So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you will live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to His people, who live in the light.
Colossians 1:9-12
One might think that as crazy as the last 8 weeks of my pregnancy were, and as dramatic (and traumatic) as Big Sister's delivery was, that Will's birth story would have been crazy, too. But it wasn't.
Don't get me wrong, your water breaking at 3:20 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning is quite dramatic, but the morning and Will's birth could NOT have gone more beautifully (except the fact that my epidural was a little crazy, but I'll get to that).
Obviously at 39 weeks pregnant, one has quite a bit of trouble sleeping, so I had already been up to the bathroom...twice, and I was still lying awake in bed TRYING to get comfortable. "Rolling over" was quite the task with a little roasting turkey in there, but I needed a little switch, so I tried moving as I had hundreds of times in the weeks and months prior. But this time was different. I knew it as soon as I did it. I felt my water break almost instantly, and shot out of bed to get to the bathroom (making NO messes until I got in to our tiled bathroom...FOR THE WIN!).
After a few minutes of my heart racing and thinking through things, I came to the realization that my water HAD broke, I was IN labor, I was delivering ON Thanksgiving Day, and my doctor would NOT be there. As soon as I got all those straight in my head, I hollered out to my husband, who was pretty out-of-it-asleep, and he responded with a simple, but loud, "What?"
I knew I had to give him a few minutes to process all those things I had just processed in our tiny potty closet, and then it was..."What do we do next?!" We go up front, water still leaking, Brad in his boxers, and tell my parents, of course! However, by the time we got to their room (I was worried about startling them awake...), we realized they were already awake and my mom knew exactly what was going on!! (haha, this part still makes me laugh - She had heard Brad say "what" and that was all she needed to know my water broke and I was in labor!)
I decided I would take a shower, wash my hair, and try to shave my legs since my contractions were still what I'd been used to since about week 14/15. However, they quickly changed while I was in the shower, and by the time I was out and about halfway through drying my hair...I could barely breathe through them. We threw on some clothes, got the last of our bags together, and loaded up in the car to head to Dallas around 4:45 am. (Praise the Lord for NO traffic!!)
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| The last bump picture - 39 weeks! |
Our sweet Resident Doctor that had seen me several times during my hospital stays was doing rounds before she headed out for her Thanksgiving plans, and she did a quick check at 5:45 to see how dilated I was. Convinced I'd still be at a 3.5 (and even joking that I'd be back to a 2...), I was pleasantly surprised when she said that I was a 5.
I was in quite a bit of pain, so I had already let them know that I wanted an epidural. I knew the differences in my contractions from Bryleigh's birth, and I knew how much work I'd be doing to bring my baby in to the world, so I wanted to rest while I could. They came in around 6:00 with the IV, and shortly after it was time for the epidural.
Because I had tested positive for an infection during my first hospital stay, I was required to get antibiotics every 4 hours to make sure it wasn't passed on to Will. They want you to get at least 2 doses, so at 6 and 10, with the second getting fully in my system by 2 pm...delivering anytime before 2 meant Will only got one full dose, and any time before 10 meant no full doses. If that happened (which it did) he would just be monitored up in postpartum, and he'd have a series of blood work done. They monitor him for 48 hours, so we knew the earliest we'd be going home was Saturday.
For some reason, the epidural only took to my left side, and the 40 minutes to an hour that followed were excruciating, with serious labor pains in my right hip, feeling more and more with each contraction. My entire body was shaking, so I got wrapped up in some warm blankets to help, and at some point I threw up...but I really don't even remember when that was ;)
A different doctor came in to take a look at my epidural and determined the placement was causing issues, so he took it out and replaced it (twice), and hung out with us a bit to make sure it was kicking in the way it needed to.
Once the epidural took, our nurse checked me again to see where we were on labor progress. From 5:45 to 7:40, I went from a 5 to a 10! I could not even believe it when she told us, and I'm pretty sure I asked her at least 5 times. I was SO not ready for the HARD part of all of this. I knew this baby boy was a big one, and all I had to compare it to was Bryleigh's birth. I told them all a few times that I changed my mind, and he could just stay put!!
Although Dr. Harris was off because of the holiday, we got the best back up - Dr. Gaitonde. He was the doctor that worked with us to make sure our little guy got to cook longer, so it was super sweet that he was the one on call over Thanksgiving weekend. He came in around 7:45 to check on things, and Jenni let him know I'd dilated to a 10, was fully effaced, and at a 0 - meaning our little guy still needed to drop a little more. Dr. G was just starting to make rounds, so he decided he'd finish those and give me about an hour to just labor and let my body move our little guy down naturally.
That hour passed incredibly quickly, and by 8:45 we were ready to do some practice pushes with my contractions... However, those practice ones ended up being the real thing since they could see his head after the first push. I was SO not ready for that part of all of this, but it happened so fast that I really didn't have time to freak out (or run away...) and by the third round of pushing, and about 10 minutes later, our little guy was HERE!
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| Holding our miracle baby for the very first time, just minutes after his birth |
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| We are forever grateful for Dr. G...and his love for country music! ;) |
To this day, 4 weeks later, I'm STILL in shock at how Will's delivery went. It will always be one of the craziest reminders to me of how in control God is and how much I should trust Him. I spent WEEKS making myself literally sick over fear and worry of delivering a big baby and going through what I went through with Bryleigh. I could not comprehend that I could have a big baby (God's plans) and still have a better experience than before.
Will was born in to this world with 90's country music in the background at 9:00 am, weighing 9 pounds 7 ounces, measuring 20.9 inches long. He was absolutely perfect!
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| Our first moments loving on our sweet little boy! |
When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His spirit. Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Ephesians 3:14-19
(I shared both of these verses in Bryleigh's birth story, 3 short years ago. These are the words I am praying over my babies as they grow in a dark, lost world. My prayer is that they come to know and fiercely love their Creator.)
Our Little Turkey's 1st Thanksgiving
Many people have asked about who Will looks like, or make the obvious comment that "he looks JUST like Bryleigh," and although there are similarities, there are lots of differences. Bryleigh had way more hair. She has her daddy's mole. She weighed more and was shorter (making her look even bigger). She HATED to snuggle, be swaddled, or have clothes on...Will LOVES to snuggle, be swaddled as snug as possible, and ALWAYS wants his clothes on. They definitely favor each other, but he's not quite the carbon copy I was expecting, especially after all of our sonograms.
Although there are many differences, much of his first days were spent pretty similarly to his sister's. (You can read about her first days here.) Thankfully, I had been through it all once before, so I knew a lot of what to expect.
First Moments
We spent some time with our little guy down in the delivery room while the doctors finished up with me, the pediatrician took a good look at Will, and we worked through his first time to nurse. My parents were also there to welcome him into the world and give him some good Mimi & Pappy loving!!
After delivering at 9, we were heading up to our postpartum room by 11:00, just in time for some Turkey and Dressing for lunch! ;) (I learned from my days in antepartum that they serve turkey and dressing EVERY Thursday, so this was technically my FIFTH go around with "Thanksgiving Lunch" at Baylor.) We were excited to settle in for a day of Thanksgiving Football and time with our little man!! Thanks to our Wild Man coming so quickly, we were able to spend the whole day with him...and we were able to eat normal food!! ;)
Glucose Protocol
Since Will was over 9 pounds, he would be required to meet the same glucose levels that Bryleigh did, ensuring they could maintain their sugar levels. He was tested before each feeding and needed to have a 45 at least three times in a row after his initial check down in the delivery room. Anytime the number dropped too low, we would have to start back over. Our little guy officially passed with a 73 on his final check at 10:00 pm on his first day! This meant that he could also have his first bath!
Although we had been here before, and it was a stressful part of Bryleigh's first days, things went much easier with Will. We knew what to expect, we knew what was required, and we knew to do what was best for our little guy - which meant supplementing from the start! Thankfully, there was a new program at Baylor that started back in May allowing us to use donor breastmilk as opposed to introducing formula from the start.
Our little guy did MUCH better at nursing (in the hospital...) than his sweet sister, so we would breastfeed for about 30 minutes, then supplement with a bottle every two to three hours. This allowed for both his jaundice levels and his glucose levels to even out a lot quicker than had he just been breastfeeding. Although he did better than Miss B, I still have PCOS, so that didn't change anything this go around as far as milk supply goes! ;)
Big Sister Meets Little Brother
Our big girl spent her Thanksgiving Day with my brother, sister-in-law, and the cousins. She was in heaven and loved her whole day, but she was so excited to meet "Baby Will." She walked right in to that room, said "Hi" to her baby brother, and she hasn't looked back since! What an incredible blessing that has been to our family!!
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| Holding her sweet little brother for the first time |
We weren't quite sure how she would do or WHAT she would do, so we decided to do a little Big Sis gift from Will with All-Things-Dory, including some activities she could do while we were still in the hospital.
Little Brother meets the whole crew!
One of the best parts about Will coming on Thanksgiving Day was that my brother's family was in town and they got to come up to the hospital to meet him. That was super special to me and something I'll always be so thankful for. Alan's kids, Tate and Olivia, were instantly in love with their new little cousin! It was so fun to see them love on him.
And the real fun started once the whole crew was together!! How lucky were we to spend time with our sweet family on Thanksgiving Day, and introduce them to our sweet little miracle baby!
The Meet and Greet Tour continues!
Will's DeDe and Poppa B came to meet our Will Man on Thursday night after the Cowboys beat up on the Redskins, and sweet Bryleigh was still there to make the introductions.
Our Little Turkey's fun-filled Black Friday
Our second day with our little man started out with a busy morning - including his circumcision which threw our whole feeding schedule off and an attempt at his hearing screening, continuing to spend some skin-to-skin time, working on nursing, and spending some time relaxing with our newest love. Bryleigh Girl could not wait to get back up to the hospital to see us and hold her little brother some more, so they made a visit Friday afternoon. She also brought a present for Will - a sweet owl lovie!
Aunt Erin and Uncle Luke came with DeDe and Poppa B on Friday to get to meet our sweet little guy, and Bryleigh was definitely proud to show him off again. Any day she gets to spend with all four grands is a good day for her, and adding little brother to the mix was the cherry on top!
Our Little Turkey is coming home!
One of the final hurdles to us getting to leave was for Will to complete his hearing test. We had tried on Friday, but with all the excitement (his circumcision, missing feedings, meeting family), we weren't able to get him calm enough to complete it. Thankfully, Saturday morning was the perfect time for he and his daddy to watch some college football and get his little ears screened.
We were originally told we wouldn't be able to be released until we got results back on Will's cultures, which would have been late afternoon on Saturday, BUT we got news around 11:00 that we were officially released! They'd watch the cultures for us and give us a call if anything showed up, but we were in clear to take our sweet guy HOME!
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