Welcome Little Will

So we're just a little over 24 hours since my baby boy came to town. What a day! All the nurses here at the hospital keep telling us it was a "quick" delivery. Compared to Charlie's birth though, it seemed to me like it dragged on and on all day. Looking back, I suppose we could have just slept through the night Sunday in to Monday morning, and then leisurely made our way to the hospital around 10:00am. Then it wouldn't have seemed so long.

The problem was, Beck and I just had dinner Sunday evening with some friends of ours and I think I was a little scared to push it. You see, my buddy Brian is a paramedic. Beck had been having pretty regular conractions since Friday, and when we told he and his wife Andrea that we may need to leave the restaurant early, he began telling paramedic stories. On the way home from dinner, all I kept thinking was that I was going to have to deliver Will myself on the side of the road. In fact, I kept repeating to Beck all night Sunday, "I am NOT going to deliver this baby on the way to the hospital!"

Did I mention that earlier in the day, I encouraged Beck to eat some tacos with hot sauce and at dinner, I slide a plate of hot wings to her? I suppose this is all my fault.

Our friend Anne arrived at our house at about 4:30am, to look after Charlie. She has been an unbelievable help to us. And the best part about Anne is that Charlie absolutely LOVES her. They play and play.

So we left the house at about 4:30am, and arrived at the hospital near 5:00am. The nurses did a quick check and decided to see if we could move things along a little before our doctor arrived at 7:00am. Beck and I became power walkers! We walked the maternity halls from 5:30am to 6:30am, and then got a bed for Beck to relax.

From there, the waiting began! Our doctor had surgery to do at 8:00am, and we wanted to wait for him, so they slowed things down a little with fluids. By 10:30am, we were ready, but the contractions had slowed so much that they had to begin using Pitocin to get back into gear.

So by 1:30pm, we were ready to go. The pushing started at 1:40pm, and we had our big boy an hour and 23 minutes later.

I have to say; my wife was INCREDIBLE. She worked really hard. Our doctor (who we really like and trust) pointed out about a quarter of the way into pushing that the reason things were moving so slowly was because the epidural was too strong, and Beck couldn't feel anything. He said to our nurse, "turn it off". We all looked at each other as he laughed and said to Beck, "in a few minutes, you'll definitely have a reason to push."

Sure enough, the contractions soon became more and more painful for Beck, and she pushed harder and harder. Several times, she even did a 4th set of pushing when the nurses were only asking for 3 sets per contraction. She was literally pushing for at least 40 minutes without any anesthesia pumping in. She was awesome!

In the end, Will came out with the cord wrapped all around him. Our Doc just calmly said to Beck, "just relax and don't push for a minute." He slowly unwrapped the cord (which was around his neck, under his arm, and around his waist) and plopped little Will on Beck's belly. It is very reassuring to have a doctor that you trust. I never worried.

Now, little Will is feeding like an old pro, and pooping up a storm (like his sister did). He even got to meet his big sister for the first time today. Such a fun time! Charlie was very playful and excited to meet her baby brother.

We can't wait to bring him home. Beck is feeling great, just very sore, and we can't wait to all be in the same place so Mommy and Daddy can help each other out instead of being 30 miles apart with 2 kids (in between hospital visits). We are so thankful for Anne's help. She has made it very easy for us to juggle everything and keep Charlie's schedule uninterupted as we welcome our new baby boy.

Tomorrow is the big homecoming. We can't wait!!!