Glorious Laborious Love

Whoa! What a week! One week ago today our little Will came into this wild world. Above is a slide show of the pictures we have taken since his arrival. He was born after an incredibly brief labor and delivery on Tuesday April 28th at 12:34pm. He weighed 6lbs 12oz and was 19.5" long. As you can see by the pictures, he has a nice head of hair and if we do say so ourselves is unbelievably gorgeous. (Really, what kind of parents would we be if we said otherwise...plus...he really is!!)
We stayed in the hospital until Thursday and it was a really nice experience. The doc and the nurses were so fantastic and I always felt that the baby, Zach and I were very cared for. Thanks so much to all of the nurses...especially those who had to clean up my puke :o)
Thanks so much to all of our visitors at the hospital and at home who came to meet William. It was wonderful seeing all of you.
I won't go into too much gory detail as it pertains to the labor part of Will's arrival but I can tell you that I am not so afraid to try this pregnancy thing out one more time! There were a few minutes there that I wondered how the human race has managed to exist all of these years and I even prayed to God that he would not be too hard on me for Eve's miscommunication with Adam. He must have heard me because after that, and a little help from a BIG needle in my back I was just fine!!
Some of you have heard this, but for those of you who haven't, I'll give you the quick and dirty. Monday nights attempt to soften my cervix and get baby closer to deliver failed. He seemed content right where he was. Doc decides at 8am to put a catheter filled with saline in to try to stretch out my cervix and get me dilated to a 4 by noon. She told me that morning that she would come in around noon and break my water and that I wouldn't see her until probably (hopefully) 6pm. Around 9:30 the pitocin (labor inducing hormone) was started in my IV. At 10am the catheter fell out and the nurse said they wouldn't have to replace it because it worked well enough and I was dilated to 3. At that moment my body kicked into gear and within the same 5 seconds my water broke, I had a really hard contraction and I threw up all over myself. I can laugh now but as I was standing over a big pad and shivering from a quick sponge bath as the nurses changed all of my bedding I was not laughing.
About an hour of crazy hard, 2 minute apart contractions came next. Zach was awesome at comforting me as they came and I pouted (see above about Eve and needles). Finally the epidural man arrived to relieve me of my misery. By 11am I was comfortable and groggy. Zach and I fell asleep for a little over an hour and rested up for a long afternoon of waiting. At 12:15 my nurse woke me up to see where I was in the dilation game and sure enough I was "finished" and ready to deliver! She wanted to try a practice push (since you can't feel what you are doing) and talk me through the process. One practice push and Will's head was making it's way out! Needless to say she wouldn't let me push anymore and the doc was on the way. One and a half pushes later (that's 14 seconds of pushing) and 19 minutes after my practice push with out the doc, Will was here! It was so amazingly fast...I mean, Zach and I were still coming to from our naps! The whole experience was so peaceful and calm. The room was nothing like you see on TV or in the movies. It was just us and Will with no commotion or noise. Neither of us cried then, I think we were in total shock and awe. Zach cut the cord and they put him on my chest to meet him...it was so cool. Will was instantly laid back and comfortable...in fact he barely cried the whole time we were in the hospital, even through shots and blood draws. I can't describe how wonderful it was, but all of you who have experienced it know the words I lack are the same words you lack. Indescribable joy.
Since we have been home, Zach and I have enjoyed every second of parenting. We don't mind getting up at night...it might be an adrenaline rush thing...give us another week before we are dragging. But really we can't wait to hold him and feed him and stare at him. Zach said to Will yesterday "you make me want to do nothing" which, if you know Zach, that is a huge statement. He is always busy with chores or projects and Will just makes him stop and stare! It is awesome to see him be dad and I am so excited to see the father/son relationship grow. I couldn't ask for a better partner to do this with, it has been so nice. I know it stinks that he isn't working...but it 10% stinks. It's 90% AWESOME that we have this time together with Will. I would be insane without him.
I think Will has been a pretty average baby. We did get out of the hospital Thursday only to spend all day Friday at the emergency room down at the U, at Children's. His Friday morning doc appt to have his jaundice checked turned into a bit of a scare. The doc was concerned about some scabbing that happened on his lips and nose and said it is uncharacteristic of babies to have that kind of symptom. So after the trip to Minneapolis, an ER doc, a ped specialist and a doc from infectious disease, they decided that it is in fact friction or sucking blisters...basically a case of really chapped lips. I only cried a little when worse case scenario involved Will being hooked up to IV's. Ugh...I was still suffering from the trauma of getting mine earlier in the week.
Today his last jaundice check was done as he is in the clear and has worked out all of that cord blood on his own. His color is really good...a lot less yellow than he was these last few days. He has grown a whole quarter of an inch and is 3 oz away from his birth weight (6lbs 9oz).
On Sunday at 5 days old he went on his first big outing to Great Grandpa Holter's 95th birthday party. Zach and I were prepared to not see Will for about 3 hours as he was passed around from cousin to aunt to neighbor to stranger! We were not however prepared for how much we would miss him and couldn't wait to get home and just have cuddle time with him! He was a big hit at the party and it was fun to have the oldest and youngest at the party come from the same household!
His first big trip will be this weekend to go stay at Grandma Nancy's for fishing opener. We are really looking forward to it. My mom is going to Remer to see my Grandma and then we are all meeting on Mother's Day at the resort so Great Grandma can meet Will. So he will get to be with both grandma's and a great-grandma on my first Mother's Day!
Thanks again for reading this blog...the best is yet to come now that we really have something to talk about!! For those of you who haven't met Will, I hope to see you soon! He is super wonderful!