As promised, I want to share Williams Birth Story with you all, as it was quite an adventure for our family. Grant moved to Brunswick in August when we closed on our new house, so he was five hours away, and we feared that he would miss Williams birth if things went quickly, and I went into labor when he wasn't in Athens.
To attempt to have William when Grant was in town...I did everything. I walked, miles and miles and miles, I ate TONS of eggplant Parmesan, I saw a chiropractor and an acupuncturist, I tried castor oil, etc. You name it, and I probably tried it to get William to go ahead and make his big debut. Nothing worked, and I was SO frustrated. I was SO tired and ready for him to arrive, and I really was more than anything ready for our family to be back together again, because it was hard to see Weston cry every Sunday when Grant left for the week.
I had contractions all day on Saturday, September 24th and Sunday, September 25th at almost 39 weeks; however, they kept coming and going, and they weren't consistent. My doctor had stripped my membranes on Friday, September 23rd, and I just knew that this was it, so Grant made the decision to stay and work from Athens on Monday. I was scheduled to be induced on Wednesday, September 28th, because my doctor wanted to try to make sure that Grant could be in town for Williams birth. I took off work on Monday, September 26th, because I was feeling so worn out from all the contractions, and I went to the mall, and I walked. I was 39 weeks that Monday, the 26th. Grant and I walked again that evening, and I woke up to bloody show on Tuesday morning. Grant went on to work on Tuesday, the 27th, and I decided to take Weston to daycare, and I was going to get my haircut and walk at the mall. I went to the mall first, and I walked just over two miles. After the walking, I was having contractions, but they didn't hurt, so I went on to my hair appointment.
I was having some fairly strong contractions about 10 minutes apart during my hair appointment, but I just knew that it was nothing, and they were going to stop again, so I headed back to Monroe, and I tried to lay down and take a nap. The contractions started getting closer and were about five minutes apart when I finally emailed Grant. I still didn't think I was in labor, because they didn't hurt. They were strong, but not real painful. I emailed Grant and said "I'm having contractions about 3-5 minutes apart, but they don't hurt or anything. Do you want to come to Monroe and try to work from here a bit this afternoon." He called me and headed straight back to Monroe.
He got to Monroe, and they were about 2 minutes apart but still not painful unless I was walking. He told me that I needed to call my OB, but I was being stubborn, so he called. They told him to go ahead and bring me in to the hospital. We headed in to the hospital on the way there, and they were between 1-2 minutes and getting stronger and more painful by the minute. At one point, I told Grant to drive faster. We got to the hospital, and we registered, and I was in a lot of pain every time a contraction came by that point. We got into the room, and they got us set-up at 3:30 PM. They checked me, and I was dilated to an 8-9 at 4:00 PM. I couldn't believe it...they tried to convince me not to get the epidural, but I was in tears by that time and begging for it, so they got it, and things slowed down a bit from there. They broke my water, and the midwife let me just relax for a bit. I was feeling a lot of pressure around 6:30 PM, so I called the midwife and asked her to check me. She came in, and checked me and said I was ready, so I pushed. He was immediately crowning, and she told me to stop, because we only had one nurse and no nursery nurse present yet. She was calling for the nurses, but I couldn't hold on any longer, so I pushed once more with just the midwife and one nurse, and he arrived at 6:41 PM.
William Thomas Harvey weighed 6 lb., 12 oz, and he was 19 3/4 inches long. He was smaller than his big brother at birth but absolutely perfect! We are in love, and he is a wonderful, calm, quiet and relaxed baby! Thankfully he's so easy, because his big brother is a handful at this phase!
