Will's Birth Story


The birth of my second child was so much easier. I am a person that likes to have everything planned and controlled. So a scheduled c-section was right up my ally. At a regular check-up during my 6th month of pregnancy the doctor told us to pick a day during the week of January 28th. Well that Friday was February 1st, and we really wanted Will to have a February birthday. It turned out to be a good thing we wait until the end of the week, because my sister’s pregnancy went a week longer than expected. She delivered Brantley the Friday before Will was born. If we would have picked the 28th, Kellie and I would have been in the hospital at the same time. Talk about chaos.
                        
                        This pregnancy was less than perfect. During the second month of pregnancy the morning sickness started. It was pretty bad. Then right after that, the bleeding began. I was so afraid I was losing the baby. I was put on strict bed rest for about 2 weeks. The bleeding finally stopped and we were able to get an ultrasound to see that the baby was fine. The doctor said that it was probably just implantation bleeding. The morning sickness finally went away after my first trimester. It was smooth sailing from there. I didn’t feel the baby move until the 22nd week. That was a long time to wait. I felt Lainey move around week 18. Once I felt the first kick I was so happy. He was a very laid back baby in the womb. He didn’t really move unless he wanted to change positions. This made it easy to sleep at night! We really thought we weren’t going to make it to the due date with this baby. I went into labor about 2 weeks early. I caught a stomach virus and got really dehydrated. They were able to stop the contractions though.
                       
                           As the day for the c-section got closer I got so anxious to have him here. I was able to watch my sister deliver her daughter the week prior and that made me want to see my baby so bad. Well the day finally came, Russ and I were so excited. I got up at 4:30 that morning. Not that I ever really went to sleep. We left the house around 5:15 to make the trip to the hospital. We left Lainey with my grandmother. I had to be at the hospital at 6am. The section was scheduled for 8am. I was supposed to be admitted to a Labor Suite, but they had a hospital full of new moms. There were 30 babies born that week. So I was put in a regular labor room. The anesthesiologist came in to give me my epidural. It hurt a little more than I remember. Because I was a c-section, the epidural was much stronger. I was numb from my neck down. It was very scary. I wasn’t able to move my legs at all. At 8am the doctor came in to check me before he took me to the OR. I had dilated 1 cm and was having regular contractions. I guess Will was going to make February 1st his birthday one way or another!! :) Well off to the OR we went. My mom and Russ were there with me. The surgery went really well.   At 8:18am my beautiful son was born. He peed 2 times before they got him to the table to check him out. And then another 2 times before the weighed him. It was too funny. I was back in my room recovering before 9:00. They brought Will in to breastfeed at10:00. It was a wonderful bonding moment. They took him to get his bath, and while they were waiting for his temp to come back up he started having some trouble breathing. Tasha the lactation nurse came into to tell me that he had been moved to the NICU. I cried for about an hour. I couldn’t believe that both of my children had to be put in the special nursery. All of my dreams about taking my baby home were crushed.
                           
                                I was moved into a Labor Suite around 2:00 that afternoon. I was able to get into the wheelchair and go see Will, for the first time since I breastfeed him that morning, around8o’clock that night. I was told by the nurse that Will was doing fine. The problems he was having were typical for a c-section baby. She suctioned him really well and he was doing fine. He did have to be put on a feeding tube though. It was hard to see him like that. The next day I was able to hold him and give him a bottle. It took him awhile to learn how to eat. He spit up his Enfamil with Iron, so they switched him to Prosobee. After a lot of persistence I was able to attempt breastfeeding. He was then moved to the Intermediate care nursery. He was losing so much weight that I had to stop breastfeeding and go to pumping. Then Will got jaundiced. He got a pretty bad case. He was under the Billi light for 3 days. It felt like it was one thing after another. After 8 days in the hospital Will and I were finally ready to go home. I finally had my baby boy safe in my arms and on our way to our new life. I can’t imagine my life without him.         

  I love you Will