William's birth story

Our sweet baby William is a whole week old today. Already it seems like he's always been here. Before his big day becomes too much of a memory, here are some reflections on the busy week behind us.

The day before William's arrival was Anna's third birthday. We celebrated with a special breakfast muffin (candles!), presents and a lunch out at Two Toots in Glen Ellyn.  Grandma and Grandpa Olsen came for dinner and then both kids went home with them for a sleep over. That gave me and Jamieson a chance to take an after-dinner walk -- the one thing I miss most about life before kids. Before heading to bed, our bags were packed and ready for the big day ahead.

Induction was scheduled for 6 a.m. Since I don't think I slept much past 4:30, I had the chance to spend a few beautiful, solitary early morning minutes on our deck at dawn. I can assure you, William was born on an absolutely perfect Summer day.

Minutes old

The first part of the morning was emotionally rough. The first nurse to take my blood pressure summed it up as she looked at the numbers: "You really don't want to be here, do you?" I most certainly did not. When the next nurse came in and announced she was ready to get the Pitocin started, I fell apart. (With Erik, I'd tried for a natural birth. Several hours into that exhausting experience, I asked for an epidural. While that was helpful, the Pitocin I was also given several hours after that ushered in a rather unpleasant experience. Till Erik arrived, of course!) So, it took a conversation with the doctor to explain his plan before I was comfortable proceeding. Everything made sense once spelled out. It would have been nice if I'd had a chance to talk with that doctor before delivery day, though! Since I was already being induced, and already exhausted and emotional, I decided to go straight for the epidural, too, due to my Pitocin fear. That turned out to be a brilliant choice. I felt every contraction, but as pressure rather than pain. It was the easiest birth I can imagine. Probably not more than two hours after getting everything started, I realized that when the contractions came, William's heartbeat beeps disappeared from the monitor. I asked Jamieson to call the nurse, who determined that I was ready to deliver. Speedy! She told me not to push since she still needed to get various equipment set up in the room. When the doctor and nurse were ready, it couldn't have taken more than few pushes before William was in my arms. Anna had arrived very quickly, too, so the doctor and nurses expected me to go quickly. I didn't expect it to go so easily, though. All my fears that too much medical intervention would be bad for baby evaporated once he arrived. He scored 9s on his Apgar tests (the typical blue hands and feet kept him from the perfect score). He had no problem eating right away and was very, very alert.

William met his brother and sister later in the day when Grandma and Grandpa brought them to visit. Both seemed genuinely excited. When Anna was born, Erik was definitely nervous. This time he had a very proud big brother smile. Anna just wanted to hug the cute baby right away and has been an eager helper ever since. Jamieson and I agree that William looks very much like Erik with more and darker hair, although not as much hair as Anna had!

In the incubator (Aviator glasses are a good look, no?)

The second day in the hospital was difficult again. It started well when the pediatrician declared William to be in fine shape and offered to send us home early. The doctor who delivered him said it was our choice. That was a surprise option, since I had assumed we would be at the hospital for two full days, but once I started thinking about it, heading home seemed like where I wanted to be. So the rest of the day was busy trying to get everything done. Grandma and Grandpa Grosz came to meet William and had just a few minutes with him between his various checkups, screenings, circumcision, and hospital photographs. By late afternoon, I was still waiting the final okay to get out, when a nurse called the nursery for me to check on the status of things and heard that William had elevated bilirubin levels and would need photo therapy. We'd already been told William was healthy, we were being treated as if we were going home, and when Anna had similarly "high" levels, she was just sent home to sit in a sunny window and come in for a blood test at her next checkup, so this news came as a shock. William needed to spend the night in an incubator and while I was nursing him, I had a biliblanket to hold next to his body. It was a difficult night.

Proud big sister and her little brother

Fortunately, the lights did the trick and we were really ready to go home by Friday morning. The big kids were happy to have everyone home. Callie seemed puzzled that we were bringing another little creature into the house. After the stresses of being in the hospital, it was so good to be home with our complete, healthy family.

So, here we are, a week later. William is a great baby. He's into cluster feeding, which gets exhausting for me, but eating is what he needs to do. On Monday, he had his first office check up and did fine. There were no jaundice concerns. The doctor simply wanted to see him regain his birth weight by the time he comes in for the two-week check up. So it's dinner every three hours or less round the clock till then. I'm not worried. He enjoys a good meal. Today, he seems to have a plugged tear duct in one eye, but Anna had the same issue, so we will just keep it clean and massaged till it clears up. While there's no way to minimize how exhausting it is to be home with a newborn and his two active siblings, at least the infant care issues aren't as scary as they were the first time around. We know he's growing and we know he will get stronger and more personable as time goes on. He's already a strong, pleasant little guy. We have been richly blessed. God is good.