas! I couldn’t stop shaking from the hormones rushing through my body and became extremely cold. The nurses thought they were going to need to deliver Noah but finally the doctor came rushing into the room and took over. Everything was happening so fast that Clark started texting family and calling Katie, our photographer, as fast as he could to get her to come back to the hospital. She had been told moments prior that I would be another few hours and to go grab a bite to eat haha. I suddenly realized all of my thoughts of giving birth with praise music/ calming oils /etc were out the window. This was happening immediately and HGTV was playing House Hunters in the background so I guess I was giving birth while Sally and Joe , teachers from Indiana, were buying a million dollar home. :)
Our photographer rushed in right as I began pushing, and the doctors and nurses all huddled around with Clark by my side. I hate to even say this out of respect for all the mamas who had hours and hours of labor - but only 4 pushes and exactly 5 minutes later, we welcomed our sweet Noah into this world. Birth was incredibly beautiful and could not have gone smoother. Seeing him for the first time was incredible. I just remember thinking “This is MY baby - forever. WHAT IN THE WORLD” . (Honestly I still think that every day…)
Noah spent some time on my chest as the nurses cleaned us off and finished the procedures…yup ladies have fun at your first birthing class if you ever have a baby. You still have work to do after you get your sweet little one into the world. We did delayed cord clamping and baths. Those first few moments of having skin to skin with Clark by my side felt surreal. The prayers I begged and pleaded to the Lord with were here. Clark was there the entire time, my baby was healthy and incredibly cute, and I was safe and healthy. I just continuously look back in awe at how perfectly the Lord worked this out.
Postpartum
Once we were ready - we headed up to the postpartum floor. There we welcomed all of our close family and ooh boy I ate so much food. We had Noah days before COVID-19 quarantine began so thankfully we were allowed to have visitors and Clark could come and go as he pleased. That first night with Noah is a blue. Between constant check-ins on me and him , being absolutely exhausted physically and emotionally, and not having the best breastfeeding experiences.. I mainly remember thinking “wait…the nurses are walking out? what are we supposed to do now?” haha
We waited to choose Noah’s name until the day we left the hospital and were forced to. We couldn’t decide on a name and just kept going back and forth. After a bunch of rock-paper-scissors games between Clark and I , we finally settled on Noah and I can’t imagine him as any other. We headed home after a few nights and settled right in! Life has been so sweet with Noah since.
If you’ve made it this far - THANK YOU! I love talking about birth now - so if you have any questions comment/DM me on insta and I’ll answer ALL the questions you have! We are so grateful for our village full of friends and family who love our babe and us so well. Being a mom will forever be my greatest job and joy. <3
