Welcome Noah Tobias Hornback

Noah was born on a Thursday, February 20, 2003 at 2:59 pm. We had checked into St. Lukes Regional at 6am that morning to be induced due to high blood pressure. I was 39 weeks pregnant. I had no pain thanks to an epidural and with Doug and Mom holding my hands, I brought our son into the world. What an amazing moment! He was perfect with a very tiny bit of fuzzy reddish blonde hair and blue eyes. He weighed 8 pounds and 1.7 ounces and was 19 and 1/2 inches long. He was calm - The nurses had to encourage him to cry. I unwrapped him and looked at every inch of him - counted each of his tiny fingers and toes. He was just as precious as he could be and I was amazed and so completely in love with him from the moment they laid him in my arms.

Getting Ready For Noah

Noah's crib was a gift from my mom. I picked it from the JCPenney catalog and loved it from the moment I saw it. It was perfect - great color and it changed from crib to toddler bed to full size bed with head and foot board. It was a new line of "Grow With Me" furniture they had started. It was delivered by UPS and Doug set to work putting it together. So exciting getting it ready - made his impending arrival all that much more real.

Ultrasound Pictures

This ultrasound was taken when I was 5 weeks along and they were checking to make sure the baby was still there -- I had severe appendicitis and had to have my appendix removed. June 2002

7 Weeks Along - Looking for the heartbeat after going through surgery and making sure the baby was stable. I clearly remember feeling so relieved to see that tiny pulsing light on the screen. So very, very precious!
15 Weeks along -- Hello in there - We see you!

This was acutally taken the same time as the photo above, only it is a shot from the video they took. You can clearly see him sucking his thumb in this picture. The nurse would not tell us the sex of the baby, but Doug and I were almost certain we could see 'boy parts'! We had another ultrasound during our 25th week (no picture) when we found out we were indeed having a son!

Expecting Noah

In these pictures we were visiting family in St. Louis with Doug's parents. Darla snapped these pictures of us at our hotel. The picture of Doug's ear to my belly is one of my all time favorite pictures. =) We were actually there for New Year's Eve and I was seven and a half months pregnant. This was the first time Doug had ever let his beard grow -- He called it his 'Daddy Beard'. We were so excited that it wouldn't be too much longer until we would meet our baby boy!