I am really far behind in posting to the blog! Here is the story of William's arrival:
I had been to work all week and had planned to work up to Wednesday March 28th and to use the remainder of my personal days to round out the week. I woke up on that Wednesday feeling so sick, I became violently ill that morning and decided to stay home. I felt really guilty for not going to work on my last scheduled day, but there was no way I would have made it to work with out getting sick all over myself. By Wednesday night I was feeling better.
Thursday March 29th I had a busy day planned. My dad was home and I had scheduled to show my CRV to a potential buyer mid day. The showing went well and the guy agreed to buy my vehicle! At the time I didn't think anything of the weird feelings I was having in my lower abdomen and in my butt. At that time I assumed that William was just moving his head around. I must have had an uncomfortable look on my face when my dad and the car buyer came back because they asked me if I was ok and if I needed to call the doctor. Hmmm, should have listened to them! Well, immediately after the car buyer left my dad and I went to Concord to attempt to get a copy of the title for the CRV (I misplaced the original apparently). Came home with no title and I went home to do more tidying up and to get some rest as I was exhausted!
Thursday evening came and I really thought that William was just being really squirmy with his head because the uncomfortable feeling I had before was getting more annoying. I decided to time these uncomfortable feelings and sure enough... they were rhythmic. 3 min apart and lasting 40 seconds. After a few hours of this I called the doc who told me to relax, lay down and see if they get longer or if they just go away. Well, I was up ALL NIGHT after that with some really good contractions! I timed, I walked around, I sat and rocked on my yoga ball and I even got in the warm bath. James was great and rubbed my back when ever I woke him up. I lost my mucus plug over night (that was a really weird experience) and knew something was going on.
James stayed home on Friday because at this point it was more than clear that I was having contractions, though they were not staying on a consistent interval... every 6 mins for an hour, every 4 mins for an hour, every 12 mins for an hour, etc. Very frustrating for us because you are not supposed to call the doc to go to the hospital until you are contracting for 1 minute, 5 mins apart consistently for a minimum of an hour. I didn't fit into that group! But, I called the doc anyway and they had me come in for a labor check.
We showed up at the doctor at 10am and I said to James that I bet I was only at 1cm because I thought that the contractions would be much worse. Surprise! 4cm and 90% effaced! Dr. Herr said that we had permission to go have a baby and that he would let the hospital know that we would be coming by sometime when we were feeling ready. He also encouraged us to go walk the mall if we wanted to.
We went to Target for a bit and did some walking and shopping, always a good distraction. I didn't want to be at the mall and have a 2 mile walk back to the car if my water broke. We had brought Dutch back to my parents the night before and had the bags in the car... but we had left the car seat at home! So home we went to get the seat and then off to the hospital!
I was apparently very chill and was joking with the nurses. The nurse was surprised when she checked me and I was 5cm and was only contemplating the epidural... especially after being awake since around 5am on Thursday. I decided to get the epidural so that I could attempt to sleep so that I had enough energy to push out baby William. I was upset that I couldn't walk around, but I was already exhausted and it became more important to sleep at that point.
William's heart beat was abnormal (3 beats then a pause and then the 4th beat). The doc appeared slightly concerned but told me it was fairly normal. By the way the nurse kept calling the doc and by the look on their faces I knew it wasn't exactly normal. They had me position myself on my left side for a while, then my right side... the doc put me on pitocin shortly there after to even out the consistency of my contractions and William's heart rate became more normal with the pitocin (weird). About 6pm my water broke due to the strong contractions. So about 6:45, and after upping the pitocin drip about 5 times, the doc checked me again and sure enough I was only at 5.5 cm. The doc gently informed me that it looked like the best thing would be a csection. William's heart beat was not exactly rhythmic still, the contractions had been 2-3 mins apart for about 2 hours and they were strong contractions but William just refused to drop. The doc even felt around to see if he was facing the wrong way, but couldn't tell. He did notice that my cervix was tilted at this point so he suspected that William had his head cocked and was blocking his exit.
So, after some tears and virtually no discussion between me and James - just a look of "you gotta do what you gotta do" - they wheeled me into the OR and drugged me up even more so I was super numb. It went much quicker than I thought it would. Baby William was born at 8:47pm - all 9lb 8oz of him with his 14.5" head. James was great and kept his eyes on me for most of the surgery. He looked when they announced the head, a shoulder, and the other shoulder... and they lifted him up for me to see when he was fully out. Being that it was April Fool's day and I wasn't convinced that the ultrasound tech was correct, I asked a few times if they were sure it was a boy! And a big boy he was!
William's heart rate returned to normal a few minutes after he was born. I was glad that a member of the NICU team was there just in case his heart rate didn't fix itself.
They were stitching me up while they were checking him out and cleaning him up. Of course I got sick on the OR table. Poor anestegiologist... I was the first person he ever had puke on the table.
Everyone at Elliot was awesome. I wouldn't have changed anything about our stay, except I would have liked to avoid the C-section but there was nothing else I could have done. James was awesome the entire week, being the only one changing diapers as I couldn't stand to look at the circumcision and getting William for me so that he could be fed. He is such a proud daddy!
So here he is, William Hendrik!
