November 2011 ~ Gee and Sis

Well, for those of you are are also my Facebook friend, you know that the little man has arrived. The past 2 weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind, but I'm glad to report that everyone in the Parker household is doing great. Let me back up a little bit - back to November 2nd - and let you in on a few of the details surrounding my boy's arrival.

On November second, I was 38 weeks and 2 days along in my pregnancy. My blood pressure, as you likely recall, had been hovering far too high. When I went in for my regular doc appt on the 2nd, they took a urine sample, as usual, and it came back positive for [trace amounts] of protein. Add in the fact that I had begun to vomit regularly, the doc and I decided to go ahead and have me induced. I was only dilated to a 1, so the doc warned me that it could be a difficult induction.

I was taken immediately over to the birthing center (it was about 5pm at this point). They gave me a drug called prostin to help prepare my body for labor. Geoff came over to the hospital and stayed with me in the birthing suite from that point forward.

After another dose of prostin and a long night, they started the pitocin IV around 5am on the 3rd. They increased the dose every half hour - but by 2pm I was only dilated to a 2. Not the progress the wanted to see. Moreover, the baby wasn't tolerating the pitocin very well. By about 4pm, the doc came in to tell me they were turning off the pitocin. She didn't want to break my water because I wasn't progressing and breaking my water would likely mean I'd need a c-section (something we all wanted to avoid, if possible). To help prepare my body for labor, yet again, I got a new drug (administered for 12 hours).

At 6am on the 4th, they removed the medicine. Within about 10 minutes, I started having some serious abdominal pain. I called the nurse in to see what was going on. She looked at the monitor and did not see any contractions being registered, so she told me she wasn't sure what I was feeling. The nurses switched shifts soon and my new nurse immediately recognized that I was having contractions - even though the monitors weren't detecting them. They then started the pitocin drip to keep the contractions going and even them out (some were lasting very long!). I continued laboring until about noon - thank goodness for my supportive mom and hub during this time - when I had finally progressed and was dilated enough to get an epidural.

Once I got the epidural, things [obviously] got a lot easier. I took a quick nap. Unfortunately, baby still wasn't tolerating the pitocin well and his heart rate was a bit all over the place. The nurse and the doctor starting monitoring him very closely. Eventually the doc came in and broke my water and put a heart monitor directly into the baby's head to make sure they could really see what was going on.

By 3:30pm on the 4th, I was dilated pretty much all the way and the doc decided it was time for me to start pushing and get this little guy out. After just about an hour of pushing, he was born at 4:27pm on November 4, 2011.

We named him William Douglas, Will for short. This may seem a little out of left field, since it isn't a name I've really mentioned before. When Geoff and I first got married, actually, we agreed on naming our first born William Douglas - but somehow had changed our minds during the whole pregnancy process. At the last minute, it came back and just felt right. William is a family name on both sides (my great-great-grandfather's name and Geoff's father's middle name) - and I've loved it since I was a kid (my best friend never cared for it and vowed to call my first born Rocky if I insisted on naming him Will). Douglas is my father's name.

Here's a few photos to enjoy. I'll try to post again soon about everything that has happened since he was born. Happy 10 day birthday, Will!