Edmund Francesco Williams (Birth Story)

First off, incase you are wondering... Francesco is pronounced Frawn-cheh-scow. :)  This is my dad's middle name.  I was so excited to get some Italian in one of my kid's names. :)    Okay, now for his story.

Exactly like Lena and Walter, on March 8th, 2015 at around 3:00 am I feel a couple of small contractions... I wasn't even sure that they WERE contractions, you would think that by now I would remember what they felt like. :)  Anyway, I got up to use the bathroom and quickly found out that my water had broken.  Minutes before this, Walter had woken up and I nudged Randy to go lay with him because I had had one "contraction" and wanted to make sure something wasn't happening... (Walter usually wakes up at night and I usually go in to lay with him... I know, I know, one day he will sleep in his own bed, alone, all night. ).  So I continued to have a couple of contractions and started to worry that labor was going to pick up fast and we needed to get going... I texted Randy's mom and let her know that she was good to head over, then I texted Rosie to ask if she was willing to come stay with my kids until Becky got there.  She is a saint and woke up at 4:00am to sleep with my kids.  Luckily Jemma had just gotten up to nurse so Rosie was awake to get my text. :)

Belly shot on labor day!

After that, I went in to get Randy (luckily Walter had fallen back to sleep and let him leave) and told him that my water had broken and I was having contractions.  He e-mailed work to let them know he wasn't going to come in and when Rosie got there we headed out.  At this point my contractions stopped.  I called my mom and Eva on our way in and decided to stay with them at their house (they are 5 minutes from the hospital) until labor started picking up again.

When we got there, Randy went into Eva's room to take a nap while Eva and my mom stayed with  me.  At this point it was like 5:00am I believe.  My mom made us some hot chocolate and then went to lay down while Eva made a bed on the couch for me so I could rest up for the big day... still no contractions.  I first wanted to try everything I could to get labor started because I know it's not good to have your water break and not go into labor shortly.  First we did some squats... nothing.  Then we went on a walk up in the hills near the capitol... choosing steep hills to go up... still nothing.  We then decided to go back and play a game or something to see if my body would kick into gear... during the game, my midwife, Gretchen called and asked how things were going (I had also texted her when my water broke).  I told her that I hadn't been having any contractions and was trying lots of things to get them started... she told me that I shouldn't wait TOO long to go to the hospital.  I have to admit, she didn't sound super nice and I was a little annoyed with her... she said that she was going to be away from her phone for a couple of hours... really?  I'm your patient, in labor (well trying to be) and you are not going to be by your phone?  I mean, once labor started with Walter, he was born after 2.5 hours... she could technically miss it!  *sigh*  We agreed that I would go to the hospital at 12:30pm whether or not something started with labor (by this point it was about 11:00am).

After this, Sam, wonderful Sam, tried out massaging a bunch of pressure points that are supposed to stimulate labor... still nothing but it still felt really good! :)  Then Eva, wonderful Eva, did my make-up and rubbed lotion on my feet.... man am I spoiled or what?  So 12:30pm came and still nothing so we headed up to the hospital (Randy, Eva, my mom and me).  Apparently my water hadn't completely broken because as I walked into the hospital door (brace yourselves) plenty of amniotic fluid started gushing down my legs... I walked trying to keep my legs together and not let any get on the floor... the whole time Randy and my sister were just laughing at me.  After checking in and finally making it to my labor and delivery room, I was able to get cleaned up and in my hospital gown.

They soon came in and did all of their checking in stuff... like making sure that my water really broke and hooking me up to monitors and such... then we continued to wait for something to happen... I tried sitting on a yoga ball while we played a game of splendor... Rosie came at this time... Becky had gotten to our house around 7:30am so she dropped off this game to me at my mom and dad's house (I asked her to bring it in for me) and then went home to get ready for church... after church she was able to come be with me at the hospital.  So during this game Gretchen came in to see if she could get things started by breaking my water ALL of the way (this is what started labor with Walter)... that did NOT do the trick this time.  Finally we decided it would be best to start me on Pitossin (labor inducer) (sp?)... and what they SAID was that I would only be on it to get my body started and then we could take it off to see if my body continued to contract.  For those who don't know... contractions on Pitossin are much worse than "natural" ones... and since I was planning on going "natural" all of the way, I did NOT want to be on Pitossin the whole time.  This was around 4:00pm.

Contractions started shortly after and Randy and Eva went to grab some food and Rosie went to meet her family and her mother-in-laws house to feed Jemma.  We downloaded a contraction timing app on my mom's phone and she started timing them for me.  They picked up pretty fast and got to where they were pretty painful (I had to concentrate and breath) and regular (2 to 3 minutes a part, about 45 to 60 seconds long).  At this point I asked if we could try taking the Pitossin off, no actually, I told Eva to call the nurse and ask... she said "okay, I'll wait until this contraction ends" to which I quickly replied "no, now!"  (I was in pain :) )... this is the part that makes me mad.  Gretchen came in and I asked her if we could take it off... she basically acted like my request was unintelligent and refused to take it off... as if it was never going to be an option... what?  If it was never going to be an option then just tell me that at the beginning... instead of making false promises and then treating me like I'm an idiot when I ask to stick to the "plan".   I finally convinced them to at least reduce the dosage... which didn't slow down labor, so why not take it off?  (they checked me right around this time and I was only dilated to 5 cm... comparing to Walter's labor, I was SURE I was at a 9)  I'm so frustrated that I didn't just threaten to rip the IV out of my arm if they didn't stop the Pitossin... I should have.  Just because I am in pain doesn't mean that I'm not in my right mine, I know my body, I've done this before and THESE contractions did not feel right... with Walter, yes, they hurt, but I felt much more in control and had actual rests between contractions.  These ones were really quite unbearable and there was still pain BETWEEN them.  Ugh, I really wanted an epidural at this point but knew that there was no way I could make myself hold still long enough during one of these contractions to get one.  I begged and pleaded for them to stop... the whole time being so mad that Gretchen treated me so poorly... she was great with Walter, what happened?  Anyway,  I don't even know what time it was at this point, but for what seemed like forever, I layed on my side dreading each contraction and coaching Randy on where to push on my back to help relieve SOME pain.  My mom was sweet and rubbed and put pressure on my legs, which surprising felt good and Eva, sweet Eva was standing there holding her papers from her Doula certification class... I felt bad that she wasn't really able to utilize what she had learned... finally she came closer to help comfort me and I was able to hold her hand.

Finally, the time came to push, I didn't want to... I just wanted to scream, Gretchen told me not too... I was still mad at her from before and this didn't help.  With everyone encouraging me to push I finally gave it a try... again and again... I think I had to push about 6 times or so before the big push came... oh man that hurt so bad, everyone was telling me in excitement that they could see his head and encouraged me more to keep pushing... finally he was out and I heard his first cry... (6:44pm) I was closing my eyes just so happy it was over, then I opened them, expecting to see another Lena and Walter clone... no, it wasn't so!  He looked different!  It was crazy and not what I expected.  My mom told me that he looked just like me when I was born. :)  His cord was too short to put him on my chest right away... we waited a little bit and then Randy cut it and I was able to hold my sweetie pie.  I know this is weird, but it was so cute to me that I was able to hold his little bum... it occurred to me that there wouldn't be another time that I could do this... from this point on he would be wearing diapers.  I cherished my first moments with him.  My mom and Eva were in tears.  Happy tears. :)  Randy kept telling me how good I did... I really didn't feel like I did that great because of how much I whined, but he reassured me.  Rosie returned at this point and congratulated me.  She was so sad that she missed his birth but she was there for Walter to be born so it worked out. :)

After holding him and nursing him for about an hour they weighed him... 8 lbs 4 oz, just like Lena! :)  I was surprised he was so big!  22 inches long... my longest baby yet! :)

His face was pretty bruised... they said this was a result of him coming out fast...it definitely didn't feel fast to me!  Oh also, his hand was over his face as he entered the world... thought that was cute. :)

First bath. :)

Eva was so kind to stay the night with me so that Randy could go get some "real" sleep at home.:)  She had to watch his first bath from the window.

First outfit. :)  Lena picked it out.

First carseat ride!