Officially Introducing....

William "Noah" Crowther

May 24, 2011

12:48am

7 lbs 11 oz, 19 inches

Meeting Momma for the first time

Proud Daddy - he got his little boy :)

Happy family - missing Claire

Sweet boy

I think he looks a lot like Claire in this one

Meeting his big sister for the first time. She LOVES her little brother

First family picture

Claire snuggling her little brother

With Grama

All ready to go home - guess who picked out his entire sports themed wardrobe?

Headed home as a family.

Noah gave us quite the surprise last week. I had gone to the doctor on Friday for my weekly check up. I hadn't changed at all from the previous week so I wasn't expecting anything. I went home determined to go into labor so I cut the grass and weeded the garden. Saturday night Brice and I timed contractions. They were about every 20-30 minutes apart but they never got closer, or stronger so I decided to just go to bed and they stopped. My doctor made me promise not to have my baby on Sunday or Monday as she was having her own baby on Sunday morning. Monday morning I went to work as usual. I came home and cleaned my house and worked out and Claire and I played outside. I was feeling really uncomfortable. I just wanted more than anything to not be pregnant. Then I started cramping. Not like contractions, but bad cramps in my stomach, along with some other symptoms I wont mention on a public blog...your welcome. I called the doctor and told them what was going on. I was sure they would just tell me that it was fine and to just chill out. Boy was I wrong. They told me to get packed up and go to the hospital for some monitoring for an hour. I still wasnt convinced, but just in case, I packed Claire an overnight bag, packed the rest of my hospital stuff, made dinner for our friends who I was supposed to take it to that night and of course, made sure my nails were cut and my nail polish was off - it was bothering me :)

Brice was at work, and I really thought they were going to just send me home, so I took Claire up to our friend Kim and Kaitlyns house and headed to the hospital alone. That's where it hit me that I could be having this baby tonight. I started bawling and freaking out. I missed Claire and I was so sad that she didnt understand what was going on. Im so grateful that she was in good hands. But she'd never spent the night away from me AND Brice especially in someone elses house.

I got to the hospital and saw my doctor being wheeled out with her brand new baby. She said "Fallon, don't you dare." Like I said, I still didnt think I was having a baby that night so I laughed it off. I told her I would tell them not to call her anyway. They hooked me up to the monitors. I still wasnt feeling contractions or anything, but as I watched the screen, I could see I was having them every 6-8 minutes. The nurse came in an hour later and said that I was progressing and about 5 minutes later, they came in with the IV hook ups and told me I was having a baby that night. I asked if I could go home and finish a few things first. They laughed and said not a chance. So, I sent Brice to go finish the things I didnt get done. I watched the Bachelorette in my room. At about 830, the contractions started getting really painful. I asked for my epidural. This was the worst part of the whole thing. For some reason, the medicine the put in before the epidural to numb you wouldnt work, so when he would go to put the epidural in, I could feel everything. I would have rather felt contractions. It took over 30 minutes to get it in. However, once it was in, life was bliss. It wasnt as strong as it was when I had Claire. I was able to move my toes around and feel my legs a little bit which was nice. I ended up falling asleep around 11. I vaguely remember them telling me that I was almost done and the next thing I knew, my doctor (who delivered her own baby 18 hours prior!!!!) was in the room telling me to push and 10 minutes later, Noah arrived. We are so in love with our little boy and our little girl. Claire is an awesome helper. She loves her brother so much. We are all at home and doing well. Noah sleeps much better than Claire did, so I am not nearly as exhuasted as I thought I would be. My mom  has been here helping and that has been a huge help to me. Im so grateful for my kids and my husband and despite how much I HATED every minute of being pregnant, I would do it again in a heartbeat for both of my children...just not for a while.