Announcing Noah Andrew Morris

Introducing the Arrival of Noah Andrew Morris
Born on May 16, 2008 at 11:41pm
6 pounds 12 ounces
19 ½ inches
May 16, 008
I woke up at 3:30am with contractions with pain. I have been contracting for so long I was afraid that I wouldn’t know if I went into labor but these contractions were much stronger and combined with cramping. I got out of bed at 5:30am because I just couldn’t handle lying in bed with the pain. It felt better to walk around. I spend the day doing laundry and getting the house ready for the baby. I was doing really well with laboring at home and thought that my water would break or the pain would intensify letting me know when to go to the hospital. At 9:45am my contractions were 5 minutes apart but they didn’t hurt as bad as I thought they should so I decided to stay home. At 12:15pm, I called Andy to come home from work. I wasn’t sure if I was really progressing so I went to my doctor’s office to have him check me. We arrived at the doctor’s office at 2:40pm and I was 4-5 cm dilated and was directed to go directly to the hospital. At 3:35pm the nurse checked me at the hospital and I was 7 cm dilated. Everything was progressing faster than I had anticipated. I was afraid that I would loss my window of getting an epidural. At 4:55 my epidural was in place and I was relaxed. I wanted an epidural because I had such a difficult delivery with MaKayla and wanted to prevent the experience that I had before. Dr. Manas broke my water at 7:15pm. At 9:30pm, I was completely dilated. We decided to wait an hour to let the head move down more. Being on bed rest for 14 weeks has made me very weak and Dr. Manas wanted to limit the time I would have to push. At 10:30pm, I started pushing with contractions 5 minutes apart. It was nice to have a break in between and reserve my strength. At 11:41pm, our little bundle of joy entered the world! Daddy announced, “It’s a BOY!” We both were overjoyed. Dr. Manas laid Noah Andrew on my chest where Andy and I could bond immediately. After a few minutes of bonding, he was taken to the warmer.

Our sweet baby boy was having a little difficulty with his breathing, air in his tummy and low blood pressures so he was taken to the NICU to be monitored over night. After recovering for a little while, I was allowed to visit Noah in the NICU. It was so hard to see our sweet baby with a tube down his mouth, monitors and the IV in his arm. I was unable to hold him while he was being monitored and it was very difficult for me to stand more than a minute so I was wheeled back to my room to recover. Andy and I finally settled into bed at 3:30am. It has been a very long and emotional day!

May 17, 2008 at 6:00am, we received a call from the NICU to come on over so that Andy could help with Noah’s first bath. Noah was finally weighed and had his foot prints done as well. It was nice to be able to watch and take pictures while I sat in a wheel chair.

Proud Daddy with foot prints on his chest!

May 17, 2008
Daddy was able to help give Noah his first bath in the NICU.

At 8:20am, Noah was released from the NICU and was brought to our room. We were finally able to bond together as a family.

Mommy was finally able to feed Noah for the first time.

Mommy, Daddy and Baby Noah!

Mommy and her new baby BOY!

May 18, 2008
Little Noah all ready for his hospital pictures before we head home.

Mommy and her sweet baby boy!

Daddy and his precious little boy!

Noah looks so small in his car seat. We are all ready to head home!

Daddy giving MaKayla a Cabbage Patch Doll so she now she has her own baby.

May 18, 2008
MaKayla received a few gifts which made the celebration of Noah a little sweeter for her. Here she is wearing her new Mickey Mouse ears from Aunt Vickie and Uncle Nick. She also received a beautiful heart and cross necklace from Grandmama Baker. She didn’t want to take it off. Andy had to sneak it off her while she was sitting on his lap before bed time.

May 19, 2008
MaKayla is holding Noah for the first time. She is such a good BIG Sister!

Daddy and his two babies!

May 20, 2008
Noah has lots of dark curly hair.

Our sweet baby boy!

Tiny Little Feet

What a cutie pie!

Mommy and her two babies!

Big Sister MaKayla is holding her brother’s hand. MaKayla is doing exceptionally well with accepting her little brother into the family. She gives him lots of kisses and tries to give him toys and his blanket. She even pats his bottom when she sees me trying to burp him. It is so cute to watch her being so affectionate with Noah. We make sure we give MaKayla undivided individual attention from each of us and always welcome her on to our lap while we are holding Noah. I think that it has really helped with making the transition from a family of 3 to a family of 4 easier on MaKayla.

Daddy and Noah snuggling

Freedom!!!!

May 13, 2008
In preparation of the big day Andy helped me with painting my toenails. He is such a sweet and loving husband.


May 14, 2008
I stopped the terbutaline pump and bed rest today. It was so nice to get out and about for a little bit at least. I am very weak and get tired very quickly. At least I was able to sort through some of MaKayla’s baby clothes and pick out the gender neutral to take to the hospital. I also wanted to get a few more pictures of the two of us together so my friend Becky came over to take a few last minute shots for us. MaKayla is at that age where she doesn’t really cooperate for pictures right now. We did the best we could.

Professional Maternity Photos

I really regretted not getting professional maternity photos with my pregnancy of MaKayla. Since this is our last chance I wasn’t letting it slip away. I found a photographer who was willing to come to our house for the photo shoot. Heather Woodward did a fabulous job of capturing the beauty of pregnancy. I just love the photos and we will be going to her studio when our new little bundle arrives for a newborn session. If you want to see some of her other work, check out her website: http://www.heatherwoodwardphotography.com Some of our photos have even made it on her website. These photos were taken at 33 weeks of pregnancy on April 26th.

A New Swing Set

May 10, 2008
MaKayla is growing so fast and is our little monkey. She loves to climb on anything that stands still or is moving. She plays with the other day care kids on the swing set and outdoors almost everyday. When Andy takes her for a walk she points to swing sets that she sees in other yards and doesn’t understand why she can go and play. We decided it was time to get her a swing set for our yard. Andy was going to build one but when I found this particular swing set in the paper for $200 we just couldn’t pass it up. It is less than a year old and the wood is in perfect condition. The green is just out of the wood and ready to be stained. We were lucky to get it. I begged the guy selling it not to return any other calls until Andy had a chance to run over and look at it. He gave us a half hour to get back to him. So after borrowing a large trailer to get it home it was ours. Andy bolted it back together in less than a half hour on Saturday. After MaKayla woke up from her nap she had a nice surprise. She LOVES IT!! She could sit and swing for an hour strait.

MaKayla swinging on her swing with white knuckles from holding on so tight.

MaKayla’s playing on her new swing set with Daddy and Ike supervising.

She tried so hard to do it all by herself but the rocks were just a little too high for her feet.

Daddy lending a helping hand

She was a little unsure of going down the slide the first couple of times until Daddy reassured her and helped her. It didn’t take long until she was sliding down and running back to go down again.

Here she is climbing up to the slide.

purchased this dolphin swing from ebay. I just love this picture of her in it.

MaKayla feels more comfortable going down the slide on her tummy.

The Home Stretch!

May 10, 2008 36 Weeks Pregnant!
We have made it further than expected in this pregnancy, praise God!!!! Dr. Manas is pleased with baby and my progress. I went to the doctor on May 8th and Dr. Manas told me that I could stop the Terbutaline pump and other medicine on May 12th. He also gave me permission to start getting up and around slowly to build up my strength. Andy and I have decided to continue to lay low and stay on the meds a little longer. Most likely the baby’s lungs will be mature enough at 37 weeks and we would love to get as close to the 37th week as possible. Dr. Manas is concerned because the baby looks to be about 6 ½ pounds already and I had trouble delivering MaKayla at 6lbs. 6oz. I am 1 cm dilated but you can stay that way for weeks. I am sure that we will have a birthday sooner than later. We will just have to wait and see.


May 3, 2008 35 Weeks Pregnant!
Dr. Manas returned from his vacation which made Andy and I feel better. We want him to deliver our baby since we have all worked so hard together in this pregnancy. It had been a few weeks since I had seen Dr. Manas. He came in during our ultrasound to check on baby and I. Baby was still breech so he decided to feel how easy it would be to do a version (flip the baby). He started pushing and pulling and asking me if I could handle the pain if we decided to go forward with the version. Before I could answer, he had flipped our baby into the head down position. I was so thankful that he just went with his gut instinct and did it. Andy and I didn’t have to agonize over the decision. After some monitoring, I was able to go back home. Baby looked beautiful!


April 26, 2008 34 Weeks Pregnant!
Baby really cooperated during the ultrasound this week. We were able to get some really good 4D shots. I wish that I had a way to scan and share them with all of you. Bed rest makes it impossible for me to accomplish that, sorry! Baby is still breech and Andy and I will have to make a decision soon on either moving forward with a version (flipping the baby) which carries complications or a c-section. We will wait until Dr. Manas returns from his vacation and get his input.