The Scariest Moment of Our Lives

WARNING: Long post, but necessarily so


Everyday at the hospital, the pediatrician would come in and assess Sophia to make sure she was growing and developing as she should. By Friday morning, Dr. Goodspeed (our ped.) noticed that she could still hear Sophia's heart murmur. She told us that it is extremely common for babies to be born with a murmur, but that Sophia's was a little louder than normal. So she called in a pediatric cardiographer to give our precious baby an echo cardiogram (basically an ultrasound of the heart). He came Friday night. He didn't say anything during the entire echo, so we waited through the half hour of silence watching the screen in dread, trying to make sense of what we were seeing. Finally, when he was finished, he played back for us everything he recorded and explained in detail what we were looking at. He told us that all babies have two small holes in their heart when they are born, and that they close within a matter of months. Sophia was on schedule with these holes closing (one was already closed!). BUT she has an extra hole in her heart. It is a long slit-shaped hole between the lower two chambers of her heart. He referred to this type of hole as a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD). This is not usually a problem when the hole is small enough, but Sophie's hole is considered "moderate" in size. So what does this mean? When there is a large opening between the ventricles, a large amount of oxygen-rich blood from the heart's left side is forced through the defect into the right side. Then it's pumped back to the lungs, even though it's already been refreshed with oxygen. Basically this makes the heart work overtime, because it is pumping the same blood through twice.
The cardiographer told us not to be too concerned, and that there is a good chance of it closing on its own within the first 12 months of life. He told us that we need to bring Sophia to a pediatric cardiologist for the next year, so they can monitor the progress of the hole. He also told us some things to watch for, that would signal there was some kind of problem with Soph. So we scheduled our first appointment at the heart clinic for the end of October, when Sophie will be 5 weeks old.
As the cardiographer was leaving, we asked him what would happen if Sophie's hole doesn't close in the first year. Would she need surgery? He was quick to assure us that the size of her hole would not require surgery, and that she could still live a perfectly normal life with the hole. She would just get tired faster, and not be able to put quite as much strain on her body.
Praise God. It was the scariest night that both Jared and I have ever lived. No parent wants to hear that this beautiful new baby lying in their arms has a hole in her heart. It was terrifying. We have been praying for Sophia's heart everyday since then, and have high hopes that God will heal her little heart. We would really appreciate all of your prayers as well.

A Birth Story...

...Continued

Sophia Colette Nourse

After 45 minutes of cleaning me up, we were ready to introduce our beautiful little girl to the family waiting down the hall. Jared roused Grandma Becky, Auntie Anna, and Papa Nourse from their sound sleep, and proclaimed "It's a girl!" They all came in with smiles and tears flowing in abundance. Grandma Becky was the first one to hold little Sophie, followed by Aunt Anna. Unfortunately Papa Nourse had a very bad cold, and was only able to look on in love. Phone calls were made that spurred Grandpa Jim and Uncle Nathan to come rushing to the hospital. After about an hour of oodling and cooing at the baby, the family went home to get some sleep, with promises to return in the morning.

Around 5AM, Erin and Richard arrived to get their peek at our little one. Erin stayed with Sophia and me while Jared, Richard and Nathan ran to McDonald's for some long-awaited nourishment (Jared and I had not eaten since 2PM, and even then we split a grilled cheese so it wasn't much). While the boys were gone, the nurse came in to do Sophia's footprints! She was so good and held very still. We quickly realized that she has daddy's long toes!

Everyone left by 6AM, and it was time to get some rest. After about an hour of sleep, various nurses came in to assess mother and baby, and make sure we were both recovering okay. The pediatrician checked Sophia and said she was doing great! She did mention that she heard a small heart murmur, but that was pretty normal in newborns and that she would check it again the next day. The rest of that day (Thursday) was filled with guests, gifts, assessments, eating, smiling and sleeping. It was surreal, yet wonderful. How could this amazing, beautiful little baby be ours?

And the Winner is...

I would like to announce to everyone the winner of the Baby Lotto!

Shinae Warren

I was stunned at the accuracy of her guesses!
Here they are (Sophia's actual stats in parenthesis):

Gender: Male (Female)
Date of Birth: Sept. 27th (Sept. 27th)
Time: 4AM (3:12AM)
Weight: 6lbs. 10oz. (6lbs. 13oz.)
Length: 21 inches (20.25 inches)
Hair Color: black (very dark brown)
Eye Color: blue (blue)

Congratulations Shinae!!

Her $10 Starbucks gift card has been awarded to her.

A Birth Story...

Sophia Colette Nourse

As most of you know, Sophia joined our family on Thursday, September 27th, 2007. It was the most beautiful (and painful) day of our lives. I am going to share the story over the next several posts, as there is so much to tell.

After our labor date on Tuesday night, I went to bed discouraged because I was not having any contractions. During the night, I woke up to several contractions, but they were very sporadic and infrequent. I woke up Wednesday morning and went to nanny as usual. I started at 9AM, and told Cara that I had been having some contractions, but they had mostly stopped by 7AM that morning. Almost immediately after she left, the contractions started up again, and they were only 7 minutes apart! I was in constant contact with both Jared, and Cara, keeping them aware of the situation. By 2pm, Cara was home and helping me through the "painful" ones (retrospect clearly shows these contractions were nothing in comparison to what was to come). Jared arrived at 3PM. It was at this point that my contractions sped up, and were now only 4-5 minutes apart. Jared drove me to Gary's house, because he has a huge jacuzzi bathtub. I soaked in the warm water for about 20 minutes before we realized it was slowing down the contractions. So I got out immediately. After about an hour, and the contractions were getting more and more intense, we left for the hospital.

This is what the sky looked like on our way to the hospital. God painted us an amazing picture to welcome our miracle into the world.

Jared pulled the car up to the emergency entrance, and I opened my door and climbed out. The second that both of my feet were on the ground, my water broke. Talk about timing! I waddled into the ER, and they wheeled me up to the maternity floor. On the way up, the nurse told me that they only had one room left-- the waterbirth room. Little did she know that we wanted to do a waterbirth! God saved that room just for us. At this point, even though I was in intense pain, I was completely amazed at how God was working everything out. To top it all off, our favorite midwife was on-call, and came in to deliver our baby.

We arrived at the hospital at 6pm, and endured 6 hours of painful contractions before they allowed me to get in the tub. When we arrived, I was dilated to 3cm, 80% effaced and baby was at "0" station. When they finally let me in the tub I was 100% effaced, and baby was at +2 station, but I was only 5cm dilated. It took about 1.5 hours of tub time for me to dilate to 8cm, at which point I got the urge to push. The midwife told me to wait (which was incredibly difficult). After another half hour, I was dilated to 9cm and started to push. After a little over an hour, Sophia made her entrance! Jared pulled her out of the water and held her up for me to see. He told me with amazement, "It's a little girl!"

Jared cut the cord, and then I got out of the tub and onto the bed, where I spent the next 45 minutes cuddling and loving my daughter...

Sophia Colette Nourse

6lbs 13oz

20 1/4 inches long

3:12am, September 27th, 2007

Woodwinds Health Campus

Labor Date

We tried it all. No baby. Just two bruised ankles, a sore back, and a bad attitude. Ugh.

We started with a twenty-minute ankle-pushing session (um, OUCH), then headed up to the bedroom for hanky panky, immediately followed by a mile-long power walk. At this point, I was having contractions pretty frequently, so I was getting excited. As I made our spicy tacos for dinner, I started feeling crampy, and my lower back was beginning to ache. Two more good signs! We finished dinner with burning lips, and laced up our shoes again. Back around the mile loop for a brisk after-dinner walk. Now I was feeling very crampy, my back ached pretty intensely, and I was feeling a TON of pressure on my crotch, but the contractions had ceased, so I bounced on my big birth ball. Then it was back up to the bedroom.

I fell asleep with a backache and cramps, and have been awakened at least seven times since then (it is now 3am) by very strong contractions. I guess there is still hope... I am not getting too excited though.

39 Week Check-up

I am SO PROUD of the progress my body has made over the past week!! Here is what we found out at our 39-week check-up...

Blood Pressure: 102/56
Weight gain: 1.5 lbs (36 lbs total)
Fetal heart rate: 132 bpm
Fundal Height: 37 cm

(Now for the exciting stuff...)
70% effaced
3cm dilated
-1 to 0 station

I was very excited to find out how much I progressed this week, and so was my midwife. I could tell my body was changing and it was wonderful to hear her tell me what changes had taken place.


I have been crampy again today-- another indication that labor isn't too far away. This morning, the house got yet another thorough cleaning, though this time it was not out of desire. Our three animals make quick work of destroying any level of cleanliness I achieve, and thus it was necessity that urged me into action this morning. After getting out of bed, and surveying the house, I burst into tears at the thought of cleaning everything AGAIN. So with tears streaming down my face, I wandered from room to room grabbing at messes and hurling them into their proper place while scolding each item for all its faults. I had somewhat of a meltdown. After the tears ran dry, I calmed down, turned on the radio and enjoyed the rest of the morning cleaning to music. I forced myself to think about why I was cleaning-- to prepare a safe, healthy home for our baby. That seemed to make things a little better.

Tomorrow night, Jared and I have a "labor date." We are going to put into practice any and every natural method of encouraging labor that we can. We are going to have this baby by Wednesday-- that's the plan. Here is what we have so far:

-Go for a rigorous mile-long walk
-Eat spicy tacos for dinner
-Push on my ankles
-Hanky panky

If you have any more to offer, we will try it!

A Birth Story...

Jared Earl Nourse

It was a brisk, December afternoon in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Jan clutched her belly and glanced over at her two-year-old daughter, Cassie, playing on the floor. Fondly, she recalled the many conversations they had had about how excited Cassie was to have a sibling. Jan was nine months pregnant, and had been experiencing some rather painful contractions for awhile now. It was time to call her husband, Gary, at work.

As soon as the call went through, Gary packed up his things, and ran to the car. He drove home in eager anticipation of what the evening might bring. When he arrived, he gathered up his wife and daughter in his arms for a big hug. Jan humored him for about one second, and then pushed away to get in the car. She was in labor after all, and ready to get to the hospital.

They arrived at St. Luke's a few minutes later. The nurses scurried around attending to the laboring mother, while Gary brought Cassie to the children's nursery and dropped her off. This would be her home for the next few hours. After seeing Cassie settle on the floor, with toy in hand, he retraced his steps and began to fill out various admittance and insurance forms. Soon, he was able to join his wife, and support her through each painful contraction. As he looked down into her face, he thought of how lucky he was to experience this with her. Hospitals were just becoming open to the idea of fathers being in the room during labor.

After two hours of pain and pushing, Gary and Jan met their baby son, Jared Earl. He had a full head of dark brown hair, and looked like he had been in a boxing match with all the bruises covering his face. They could tell from the get-go that this child was going to be their wild child-- that he would be the polar opposite of their little angel, Cassie. And he was. ;)

Jared in the hospital nursery, only a few hours old

Jared and his daddy

Cassie playing mommy with her new baby brother

Jared's first Christmas, at three weeks old

Jared Earl Nourse
Born: December 1, 1978 8:30pm
8 lbs. 9oz

St. Luke's Hospital
Cedar Rapids, Iowa