It's a boy!
I can’t believe 4 weeks have gone by since baby boy Noble was born! I would apologize for the lack of posting during this time, but it turns out having a newborn AND opening a business takes up pretty much every second of the day!
John Whitfield Noble III, or Field, for short was born on Wednesday, May 26th at 5:47 am at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, GA. He weighed 7 lbs and 13 oz and was 20 -1/2 inches long. When his heart rate dropped after many hours of labor, he was delivered by c-section. He missed being born on his due date by a mere 5 hours and 47 minutes (his Daddy and Aunt Brady were both born on their due dates).
He was healthy and happy but the doctors felt he was a little “grunty” in his cries, so they wanted to keep him to get some chest x-rays. It turns out that when his lungs inflated some air leaked into the space between his lungs and chest wall, called pneumothorax, so they decided to keep him in the NICU for a few days. He was so healthy otherwise, the doctors were confident it would resolve itself otherwise a chest tube would be needed. It was a little scary, and really sad not to be able to have him with us and do all that bonding right away.
Even though I couldn’t get out of bed to go see him until that evening, Whit spent a lot of time with Field in the NICU, feeding, changing and bonding with him since I was stuck in bed. While it was really hard to not get to be with Field myself, I was so very thankful Whit got to spend those first few critical hours with him. Whit taught me how to change his diaper and feed him, etc. once I finally got to go visit him.
The air pockets had almost completely dissolved by Friday morning and Field graduated out of the NICU Friday afternoon. It tied for best moment of my life (it ties with saying our wedding vows). He was finally ours. It was so amazing.
He is a very happy and has a very pleasant disposition. Even when he gets upset his cry isn’t too bad. It has a very low pitch, so it sounds kind of like a goose honking (LOL). He loves to listen to Whit play the guitar, and just like when he was in my belly, he likes the songs that Whit and I both sing the best. He is a great sleeper so far. We usually have to wake him up to feed him in the middle of the night, and if he gets hungry before the alarm goes off he really just whimpers a little, still asleep until we pick him up to feed him. He eats A LOT!!! In the NICU he was bottle fed a few times before I could try nursing, so it was a pretty big challenge for us to get the hang of it. It took a good week before we were sure he was nursing enough to stop giving him formula, but now we are pros at it.
He spends a good bit of time during the day being awake and alert. He loves to be carried around the house so he can see things. Supposedly he can only see about 12” away from his face, but he looks around a lot and is very happy doing it, so he must be able to make out something.
By his 2 week visit he weighed 8 lbs. 7 oz and if he has continued to gain an ounce per day, he should weigh a little over 9 lbs now. His newborn clothes are getting a little small, but the 0-3s are still a little big. He had grown 1-1/2 inches by his 2 week visit also. We don’t go back until 2 months but we will try and measure him before then.
Here is a a link to the Facebook album containing the pictures from the first few weks of his life.
John Whitfield Noble III
Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes. God has blessed our new little family so much!
