Wow! Birth is amazing. After 17 hours of physical and emotional labor, Noa Kathryn Noll was born at 1:48 AM on September 27, 2006. Praise God! Sara-Beth and I went to the hospital at 7:30 AM the day before and Sara-Beth was induced an hour later. Contractions, contractions, and more contractions. It broke my heart to see the one I love most – in such pain, and for so long! Made me realize all the more how much love God has for us, in that He not only allowed, but also experienced His son suffering and dying for us. I also have a new appreciation for mothers, and a new and great appreciation for my wonderful superhuman wife! 17 hours, not one complaint, and one extremely precious daughter to forever remind us of a mother’s love.
Noa is charming and precious and has instantly won my heart. Becoming a dad is easily one of the biggest moments of my life. What a joy and blessing! Enjoy the pictures, and of course, many more to come!
One more thing – Thanks Mom for giving birth to me! Wow. Thank you.
Both grandmother and mother ready to go…
The problem is that we need someone else to be ready to go…
Okay. Here’s the deal, this is our first pregnancy and our child is ‘late.’ I have no complaints or problems with our baby, in fact I don’t even believe that he or she is ‘late.’ Here’s why.
All pregnant women are given a due date. But it isn’t a deadline or a common date for our child to be born. A due date is the middle day in a 4 week window when our child is expected. To take away disappointment and frustration, I nominate that we redue the ‘due date.’ I propose that all due dates should be the last day of the 42nd week, which is when a mom is strongly encouraged/required to be induced if the baby isn’t born yet. Therefore no one will ever go past their due date (unless by choice) and most mothers will be esctatic when their child arrives early!
A man has not lived until he goes to Breastfeeding 101 and various other pregnancy classes. Sara-Beth and I have been going to classes on Wednesday nights and we graduated this past Wednesday. I am officially now “Coach Noll.” Even though I have not seen Sara-Beth give birth yet, I have seen on video many labors and deliveries. I have the utmost respect for all mothers. Thanks for giving birth! This world would have fewer people if it weren’t for you.
As requested, here is a pic of our dog Charlie. Charlie was a sire from NJ that couldn’t breed anymore, and so we were his retirement home. Sara-Beth and I were talking about him the other day, and realized that Charlie set way to high a precident for any other K9’s in our home. He was already house broken, loved kids, loved people, and very cuddly. Unfortunately, in the time span of 3 weeks he stopped eating and eventually died of a tumor, last spring. While not a big fan of getting a dog when Sara-Beth and I first got married, Good-Time Charlie changed me. While I grew quite fond of Charlie, I really didn’t realize how much I enjoyed him until he was gone. Here’s a pic of with his fav toy, Kong.
