Noah David

We never imagined going through something like this. Our hearts are aching, but we are comforted that our child never had to suffer the pain and strife of this fallen world. He is in Heaven now and we will see him again someday.

Many of you have asked questions about what happened and we wanted to try to explain the events of the past few days.

On Monday Lisa went to work and while there she was trying to get Noah to move around or kick in her belly. She had not felt him move since Saturday afternoon and was getting concerned, especially since her blood pressure has been high since her 24th week. She pushed on her belly and drank a glass of orange juice to try to stir movement from Noah, but she could feel nothing. On Monday night we called the doctor and decided to go to the hospital to check his heartbeat. We made the decision on the way to the hospital to name our baby "Noah David". The name "Noah" means "peacemaker" or "comforter", and "David" means "beloved". When we arrived at the hospital, a nurse came and tried to find the heartbeat with a fetal monitor. She couldn't find it, so she went and got another nurse and they still couldn't find anything. Then they got the doppler and still nothing. We couldn't comprehend what was happening. We tried so hard to hear any movement but could not at all. The doctor came in with the ultrasound machine and we saw our precious baby boy on the screen, but his heart had stopped beating. We had just seen his strong heartbeat (155) a week earlier, but in that moment we knew that our precious Noah had gone to be with the Lord.

They admitted Lisa immediately and told us they would take Noah by c-section on Tuesday morning. It was so hard to comprehend. We fully expected that when we got to the hospital on Monday night, we would hear Noah's heartbeat and everything would be ok. We never imagined that we would lose our son. On Tuesday morning at 7:45, they did the c-section. Noah David weighed 3lbs. 6oz. and was 15 inches long. We weren't sure of what he would look like since Lisa was just short of 31 weeks pregnant. But he was so beautiful and perfect. He looked like his big brother, Ethan. +It was difficult to hear only silence in the OR when they pulled him out. No crying, just silence. Our doctor showed us the placenta and the umbilical cord and there were some obvious problems with it. The placenta was oddly aged to 41 weeks with calcium deposits on the outside. And the umbilical cord had 2 vessels that were protruding from the center of the cord. The pathologists will be doing several tests to try to find out what caused these malformations and to find out if this is what caused Noah to die. It may have also been the cause of Lisa's high blood pressure. The surgery went great and once they got us into a room, they cleaned up Noah and brought him to us. We held him for hours and we allowed family and friends to hold him. You never know what you will do in this kind of situation (since you don't actually think you will ever experience something like this), but we decided to take photos of Noah so that we could remember him always. We have posted just some of those below if you would like to see them. This may be too disturbing for some, so view at your own discretion. But some of you have requested to see photos of Noah, so we wanted to share at least a few with you.

The staff at Rockdale Medical Center was absolutely amazing. They went above and beyond to make sure both our physical and emotional needs were met. We cannot thank them enough for all that they did for us! There were even nurses and other staff who had been through losses like ours and really understood what we were going through.

There has also been an outpouring of love from all of our friends and family. We want to thank all of you who have sent us emails and comments on Facebook or myspace. We have been so comforted to have all of you grieve along side us. We said goodbye to Noah today which was the most difficult thing we've ever had to do. We do understand, however, that this was just his body and that he is in Heaven for eternity!

We are going to be having a private burial on Saturday at noon for just family to attend. We have a beautiful spot picked out in a nearby cemetary and they have a section there for babies who have passed away called "Baby Land". On Sunday at 1:00, everyone is invited to attend a Memorial Service for Noah at our church (Discover Point Church) at 1303 Parker Road in Conyers, Georgia.

Pictures of Noah are below.