Delayed post: William's Birthday

As many of you know, William came into this world in a totally different way than I expected him to. Charlie was such an "easy" birth; 4 hours of labor and he was crying his lungs out in the delivery room.

With William, my water broke at midnight, 3 weeks before he was due. As I was calling OB Triage, I was shaking uncontrollably. 3 weeks early? Was the baby going to be ok? Was my back going to be able to withstand labor AND delivery? We were scrambling to find the car seat and throw things into our overnight bags before we raced to the hospital. We were nowhere near ready to have our little one yet.

Minutes after my water broke, labor started. It started with a bang! I had a ruptured disc in my lower back, and labor felt nearly impossible. I didn't know if I was going to make it through the pushing and still be able to walk, sit, lay down without excruciating pain. I tried to listen to my carefully planned playlist of inspiring music and focus on my breathing, but my mind kept slipping. It kept slipping because the pain was intolerable.

2 hours into labor, we decided a c-section was the best option. After we made the decision, I sobbed. I never dreamed I would need a c-section because Charlie's delivery was flawless. I had never researched anything about them and felt completely unprepared. To make matter worse, because I have spinal fusion, the anesthesiologist said it wasn't possible to do a spinal tap, so I had to be put completely to sleep. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed that I missed William's first breath. BUT I know this was the best option for both of us.

Tony took pictures in the operating room, and I've been scared to look through the camera at them. Finally, last week I pulled the camera out. I'm glad I waited this long to look at them...I'm not sure my post baby emotions would have been able to handle this.

Since I was put completely under, William was asleep when he was born. He needed to have oxygen and lots of monitoring. This broke my heart when I first saw it.

Here he is all warm in his blanket with all the monitors and oxygen.

Tony touching and seeing him for the first time.

Now he's all better and off the monitors.

My first time holding him. I was very out of it, but happier than I've ever been. I was blessed with another beautiful boy!

Our skin to skin time!

Our precious sleeping boy

William had some difficulties in those first few weeks. He wasn't gaining weight as quickly as they wanted, and we had to do some extra "teaching" with feeding him, but now he is a happy and healthy 3 month old boy. If his entrance into this world is any sign of how life with William is going to be, I may always be on the edge of my seat with this little one!