Didn't quite complete my job this week...

...atleast as far as taking iPhone pictures everyday for Sam. It was a rough week - but I'll get into that later.

I think this was on Monday. It took a really long time to get him calmed down and asleep

.

On Thursday - looking quite handsome in overalls that are still way too big - but he's starting to actually see the toys on the bouncy seat which is neat. I'm just happy that he likes the bouncy seat - so I can sometimes sneak a 3 minute shower. ;)

Loves.

Nothing clever to put here - I'm too tired.

I feel like I should have something to write here but I'm kinda at a loss.

Probably because little sweet William is beginning to sleep less and be more fussy when it's bedtime and it's starting to make Sam and I crazy. Last night around 11 Sam gave up and put him in the car and drove around for I don't know how long - but he said he eventually had to get on the highway. Then at 1:45 he woke up screaming again, lucky me, it was my turn. So I fed him and then he didn't want to be put down. So I slept on the sofa with him on my chest and while he did go to sleep that way - I'm pinned on my back on the sofa (which is very comfortable atleast) while he does the baby grunts/moans on my chest - so I get very little sleep. This lasted until 5:30 - then he starts to stir and before he can start screaming I wake up Sam and tell him to go make a bottle. Then I stay up with them both while we try to figure out if he has a temperature and diarrhea - which he doesn't - but that's what we're concerned about. Our kids poop level. It's ridiculous. I never would've thought Sam and I would have a real conversation about that.

Working backwards - I got a call yesterday morning from one of my favorite clients and they needed some help with their master bath, choosing tile, etc. - so off William and I went in the afternoon and he was screaming all the way there - I think he had lost his paci... But when I put him in the Boppy sling to walk in, he calmed right down and went to sleep. Thank goodness! I think he just doesn't want people other than Mom & Dad to know his true colors. Such a show off! ;)

Sunday was a good day. We went to the 11:00 service instead of the 8:45 and I we like it so much better. It's so much easier to get ready for! Then we had a lazy day and it was perfect. Well, William & I were lazy - Sam worked outside, painting the railing and I think he did some yardwork or maybe it was installing the light and weatherstripping in the laundry room. I don't remember. But the weather was gorgeous and mild and it was a nice day. We even went down to the park in the evening to enjoy. Going to the park in the evenings when Sam gets home is hopefully going to become a recurring theme - except of course, on the very stressful days (like yesterday)...

Walked with Hadley in the morning - which was SO MUCH FUN! Right now my black hole is fairly shallow I think - I don't have time to call and talk for hours to friends (not that I do that usually - I really don't like to talk on the phone most days) and if it wasn't for facebook and the iPhone - nobody would know that I even continued to exist I am sure. Though if the crying continues - this hole is going to get much deeper. (as I write this - he has begun to cry....)

....someone come throw me a ladder...

So I think I mentioned last week that my Dad really wanted me to be tired so he could come down and spend time with the baby and give me a break - and I was actually still running on adrenaline and feeling like I could conquer the world, especially one little baby, so I declined his offer to come. Well, Sam got home from work on Monday and suggested that I call my dad. I'm not sure what I looked like to make him think that - but it must've been run down. Which is exactly how I felt. Anyhow - I call Daddy when I get back from walking in the morning and wouldn't you know it - he has the flu. Irony. It's not funny. So this might foil our plans to go up to Cleveland Labor Day weekend so everyone in the fam could meet William (ie - other people would be holding and taking care of William so we could slip upstairs and take a 4 hour nap) and I was really looking forward to that. I hope Daddy and Sara feel better soon...and not just for my own selfish reason.. :)

Of course - all bets are off when he makes this face - I almost think I can handle all the crying... almost. And he really is a good baby - I probably exaggerate the amount of crying. Besides he's too cute!!

Loves!

Daily iPhone Pics

I will try and do a post every week with the pics we send Sam every day - we get some really fun expressions takings random pictures like this. Enjoy!

100% sacked out in the vibrating pack-n-play.

Nap time on Mommy - the best kind! He sleeps on his hands just like Mommy too!

His very serious thinking face.

I think he knew I was going to try and cut his fingernails - never again - that is now Sam's job alone!!

Waiting on Daddy to get home on Friday.

Loves!

Home Alone

My Favorites ready for church!

So William and I managed to survive our first week home alone since Sam had to go back to work on Monday. It really wasn't AS hard as I thought it would be - there weren't any meltdowns or emergency calls to Sam demanding that he come home and help - so I would consider that a success. Though I will say that weekends have new meaning - I was exhausted after the first week and thankful that Sam would be home to help.

I wouldn't say that we have developed a routine per se, but there are a few things that we tend to stick to. Getting up early is, of course, at the tope of this list - but I like I said before - I like it because it's time with Sam I don't usually get. After Sam leaves for work, William & I head to the park to walk and then we run whatever errands are needed in the morning. Have to make it home in time for lunch though - because Sam comes home for lunch - which I also enjoy a lot more now. Then there is nap time on the sofa, usually William sleeps on my chest and we snuggle. Then we take a picture on the iPhone and email it to Dad. So far I've managed to do this every day - if we keep this up - then Sam's phone is going to have a stupid number of pictures on it! But I think it's sweet.

I have discovered though that I don't like having to run multiple places on an errand run, which really defeats the purpose, but it's such a hassle getting the carseat in and out. I don't understand why they don't make carseats out of some really cool material that is ridiculously strong but also REALLY light - the carseat is SOOOO HEAVY!! Not to mention it's practically impossible to get to in the middle of the car without stooping and breaking your back... Just saying.

We have also discovered that we have no real "parenting style." We are flying by the seat of our pants, making what we think are intelligent well reasoned decisions, and everyone else can just eat it. :) We didn't read a billion books, we don't google every little thing, and we don't call every half hour to check on him when we go on date night. We took him into the public world every day since he was 4 days old and he hasn't been killed by some crazy swine flu or cold. And the 'poor' child is being fed breast milk mixed with formula from a bottle and he has gained weight. I think it's kinda ridiculous how neurotic you can become and we are making a conscious effort to NOT be THOSE parents. I'm not knocking parents who do it different, because seriously - we all parent differently, I'm just saying that I'm tired of being semi-judged because we don't do it the way they (the hypothetical abstract THEY) think we should, and maybe everyone should think a little bit more before they say things.

On a different note -we had the 2 week check up on Friday and our little boy is definitely still little - atleast when compared to every other little boy. He is 8 lb 3 oz (30th percentile) and 19.5" (7th percentile) but his head circumfrence is a whopping 14.5" (50th percentile!). I'm glad he's still little though - I don't know why we are going to do when he's 15 lbs!! He is definitely bigger than he was though - he has practically outgrown ALL of his newborn sized clothing, including ones bought just last week. (though I'm a little excited about this because he has some really adorable 0-3 month clothes!!)

So pretty much - we think have a pretty good handle on this parenting thing so far. We even let Bebe and Grandaddy keep him last night while we went on a date. I will say that I missed him a lot for only being gone 4.5 hours and I don't know how often we will do date night because of this - but everyone did have a good time - so that's good. And I resisted the urge to call and I didn't make the grandparents write down how much he ate and when. I figured that for one night the notebook could have the night off. haha!

That wasn't quite recap I was hoping for - I should've done it sooner when I could remember more - or maybe my brain has just gone to complete mush and I can no longer keep thoughts in order. That's probably more of the case...oh well. Pregnant brain turns into mom brain. Great.

Rocking with Mom before church.

Loves!

Randomness...

My dad will be the first to tell you that the only way to get me to sleep when I was a baby was to walk me, CONSTANTLY. Him & mom used to take 2 hour shifts or the length of a movie. I have learned that I do not enjoy doing this for William at 4 am and have a newfound respect for my parents and how much I made their lives suck at night. I'm sorry y'all!

I no longer care at all that my closet is not perfectly organized and I care a LOT less that William's closet is not quite perfectly organized. Or that nothing in the house is in its "correct" place.

We have been very adamant that we did not want to have a "baby" house. Unfortunately - right when you walk in the front door you get hit with the pack and play, high chair, and one of our two strollers. And watch out for the diaper bag and carseat - you're about to trip over them both.

Nothing is easy any more. Nothing. I needed to run to the post office yesterday because the mailman came early and I had to mail in the sales tax forms. This should have taken 3 minutes total, round trip. Instead I'm pretty sure it took 20. I felt guilty for getting everything together to only go one place, and we didn't even get out of the car. But I was too tired to run any other errands to make the trip worth it - so we headed home.

The ten minutes it takes me to pump breast milk is just long enough to count as the only "free" time I have of the day when I don't feel guilty for not doing something else. Though being attached by the boob to a vacuum machine doesn't seem very freeing all of a sudden. Atleast we really were very smart putting the rocking chair next to the only exposed outlet in the nursery - it's also nap time.

Never ever pick up a sleeping William to change his diaper. If he's not bothered by it - neither am I. I learned this one the hard way.

On a similar note - make sure there is always a diaper or wipe VERY HANDY when changing diapers - they are never "quite" finished. And put a layer between the very adorable changing pad cover and the baby or it will never see the light of day because it is always being washed. I really need to see if anyone will laminate it for me...haha.

Little noises, "chirps" as we call them, make everything better. Especially when he's sleeping on me.

Life really does revolve around feedings. Do not think for one second that it's ok to wait until you get home to feed him - unless you have really awesome headphones that block out all noise. Cold milk is better than no milk - he will eat it - it just means I have more to clean up but the crying will come to an end which is definitely worth it.

I used to HATE leftovers. Would not eat them. Period. I have had a change of heart. If it means we don't have to cook - I'm all about slightly warm, goopy spaghetti.

I love it when everyone has tried everything they can possibly think of to calm William down and nothing worked. So they give him to me and he not only quiets down but falls asleep. He just needed his mommy - I love that.

I like that because William wakes up so early - I have to as well. Not because I'm awake but because I get to eat breakfast and spend time with Sam before he goes to work. We have never eaten breakfast together and it is nice.

Don't let anyone make you feel like a bad mom because breast feeding isn't going well. Sometimes it just doesn't work right and if someone isn't going to say anything nice - don't talk to them. I cried for two(+) days straight because I listened to someone who thought they were being helpful. Not until I talked to two people who WERE helpful was I able to make the decision that being a happy functioning mom was more important than breast feeding. Just saying.

I'm sure I have learned many more things - but I'm pretty sure I should be cleaning up the house right now or working on laundry. William is asleep in the vibrating Pack N Play and I need to take advantage of that before he wakes up starving in an hour.

Loves!

First week home

Went pretty well I think. (honestly - most of it is a blur and I have completely lost track of what day it is but I'm hoping that that is normal) I probably should've tried a little harder to blog about it all before now - but you know - it's been very difficult to find the time to do anything.

Ah - I remember now - the first day home we had to go to Sam's Club for diaper wipes. We had COMPLETELY run out of our little diaper bag pack at the hospital and it was becoming a "situation" not having wet wipes - so off we went with our 4 day old baby boy. We got there - so far so good - easy cheesey. We get ready to check out and we had dropped my Sam's Club card somewhere in the store and realized it at the exact moment that William decided to get hungry and cry about it. I NEVER want to be that mom who has a screaming baby out in public - so even though it wasn't a full on meltdown I'm embarrassed and flustered and my usually sweet husband took 3 full minutes to understand that I was VERY sure that we had dropped the card because I knew EXACTLY where I had put it. Luckily - when it's very obvious you have a very new baby people take pity on you. I was given a seat to try and calm him and then help when we had all but given up on finding the card and I was going to get a new one made on the spot. (as soon as I got to the front on the line - one of the workers was turning in my lost card - so that was good) So that was our first adventure out.

I know that everyday after that we pretty much made atleast one trip out into the world. After being cooped up in a hospital (and practically on bedrest) for 7 days - we didn't want to sit at home. I think people, our family, thought we were a little crazy and that I was overdoing it so soon after major surgery, which I might've been a little bit, but we aren't ones to sit at home and wait. So there you have it. Plus - we always run errands together - it's our thing - so I didn't want to be left at home while Sam went out. Silly - I am sure - but that's how it is.

Let's see - the question on everyone's mind seemed to be whether I would be breastfeeding or not - so the verdict is - not exactly. BFing really went terribly - like one step from Sam calling the doctor and telling her to put me on medication I have post partum depression terribly. So - we are pumping milk and cutting it with formula. Somedays I make enough milk - and somedays not so much - so this way he will be fed and happy and I don't have to relapse because my boobs aren't cooperating every single hour.

We are getting about 3 hour blocks of sleep at night, which I would love to say is enough, but it SO is not, but we're getting by. Naps are an every day occurrence but I never feel truly rested - better get used to it right?! (please no comments "sleep when he sleeps" - I've heard it so much I might go crazy on you in my sleep deprived state) ;)

I feel like there was much more to catch up on - but my brain has stopped and Sam says Mexican is ready. I really just want the gallon of sweet tea.

Loves.

Very quickly...

I've got to go feed the baby but here are some faves from the past day or so. I promise to write a full post at sometime this weekend.

We bought the outfit and didn't even realize it had a froggy butt until we put it on him...
First non-maternity shirt!!
After his first real bath - he wasn't thrilled with us at the moment.
I think Sam was laughing at his faces while we were trying to stamp his hands and feet.

Loves!

Delivery Story Part 2

Dinner is taking longer to cook then expected and William is chilling in the bouncy seat - so maybe I can get through this. We left off at the c-section.

Like I mentioned - because of the blood pressure issues I had to spend 24 hours in Recovery. It didn't occur to me how much this was truly going to suck. They wheel me out of the OR and into a private room - which seems like a great idea - better than spending all that time behind a fabric curtain right?! Well - the "room" was really a closet and it was right next to where the medicine got shipped to the whole floor through a thing like the drive through at the bank - only this contraption had obviously not been serviced in 20 years and made a RIDICULOUS amount of noise every single time someone needed medicine. (Unfortunately it didn't occur to me until the next day that I could've treated it like Pavlov's dogs thinking it meant that MY medicine was coming!) It didn't occur to me because I was on a stupid amount of pain medicine. Sam says I went through almost all my doses of the first medicine in a couple hours. Hey - they asked my pain number and it's not my fault it was a 8/9. The only problem with that is - that I was so doped up I hardly knew what was going on. (which was probably a blessing actually.)

Luckily - they were allowing family back in pairs - so each set of parents took turns saying hello and then when the baby finally got there 3 hours later, holding him too. Yeah - so I had to wait 3 HOURS!! to see my child and then the pediatrician took him away less than 30 minutes later and then they wouldn't bring him back. Sam had to literally meltdown at the nursery before anyone would do anything - it was so sad - poor William laying all by himself in the nursery. I'm just glad I didn't get to see it. Another thing about all this time without the baby - no chance to breastfeed. Not that there would've been anyone there to help us figure it out. We were not off to a good start and I am pretty sure that is part of the reason we are having such a terrible time with it now. Not a good situation - I hate recovery.

The worst part about Recovery was that they were so busy it wasn't until we finally got them to move us to a "slightly" quieter room that I was moved off the operating gurney and cleaned up. Giving birth - even c-section - is pretty disgusting and I'm just glad I didn't see what I was laying in until I was moved. Just saying. Non-preg ladies - take note - just saying. Can't blame the day nurse though, Patsy, she was great - just SO busy.

So we're finally moved to the opposite side of Recovery - we can still hear the banging medicine - but it's a little fainter, thank goodness. Now we are into the night shift. Our night nurse was Indian (we couldn't understand her) and honesty - she was a bit of a bitch. She would only give me IBprofen for the pain (seriously!! I was cut open just 15 or so hours earlier and I got headache medicine!!!!!!!!!!!!) Nevermind the 3 hours I asked for pain meds in the early morning and NEVER GOT ANY! (but I'm not bitter) OH - and in the middle of the night while we are struggling with breastfeeding and trying to read the What to Expect book to hopefully get some help - she makes me put it down because the reading light isn't strong enough and I'll give myself a headache... Hate her.

In the morning - she was finally gone - and in came the nicest nurses ever. (we learned later that they were on loan from the "new mommy" section - so of course they were nicer!) I got an orange popsicle - my first "food" in two days and help in the breastfeeding department. The head nurse (of ALL the nurses) came by to say hello and see how we were doing which was cool. (My mother-in-law is on the Columbus Regional board) But she got interrupted by the pediatrician when he finally came by to check on William. Not long after all that - they removed my catheter (I was honestly a little disappointed I was now going to have to get myself out of bed to go to the bathroom) and put me in the wheelchair. That was an experience in itself and OH SO PAINFUL. But we were on the move - to the happy part of the hospital finally!

(BTW - we are now into Tuesday, our 4.5/5th day in the hospital) The difference in level of care was insane. The nurses were genuinely caring and compassionate. It was wonderful. Also - I was put on the clear diet which included jello. Jello makes everything better - atleast when I had been eating ice chips for 48 hours. Another good thing - I was still hooked up to some kind of IV but messed up the connection on my hand when I was trying to get out of bed the first time so it needed to be replaced. Well, these nurses don't typically have to deal with IV's and my sweet nurse made the executive decision that she wasn't going to put it back in - so I was FREE!!! First time in days I didn't have SOMETHING attached to me! And - my BP was only checked every 4 hours or so - so I was going to get some actual rest possibly.

We got to have the baby in the room with us - and all he was doing was sleeping pretty much - so that was nice and cuddly. We had fun getting to know him and stare at all his silly faces. Had lots of visitors - so they all had a turn holding him too and pretty much all is well.

This is pretty much where the story gets kind of boring. We spent 3 more days in the hospital and then we went home on Thursday. Our nurses were AMAZING!! and apparently we were great patients because they made sure they kept us. :)

Tuesday night I finally felt good enough to take a shower and boy did I need it! I can't believe I let visitors come in the room with the way I looked! Wednesday I was pretty mobile - could get myself out of bed fairly easily and even managed to pace with the baby while Sam was home taking care of some things for about 30 minutes. Thursday - felt great - and we went home. I was so ready to be home - not necessarily to be responsible for everything all by ourselves - but to be in the house and our own bed. Sam was pretty excited about the bed too - he'd been sleeping on a vinyl covered pull out sofa all week poor guy.

So the moral of the story - try not to spend an entire in hell (aka Recovery) and you will want to have more children much sooner and love on the nurses in the new mommy section - they hold the pain meds. :)

We're home and happy and so far so good.

Loves.

Warning - This will probably end up being unreasonably long...

So it's 3:00 am and I should most definitely be sleeping but I just don't feel like it - maybe I'll get into that another day - but I figured I might as well take this opportunity to atleast start and write down our adventure at The Medical Center last week.

From the beginning...

Friday at 3:45 pm we had our routine OB/GYN 37 week appointment. These are usually no big deal - everything is always the same. I gained weight (seriously I stopped caring though), the doctor measures my belly and tells me everything is fine, I say I don't have any questions, and we set up an appointment for the following week. Didn't quite happen like that this time. I go in the back and they take my blood pressure - I'm always curious what it is - and the nurse say 140/90. I think it's crazy because I've had practically perfect BP this whole time - I figure it's because it's a different nurse (I miss Nurse Leslie), and she tries the other arm hoping it was a fluke - nope. I just think this is weird and I go into the exam room and wait, no big deal. Well, Dr. Chappelle comes in and instead of making funny small talk she starts with "Ok this is what we're going to do. You are going to triage at the hospital to monitor your BP, etc etc." Apparently, you don't want sudden high blood pressure when you're pregnant.

Ok - so we both head up there. It was only going to be a couple of hours - we fully expected my BP to go down, and I think it did. (It's getting hard to remember this stuff in chronological order....) But it stayed high for awhile and then only dropped a little bit. So - we were hoping to go home that night and the doctor on call (who I think was Dr. Cheek) decided we needed to stay for a 24 urine test. Wonderful. Luckily I had my bag packed, but not in the car like Hadley said I should do earlier that day - but we were convinced no way was I was going to need it for another 2 weeks. Anyhow - so Sam went home with a list of what to grab, found dinner, and then came back ready to spend a very boring day in the hospital.

We spend the night in hospital and a day measuring urine, taking BP stats and bloodwork. My BP was doing better, not perfect, but better and we thought we might get to go home on Saturday, since 24 hours would be up then - but no way - we had to stay until Sunday. Fun fun. Well Saturday was fun - Hadley came up and a couple friends who work at the hospital somehow found my room and we had a strangely great time holed up in the hospital. Sunday - everything is looking much better and the nurse thought we were going home, just waiting on some bloodwork to come back. We clean up the room and I leave my gown on just as the last formality and wait on her. She's comes back in and says "Well, they don't like your platelets (or BP - I can't really remember which one they were most concerned about at that point) and they're sending you to Labor and Delivery to be induced."

Awesome. I know I said I wanted William to come early - but I didn't mean that I wanted him to come because of health concerns. Not that I was concerned for HIS (or my) health, no one else seemed to be truly freaking out, so we just took it all in stride and Sam started making phone calls. So we get wheeled over to a different part of the fourth floor and try and get ready. Kinda difficult when you have no idea what to expect - but at this point everything is still kosher.

Dr Cheek is definitely the on call doctor from the practice now and he comes in and does the pill thing that's supposed to jump start everything. And then Thressia, the nurse, puts the catheter in and I think I might kill her. Apparently most people are numb when they get those - OH I WAS MOST DEFINITELY NOT NUMB!! I spent the next two hours crying and pleading with her to take it out - that I would be good and keep track of my urine if she would just remove it. OMG - it was so uncomfortable. By this point though it had been a couple hours, and parents were in the waiting room and I was refusing to let anyone in the room because I felt so miserable. They finally caved and gave me something for the pain and I believe that they did the pill thing one more time. (honestly - it starts getting very fuzzy from this point on - I'll get Sam to double check the events...)

Go forward a couple hours - I'm maybe dilated to a 1 - and they decide to go for the Pitocin. They put me on the drip and the contractions start. This is no big surprise - everyone knows that is what Pitocin is for - but what everyone fails to mention is that it doesn't bring on normal contractions. You know - the ones everyone 5+ minutes - yeah - that's not really how it went down. I was having contractions pretty much constantly with barely a 30 second break in between if I was lucky. And these were not the nice little contractions that were happening earlier that I barely felt from whatever the pill thing did - these were big lovely arcs. Not nice. We had moved past the shift change and after talking with the new nurse, we wanted to wait as long as possible for the epidural to hopefully dilate to a 3 or 4. After about 1.25 hours of wanting to die - I get her to check because it is time for the epidural. At this point - I find out that someone somewhere did not like my platelet levels from my last bloodwork (which had been taken at 11-noon!!!) and they needed to do emergency bloodwork. Here's the kicker - if my platelets levels were not high enough I was not going to be able to have my epidural.

We had not taken the class that taught you how to have natural child birth, how to breathe and avoid the pain, etc. We wanted drugs - all drugs - we took the infant CPR class - not the childbirth class. This is not going to be good. So for the next 45 minutes I have to make it through the aforementioned nasty contractions and not knowing for sure that there is any end in sight. I really thought I might die then. Finally - the nurse came in and said I could get the epidural, just needed to wait for the anesthesiologist. I don't remember him taking too terribly long - but as soon as he walked in - I was suddenly able to sit myself up and vomit. I was able to find the closest trash can for Sam to pick up luckily - so there wasn't a huge mess. Unfortunately for Sam I had to hold onto his neck to keep from falling over so he got a great view of me throwing up a day's worth of ice chips and one orange popsicle. ;) The anesthesiologist was a joy - really personable and nice. I hardly felt the local anesthesia shots and didn't feel the epidural needle at all. (or all pain became relative and it was just WAY less than the contractions) Either way - instant wonderfulness. Thank goodness for modern medicine.

At some point - I think I vomit again. I don't remember why - just that it happened a total of two times in the labor & delivery room. I know y'all really wanted to know that. No one tells you vomiting is involved with birthing babies - so that's why I'm telling you. Be prepared - it's not fun when you have literally ONLY HAD ICE CHIPS!! ;)

I think I forgot to mention - that with all the contractions and fun - Sam hadn't made any updates to all of our parents who were in the waiting room - so people kept poking their head in to check on us while I'm wanting to die. Really not ok - but they got the picture quickly and left. Funny - when Daddy & Sara came in to report on how the dogs were, etc. (I'm still having contractions) he decides I need to have an education session on how to breathe. So next contraction he tries to teach me the hehewhooo breathing - and I can't even figure out when to breathe in to be able to breathe out and everything hurts so bad that I just barely whisper to Sam that it's got to end. :) Love my Daddy - but I don't think anything was going to help at that point.

Ok ok. So I've got the epidural - I'm pretty sure we are in late evening by this point, but I don't feel any pain, so this labor thing could go on forever for all I care. I think I manage a couple very short cat naps, Sam might've slept a little in the chair, and the parental units call it a night as well. The doctor is still checking on the amount of progress and probably does some very "doctor like" things - but I'm just a touch out of it - and it was late and had been 12+ hours at this points. Somewhere around 3:00am he comes in - checks out the contractions/dilating progress and says that he's going to give it until 4:30 am and if there hasn't been enough forward progress we are going to call it a day. I'm super confused and ask "you mean we aren't going to have the baby today" - totally think - YOU MEAN I'M GOING TO HAVE TO GO THROUGH ALL OF THIS AGAIN ANOTHER DAY!!! Yeah - no - he meant a C-section. And you guessed it - we hadn't prepared for that either. Again, no one seems to really be freaking out and people have c-sections everyday. I wasn't opposed to one - just didn't really know a whole lot about it except that they cut you open and it adds two weeks to your recovery basically.

So by 4:30 of course there hasn't been any forward progress, there hasn't been hardly any all night so atleast we were prepared for that. I was only dilated to a 5, apparently I have a small pelvis and his head was molding (he was going to come out cone headed at first) and he hadn't really dropped either - so c-section here we come. This all moves REALLY fast - like 20 minutes fast. Sam calls all our parents to come back to the hospital and puts on his scrubs. The anesthesia nurse comes in and tries to evaulate how numb I am and I'm having a hard time telling her but manage to mention that I would MUCH rather not FEEL ANYTHING AT ALL then be able to feel even a hint of what's going on so she loads me up. Again - they don't mention that the additional epidural stuff is BEYOND freezing and is going to make you shiver uncontrollably and make you feel crazy. By 5:00 I am in the operating room and pretty sure they are cutting me open. I say pretty sure because I had no idea what was happening - the numbing sure did work! When Sam came in and sat by head - there was the a noise - and I asked what the noise was and they said suction and I was like - what? you already started? - apparently at that point we were THIS close to having a baby. Crazy - I was SOOO out of it - seriously about to fall asleep on the table. I was desperately trying to pay attention but had so many drugs going on - was finding it difficult - until I heard William cry. Then I was awake. It was the cutest little chirpy cry too.

Now, Sam doesn't do well with blood and gore. We had made it perfectly clear to the nurses that he was not going to look past the curtain, cut the umbilical cord, see the "freshly birthed" baby, etc. And he did really well and they didn't make him do any of that. They did make him go walk to the baby's table to take pictures and see and he somehow managed just not to look to his right (thank goodness! he probably would've fainted!) And we had also decided we were going to break our previous rule of NO CAMERAS in the birthing room because, I mean, really - you've got to have the new baby pics, first family pics, etc. But again - only clean baby pictures. The best part is the family pics - I was so cracked out - they're funny but I treasure them. :)

William came out so pretty - that's all I could think - and with the cutest little nose. 60 seconds later they were taking him to the nursery - took Sam with them and left me in the room to get sewn up. Still shivering and cold - I then vomit more ice chips - only I can't sit up - so that was fun... (seriously - why did no one tell me this was going to happen?) And then they send me to recovery where I will be for the next 24 hours because of my high blood pressure. (at some point they started calling it preeclampsia occasionally - yep, didn't really read about that one either - though I did know that it was no good)

24 hours in Recovery begins a whole different story - so we will just call this Part 1 and next time I decide to not sleep in the 1.5 hour block I get between feeding baby - I will start Part 2.

All in all - labor part wasn't TOO bad. I didn't have to push for several hours and then have an emergency c-section, so I count myself lucky in that respect - though I wouldn't say that my labor was "easy." There were definitely moments when William was definitely going to be an only child and a couple parts where I really didn't even want to go through with labor enough to have William...but, like everyone says, it was totally worth it.

13 minutes until feeding. I feel like boobs only. :)

Loves!

William Thomas Rumer

William Thomas Rumer

Born August 3, 2009 (Sam's birthday as well!!)

5:10 am via a not so scheduled c-section

6 pounds, 13 ounces

19 inches long

I promise to post the whole story later - it's really long since we spent a full week in the hospital...

Loves!