William's Birth Story

Since I blogged Bethany's birth story I figured I should probably make sure I did the same for William. I'll just start off by saying this birth story isn't near as dramatic as Bethany's. (If you want to read about Bethany's birth story you can click here.) Actually, I would say that my labor and delivery was everything I felt "cheated" out of with LB's precipitous birth. I know that may sound ridiculous to some, but it is truly how I feel.

So here it goes: On Friday the 18th (1 day after my due date) I had an appointment with my midwife. She was completely shocked to see me. Ms. Nelson was just sure that I wouldn't make it to my due date, especially since she had swept my membranes at my last appointment when I was 39 weeks. But in spite of our best efforts I was still pregnant. So, she swept my membranes again and we left hoping I wouldn't still be pregnant at my 41 week appointment.

Around 6 o'clock that night I started thinking that I was having "real" contractions about every 3-4 minutes apart. We delayed putting Bethany to bed and about 7:15 we called our friends Stuart and Melanie to let them know we would be dropping Bethany off. By the time we dropped Bethany off and got to the hospital it was 8:20. I remember the time specifically because I had to write it down on the piece of paper with my basic information when I checked in. My contractions were still coming but nothing too serious. The receptionist sent us to the waiting room and said, "They are looking for a room, don't worry they won't forget you." If by that statement she meant that after 40 minutes you still will not have a nurse ask you a single question and then they will proceed to call back the gal who is not in labor but here for an induction, then I guess she was right. Yes you read the correctly, Tom and I sat in the waiting room for 40 minutes without a single question being asked about how far apart my contractions were or whether my water had broken or not.* If this had happened with Bethany I literally would have delivered her in the waiting room.

After the nurse called the other couple back I looked at Tom and told him he needed to go to the nurses station and find out if they had room for us, if not they needed to divert us to another hospital now. According to Tom he very politely went up to the nurses station to ask why we still had not been taken back to a room. One of the nurses got very defensive and started to explain to him that they are "like and ER," "We triage patients," "The last patient was called back for a medical reason," "We're looking for a room for your wife." I'm not sure which comment was the final straw for Tom but essentially he got his point across that she needed to stop arguing with him because the bottom line was I had NOT been triaged and that there was an empty room right where they were standing that had a sign stating it had been cleaned and was ready for a new patient. At that point they came right back to the waiting room and got me.

Once I got in the room and they checked me I was 5cm and 80% effaced but my contractions had slowed down a bit so they sent me to walk the hospital for an hour. When we got back I was 6cm and my contractions were significantly stronger. I decided it may end up being a long night so I opted to lie down and get some rest before things got too intense. Honestly, it was great, I was lying on my side "floating" over my contractions just like I had practiced per my Birthing the Bradley Way book. In the chaos of Bethany's birth I never actually got to do this and felt a little cheated out of my labor experience. Around 12:30 am the nurse and midwife came in and asked if I wanted them to break my water, I had no objections so my water was broken. I walked a couple of laps around the unit and my contractions increased in frequency and intensity to the point that I actually had to lean against the wall. So back to bed I went at about 1:30am. Shortly after that I started feeling nauseated and was regretting the half a box of Crunch n' Munch I had eaten since getting to the hospital, fortunately it never escalated to vomiting but there were a few contractions where I was concerned it might.

My contractions steadily increased in frequency and intensity when all of the sudden, like flipping a switch, I had to push. I hit my call light and said pretty loudly (not quite a yell) "I have to push!" It seemed almost immediately everyone was in my room, my bed was broken down and the midwife was looking at me saying "Push if you need to push." This is probably going to sound silly but I was actually waiting for her to check me and give me permission to push. With Bethany the doctor wouldn't let me push for several contractions because I wasn't quite dilated enough. Apparently this is one of the differing views between a lot of doctors and midwives. Midwives typically take the view of, if the woman feels she needs to push let her push. Once realizing this I was so grateful considering it really hurt not to push. Of course I was in for a little surprise when pushing did not feel "good" like it did with Bethany, it burned . . . a lot. Such is life, and as far as I'm concerned it's really just part of the physical challenge for me. No pain, no gain, right? My nurses were great and not even 10 minutes into pushing one of them said, "Just one more and he'll be out."  So I gave it all I had and out he came at 2:56 am. They put William on my tummy right away but since his umbilical cord wasn't very long I couldn't put him on my chest until Tom cut his cord a few minutes later. They put a blanket over him and just left us alone for awhile.

It was immediately obvious to me that William was quite a bit bigger than Bethany but other than his size (and the fact that he is a "he") it looked like I have given birth to Bethany's twin. Even almost two weeks later I still look at this little guy and can't believe how much he looks like his big sister.

All in all I would say this slower, and by comparison, relaxing labor was an answer to my fervent prayers. I definitely had concerns that our baby would be born on the side of the road or that we wouldn't have time to drop Bethany off anywhere. Fortunately none of my concerns came to fruition and God blessed us with a prefect and healthy baby boy.

William Thomas was born on Oct 19th at 2:56am, weighing 8lbs 5oz and 21 inches long. We named him after my Grandpa Bever and Tom's Grandpa Koehler, Tom's dad, and of course Tom.

 Baby William's first picture

Bethany meeting her baby brother "Yillyam"

* We are making a formal complaint about this situation to the hospital commander. Honestly it is absolutely inexcusable that a woman in labor would be allowed to sit in a waiting room  for 40 minutes without being triaged by a medical professional.