Noahs Birth Story (ladies only)

On the morning of Friday 18th November 2005 I woke up early, I was getting niggly pains, I decided to have a bath to see if they would subside. I didn’t think that it was anything serious, I wasn’t due for another 3 weeks, and so I told Pete to go to work.

I rang mum just to let her know that I was getting some niggly pains but obviously I wasn’t due for another 3 weeks so it was probably nothing, in any case I told her to keep her mobile with her.

By 9.00 am I was in more pain and decided to contact the hospital to ask for there advice. The pains were coming
every 10 minutes, the midwife said I was most probably in labour and to come in when I felt ready. I put my tens machine on and called Pete telling him to come home when he could, I phoned mum and asked her to come over. We had already told mum we wanted her there at the birth. By 11.00 am the pain’s were coming every 5 minutes. As Pete doesn’t drive he cycles everywhere, and I can remember calling him and asking him where was he panicking as I couldn’t take the pain any longer, I told him if he wasn’t home in 5 minutes I would be going to the hospital on my own. (I was in pain) By the time he got back he looked terrible. He jumped in and out of the shower in a matter of minutes.

When I arrived the waiting room was full. After about 10 minutes I told them I couldn’t wait any longer I was in a lot of pain. So they bumped me up the list and took me into an examination room. I was over 5 cm dilated.

They then took me to the delivery suite. I managed the pain well on gas and air and my tens machine. They had to monitor Noah’s heartbeat all the whole time so I hooked up to a monitor. I was restricted in my movement but I refused to lie on the bed until the very end. (I think this really helped being upright).

They told me I was 9 cms dilated and they said they would have to break my waters. They had to cut and I tore which wasn’t nice but as soon as this happened Noah Michael Edwards entered the world at 4.50pm weighing 7lbs 4 oz. I dread to think how much he would have weighed if I had gone full term.

His daddy and nanny were also waiting to meet him.

I remember him being handed to me as soon as he was born. All the pain I had been in, just disappeared and I felt so much love for this little person and so scared I was finally a Mummy.

We spent some time with Noah before I had to go off to theatre to be stitched up. I could hear Noah crying in the recovery room, I also heard that Aunty Joanne had just arrived. (Mum had only just text her, she must have been stalking the hospital)

When I got out of theatre Pete and I spent some time with Noah. I new he was an extra special little person from the minute I saw him and that didn’t really matter. All that mattered to both of us was that he was healthy and doing really well. Pete and I had made a decision before Noah was born that we would accept and deal with whatever was thrown at us.

Noah is extra special because he has an extra chromosome - he has Down syndrome.

Pete and I felt really positive about this news, it wasn’t a shock it
was probably more of a shock to our family than us, although we had pre-warned everyone before hand. We believe special families are chosen to have special babies.

We still feel so lucky to have Noah, I remember we used to lie on the bed at the hospital looking at Noah saying how on earth did we make such a gorgeous little bundle. I would say to anyone in the position we were in Noah has brought us so much joy and given us so much love in the last two years. He amazes us everyday, he does something new every week. All of the moments with him are very precious. Some days he is a little monkey but aren’t all children!
He will always be my baby.