It turns out that William was chock full of surprises. The first of which was deciding to come without an induction. I started having contractions around 7:00 am on Thursday morning. I had had contractions about a week earlier so I wasn't sure what to think about these. The plan was for me to take Carl to work that day so that I could pick him up at the end of the day and go straight to the dress rehearsal. (It is a good thing that the contractions started so early, otherwise Carl would have been at work with no way to get home/to the hospital! Also, on any other given day Carl would have long since been at work.) We decided to take Lily to school and then return home to monitor the contractions. Completely to our surprise, the contractions became more powerful and closer together. By about 10:30, I was pretty sure that I was going into labor.
We picked Lily up from school at 11:30 and drove with her to the hospital (5 minutes from Lily's school) where my dad picked her up and took her back to my parents' house for a prescheduled mani/pedi session with the girls. Carl and I checked into the hospital at 11:45. They checked my progress and again to my surprise, I was 6 1/2 cm dilated. At that point, they asked me if I wanted an epidural. Since I was already in tears from the pain, I readily accepted their offer. I couldn't believe that I was actually going to have the baby that very day!
The picture below shows me with my mom and sisters after their mani/pedis and before the dress rehearsal. Clearly, this is also after my epidural and before delivery.
Our last photo as a family of threeThe epidural ended up actually stopping any progress that my body was making so we had to kick in some pictocin to keep things moving along. At 4:00 pm, the doctor came into to check me and asked if I felt pressure or the need to push. I was feeling pressure but not necessarily the need to push. When he examined me, he said that I was 10 cm dilated and ready to go. He and the nurse suited up to get the show on the road. He said that if I pushed for 20 minutes, it would be long. I didn't entirely believe him, but sure enough, 10 minutes and 3 contractions later, we welcomed William into the world at 4:15 pm. Here are a couple of his first pictures with mom and dad:
Unfortunately, William still had some surprises in store for us. When he was born, William's blood sugar was low, although still within normal limits (48). Forty is the cut-off for passing. The next test revealed a blood sugar level of 42. At about 11:00 pm, they took William for some tests including his third blood sugar test. They said that he would be back around 11:25 pm. Carl had left to walk Terra and pick up some things at the house. He returned at about 11:15. At 11:45, we were still waiting for William to return with the nurse when the Pediatrician walked in without him. I knew then that we were not going to receive good news. Due to his low blood sugar, William was admitted directly to the NICU. We would not get him back again for good until a couple of hours before he was discharged from the hospital on Sunday at 10:30 am.
William's blood sugar had dropped into the twenties. Basically, his body was making too much insulin. Best guesses are that I developed mild gestational diabetes during pregnancy. Those following our pregnancy journey will remember that I failed my glucose screening and then passed the three-hour test. For some reason, it seems that the screening was a more accurate indication of what was actually going on. So, William's body had trouble adjusting once he was born. This leaves me with a lot of guilt that I can't really address here, but knowing that I had a part to play in every heal prick, IV and dextrose drip, constant monitoring, and time away from his mom & dad in his precious first few days of life is a heavy burden to bear.
Luckily, William responded very well to the dextrose drip and recovered beautifully. The biggest after-effect of this journey is that we are actually more worried as new parents to William than we were as first-time parents of Lily. William was very lethargic at the hospital, and we often had to wake him up and basically force-feed him. He absolutely HAD to eat every three hours, and we absolutely HAD to supplement breastfeeding with formula to get his blood sugar up since the colostrum was not going to cut it. Now that my milk has come in, we are still breastfeeding and then supplementing with pumped breastmilk under his doctor's recommendation. This leaves me worrying that he is possibly eating too much, and we are breaking down his natural ability to self-regulate. As Carl so subtly put it, we are not looking to have a National Inquirer baby or turn our little football player into a sumo wrestler.
However, overfeeding would not be as detrimental as underfeeding at this point so we are going with the lesser of two evils for the moment. Last night, I know that William took in more fluids than any newborn should, but I also know that this will not land him a visit to the ER like not eating enough could. Still, it is a parent's prerogative to worry, right? And worry we do....About whether he is sleeping too much because he has no energy due to low blood sugar or is he just a normal newborn who sleeps 20+ hours per day? Is he jittery or is it just a normal startle reflex? With Lily, we just went with the flow, but we are unable to do this with William. Hopefully, it will get better and our fears will subside. William had his first doctor's appointment today, and everything seems okay. He is only down 2 oz. (9 lbs even) probably due to the dextrose drip and constant supplementing. His next doctor's appointment is next Thursday so we will be able to reevaluate then.
All in all, things did not necessarily go as planned or as one would desire, but in the end, we have a beautiful baby boy that seems to be happy, healthy, and thriving. What more could anyone ask for, really?
