Family Food and Wine: Charles Joseph Williams

I know it's been 7 months since my sweet little bundle of joy was born, but I need to get this written. I've started writing his birth story in his baby book, only to get interrupted and not get back to it. At least if I have it written here, I know I can go somewhere for reference!

Let me just preface Charlie's birth story with a bit of information from my 37 week appointment the Thursday before he was born. My entire pregnancy was normal, I was an anomaly when it comes to pregnant ladies. I never once got sick - no nausea, no morning sickness, no back pain, and I never (never ever) woke up in the middle of the night to go pee. If you would have told me I was pregnant before I started showing, I would've thought you were crazy. At my 37 week appointment, my Dr. (who is really a nurse midwife, but I'm calling her a Dr. because it's easier to type out, and I absolutely adore her!) did our last sonogram and said everything looked normal. After checking everything out, she estimated that the baby probably weighed in the upper 6 pound range and I would probably be having a high 7 pound baby. But, I was in no way ready to go into labor and would definitely not be going early. The entire pregnancy I had the mind set of holding that baby in for 40 weeks or longer, so this didn't surprise me in the least bit.

Fast forward to the early morning of Tuesday, March 10, 2015, and by early, I mean 4 AM! I woke up and felt the sudden urge to go to the bathroom. So I make my trek into the bathroom, take care of my business and go lay back down. It didn't feel like I got it all out, but I was so tired, I just went back to sleep, knowing my alarm was going to go off in a few hours. At 5 AM, I'm woken up again by another urge to go to the bathroom and this time it was URGENT! I'm running to the bathroom and slight gush between my legs, but thankfully I make it to the tiled bathroom in time. The whole time I'm thinking, I don't get up in the middle of the night to go pee, this is so strange, then it hit me... MY WATER JUST BROKE! I holler at Brett and he leaps (quite literally) out of bed and it's game on... he was ready to go asking what needed to be done and what he needed to do and if I needed help! I wasn't convinced yet, even though I was pretty sure that's what just happened, I wasn't ready to face reality of the baby coming quite yet. I hadn't packed my bags for the hospital yet!

I wasn't feeling any contractions or in any pain so I decided to take my time and get fully ready and pack everything up. I told Brett to just go through his normal morning routine and I would call the doctor's office once it opened. I started packing my hospital bag and looked up our doctors website to see what I needed to do. Remember... I wasn't due for three more weeks so we hadn't gone through the drill of what to do if I think I'm going in to labor! Around 6:30 I called my mom. I waited to do this because I knew as soon as I called her she would be in her car and on her way to Kansas City, but I didn't want her to rush if there really wasn't going to be a baby! She told me to call her back after I talked to the Dr. and she would wait to leave until then. I was pretty sure it was my water that broke, and I knew that if it was, the baby needed to be delivered within the next 24 hours, so I called the doctor's office to see if they wanted me to come in. I got the answering service and the doctor on-call called me back shortly after. I'm pretty sure that Dr. didn't really think my water had broken, but told me to come into the hospital to be checked out. I texted my boss and told her I wasn't feeling well so I wasn't going to be in. At this point I still wasn't feeling any contractions or pain, so I took my time taking a shower, ate a small breakfast (which I'm glad I did!) and got ready. My husband still gives me a hard time about this, but I knew it would be the last time I'd ever get to take a shower in peace without worrying about someone else needing me! I got completely ready, hair, makeup, and fully dressed... in sweats! If you know me, you know I don't go out of the house in sweats! But I had heard so many horror stories of women who's water broke and fluid just came gushing out on their way to the hospital, I wasn't about to ruin perfectly fine clothes! During this time Brett and I also decided on a boys name. The entire pregnancy we had a girl's name picked out, but not a boy's name. I was convinced it was going to be a boy, just because we didn't have a name picked out, but we finally agreed on something so it was set!

Around 7:30 AM we left for the hospital. I was feeling small contractions, but they were still about 7-9 minutes a part and not very painful. I remember the drive to the hospital being so weird because it was along the same route we took into work every morning and it was about the same time of day as our usual commute. But I definitely wasn't going in to work that day... I was going to have a BABY!

We arrived at the hospital right at 8 o'clock and I made my way up to Labor and Delivery. The Dr. had called ahead and told them I was coming so they had all of my paperwork ready to be signed. I went in and took a urine test and then they put me in triage. A very kind nurse came in and checked me out and then we waited on Lee to get there to do the full exam. I still wasn't having consistent contractions so I was in pretty good spirits. By this time, my mom was on her way to KC, but I hadn't told my sisters yet. I wanted to make sure this baby was really coming before I told them! Lee came in shortly after and began to check on how things were progressing and to see if my water had actually broken.

I had never had my cervix checked at my appointments, I was only 37 weeks with no signs of labor, no sense in having it checked! Oh. My. Word. Now I'm glad I was never checked! That was the most painful experience of the entire day! But sure enough, my water was broken and I was dilated to a 3. We were going to have a BABY!!! They put me in an actual delivery room and things started rolling! I STILL wasn't feeling consistent contractions so once they got me fully checked in around 9 AM and hooked up to the IVs, they started me on pitocin. I finally called my sisters to tell them they were going to become AUNTS TODAY! They had strict instructions to go to all their classes that day before they could head to Kansas City. Both of them promised me they would, but do you think they really did? I knew the baby wasn't going to come any time soon, but they didn't listen (what a shock!) and left for Kansas City right away. By noon, our waiting room crew had arrived!

The pitocin was starting to kick in and my contractions were getting stronger and stronger... finally, something was happening down there! I was dilated to about a 5 by now. I thought I could handle the pain and wanted to try to see if I could do the birth naturally, but I had no clue how long it was going to take to get fully dilated. The pain was getting pretty bad and by 12:30 I decided to go with an epidural. It was some time after 1 PM by the time the anesthesiologist made it to my room to administer the epidural. After getting the epidural, the nurse had me place a peanut ball between my legs to try to get the baby to drop and to get me fully dilated. This whole time I'm busy texting my family and friends while Brett and I watch HGTV and Food Network. We had to stick with HGTV after awhile though, Food Network was making me too hungry!

All day I kept telling my nurse that the baby wasn't going to come until later in the day because I had a Dr. appointment scheduled for 4 that afternoon. Well, about 4 PM, it was time to rock and roll! We waited on Lee to get to the hospital and once she got there it was time to push! We started pushing around 4:40 PM. The epidural really did its job and I couldn't really feel a whole lot, so every time there was a contraction on the screen, Lee would tell me to push. The entire time, we were watching HGTV, Fixer Upper was on TV and talking about what was going on. (I really hope all of my labor experiences are like this one!) I pushed through five contractions until finally.... HE was here! He was SO beautiful, I couldn't believe my baby was actually here! I remember my first words being, "What is it?!". The way Lee was holding him up, I couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl!

It's a BOY!!

Charles Joseph Williams was born on March 10, 2015 at 5:06 PM, weighing 8 pounds, 7 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long, pure perfection.

He started sucking his thumb right away when they placed him on my chest... it was the best feeling in the entire world. I couldn't believe I finally had my baby to have and to hold. Shortly after they gave them to me, they took him away, he was coughing and having troubles breathing. It wasn't anything serious, he just needed his mouth cleared out. At that time, they also took his vitals while I was getting cleaned up. When they weighed him and told us that we weighed 8 lb,. 7 oz, none of us believed the nurse, we all made her weigh him again. Remember me saying they thought he would be in the upper 7 pound range?! He was one big boy, and 2 1/2 weeks early!

Our first picture as a family of 3!

Charlie, you are the light of our lives. I never knew I could love something so much until you came along. You bring us so much joy on a daily basis, my life is more complete with you in it. Your dad and I have big dreams for you, little one. I hope and pray every day that you will grow up following your dreams, that you will be intelligent beyond words, that you are kind and respectful to others, that you love with all your heart and that you know how to laugh and make others laugh. I want the world for you, and it's all just at your fingertips.