Well, it's really July 5th today and I haven't updated this blog in a longgg time. But then, I've been quite busy with a little William Walter! :-)

Here's how it happened on June 2, 2007:

Those cramp type contractions I mentioned in my last post as a pregnant woman were really the start of the REAL THING. They were pretty intermittent between 4 a.m. and 1 p.m., variable in strength and frequency (often 20 min. apart). I remember, I tried to fall back asleep after my first contraction, and I'd almost done so when another one hit. And I realized that I would not be able to fall asleep again. I remember distinctly thinking "I really should've appreciated getting a full 8 hours' sleep, because if this is the start of my labour, I may not get that chance again for several months!" Until about 1 p.m., my contractions really weren't all that bad. I didn't quite feel up to going to Hobby Lobby and running the other errands around town that I had planned for the weekend, but I was able to clean the house (which somehow seemed really important to get done before William was born).

Then around 1 p.m. the contractions got stronger and closer together (10 min.). Between 2 and 3 p.m. they'd started being about 4 min. apart quite regularly--I'd gotten Darryl to time them and keep track of them on paper--and I had to stop what I was doing to breathe through them.

I phoned the hospital and let them know the timing of my contractions, and so we left for the hospital (a 40 min. trip!) around 3:30 p.m. I brought my tape recorder along to record a bit of my experience of labour. I'm listening to it for the first time now... "It's 3:42 p.m. and I think William will be born maybe by 7. [laugh] That's wishful thinking I guess. No... I don't know but maybe he'll be born today on June 2nd, 2007. And I'm kind of scared because I don't know what's going to happen. And now I'm having a contraction and it hurts. It's hard to sit here comfortably in Darryl's car. [painful] Oh man. It makes my back hurt too." My contractions came closer and closer together during the drive and it was quite agonizing to sit there in the car. Darryl says he thought I would rip off the handle (above the door/window)! I definitely had to use all my concentration for breathing and I kept my eyes closed.

We got to the hospital and parked close by in the parking deck ("illegally" in the 55+ older parking spots), and I had to stop during my walk into the building so I could just breathe and get through the contractions. I was definitely getting a bit scared and I felt very self-conscious to have to stop and breathe every so often. We went up to the 3rd floor, only to find out we were supposed to go to the 2nd floor. So we did.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Dr. Alverson was on-call that evening, because he was the obstetrician I'd seen the most and I was most comfortable with him. He and the nurse got me into an examination room and checked me out: I was 6-7 cm dilated.

Before the weekend, I'd made up a birth plan to carry with me to the hospital, and I'd decided on how I wanted my delivery experience to be, with music, etc. etc. I wanted as natural a childbirth as possible. However, when I got there, it was a bit hard to think clearly, but I definitely decided to get an epidural when they asked, because I was finding my contractions to be quite painful and I knew they would just get worse once my water broke. So they started a fluid IV drip with pitocin and a narcotic, Stadol, which made the contractions more bearable. I got changed into a hospital gown and then got moved into a labour & delivery room.

Because of the Stadol, things from my L&D experience remain a tiny bit fuzzy, but here is what I do remember: The nurse hooked me up to a monitor that had some belts fastened around my tummy. These measured the baby's heartbeat and also the strength of my contractions. Darryl went to the car to get our multitude of bags, then asked me if I wanted music (per my birth plan); I honestly didn't care but he put some on ("Chorus of Whales" CD). I remember hearing it a little bit and apologizing to the nurse that it would be sort of repetitive, but with everything else happening, the music really didn't register with my conscious. I remember I was also apologizing to the nurses for sort of crying out a bit or whimpering during my contractions. (I think these apologies were the effect of the Stadol, because that's how I would've acted under the influence of alcohol too). Darryl was feeding me ice chips (we'd brought Life Savers along, but somehow ice chips seemed like such a wonderful thing to have! They were perfect for the occasion). Darryl was also on my right, letting me hold his hand and squeeze it (tightly!!) during contractions. It was great to have that support there and also to have him breathing along with me (hee-hee-hoo). Although my entire self was absorbed in breathing to get through the contractions, one distinct thought I remember having was that I found it mildly annoying that Darryl would say "shee-shee-hoo" for the breathing, but I also recognized that it was dumb of me to be annoyed at that, so I didn't say anything to Darryl, because I knew he was being so supportive already, which I really really appreciated.

It didn't take too long and my contractions were getting very strong, almost continuous, and I couldn't help but start pushing. So the nurse decided to check my progress and I was already fully dilated. She pretty much said "Let's have this baby!!" and went to get the doctor. It was only about 5-10 minutes beyond that and a few pushes later and I heard William crying. He was born at 5:49 p.m. Darryl kept saying "We have a baby!". I was still contracting and the Stadol was making me a bit groggy (it took effort to keep my eyes open) so it was hard to believe all that was happening; that is, it took a little while to register. I saw William and he was still crying and he looked sort of grayish and wet, but overall very nice (not bloody or covered in vernix, etc.).

Darryl cut the umbilical cord, and the nurse must've wrapped William in a blanket. He quickly turned pink and then red and, after holding him proudly, Darryl put him on my chest for me to hold. It was a very special moment, but it was still so hard to believe that I had a baby!!! and that this was the little guy I'd been carrying around inside me for so long.

I held him for a bit and then the nurse took him to be weighed (6 lbs, 9 oz) and measured (19 3/4 inches) and checked out (I think he was crying the whole time). His feet got inked and footprints were made. Darryl took several photos. I asked Darryl to check if William looked healthy and normal (10 fingers, 10 toes, that sort of thing! The answer "yes"). Then he was put into a flannel receiving blanket with pink & blue stripes and he was wearing a little yellow sock hat, and he was brought back to me and I nursed him for the first time. William definitely knew exactly what to do and he was quite voracious for such a little guy! :-)

Unfortunately, having come so quickly, he tore me up pretty badly and the doctor had to stitch me up. Darryl estimates I had 20 stitches. I didn't really feel the stitching and I was in a very euphoric mood at the time, joking with the doctor and nurses, etc. Apparently, William had managed to tie his umbilical cord in a knot in utero (!!!), though that didn't affect him negatively, and Darryl said that William peed on Dr. Alverson upon delivery. One thing is that my water didn't break and the doctor had to break it a few seconds before William was actually born. This was probably fortunate, because it means that my contractions weren't as bad as they could've been.

All in all, my labour experience was pretty good! It didn't last very long and it wasn't very overly painful. And, of course, everything was soooo worth it, because now we are the very proud parents of a beautiful and wonderful baby boy. William Walter is the most perfect little guy, and we are so very blessed to have him with us.

The first photos of us with our son!
Then, after a period of time (I don’t know how long), the nurses took William to go to the nursery so he could have a proper bath and get cleaned, etc. Before transferring me to a post-partum room, the nurse wanted me to try and go to the bathroom. I hadn’t had much to drink that day, and certainly not very much at all since having stronger contractions, so I didn’t think I would be able to go (really, though, the IV fluids would have made their way through my system by then). Plus I was worried about the stitches. I spent a couple minutes sitting on the toilet, the nurse calling in to me periodically. All of a sudden I started feeling hot and nauseous, and I called out to the nurse that I thought I was going to throw up. She came in and put a garbage can near me and the next thing I knew, she and Darryl were calling my name and I was coming out of a black fog. Turns out I had fainted. The nurses carefully transferred me to a gurney and I was taken to a post-partum room. The nurse thought that perhaps I’d gotten nauseous and fainted because the pain meds in the IV were given to me on an empty stomach.

I was still feeling very light-headed when getting out of bed in the post-partum room, so I had to call a nurse whenever I wanted to get up (which was just to go to the bathroom; just going took a lot of energy!!). The nurse asked if I was hungry, and I kind of was, so she got me some crackers, but after eating one, I started feeling nauseous again. All those treats and snacks we’d brought with us from home sat untouched… (and right after the delivery I'd been so very hungry!!)

We had William in the room with us for a little while and he nursed some, but ultimately we asked the nurses to bring him to the nursery, so that I could get some sleep since Darryl would go home that night, to take care of the cats and get some things done. Also, he took home the little yellow cap so the cats could sniff it and start getting used to William’s smell. He said that Gizmo was interested in smelling it, but that the other cats really didn’t seem to care at all about it. As it turns out, I didn’t get very much sleep since the nurses came in every ½ hour to 2 hours, checking blood pressure, etc.