Steven was ready for our next addition from the moment Lara was out and dried off. I had vastly different feelings. For someone who has always wanted a big family, I was very surprised by my tunnel vision on my daughter. I could not even imagine every having another baby as incredible as she was. She was my baby. That was that. Until her first birthday. By the time LB reached the ripe old age of one, she was basically already a teenager. There was a day shortly after her birthday, when she was FAR less baby like than the day before, that I had a realization that I was "ready" for Lara to have a sibling. A couple days after that I brought this up to my husband. Evidently all we had to do was put the "we are trying vibes" out into the universe. We found out we were pregnant with Liam a month later.
Throughout the pregnancy, Liam was measuring between 2 and 3 weeks larger than he should have been for his gestational age. This led to more scheduled ultrasounds and talks of early induction and possible c-section. For those of you who know me well, I am avidly a gainst scheduled c sections and on a few occasions was very put off by my OBs insistance on the topic. He tried to persuade me with the threat of future incontinance due to my delivering too large of babies. Long story short I put that idea quickly to rest at every appointment the last month of my pregnancy, but could not escape the suggestion of early induction.
The morning of April 13th, I awoke at 6 am after a very restful night of sleep to get Lara ready to go to daycare and get my last minute things prepped. We left to drop Lara off at 7am and I bawled like a baby on the way to the hospital about leaving my baby to go have another baby. It was this strange ball of excitement and apprehension that is pretty hard to explain in words. Steven calmly looked at me and said "Babe...we are going to have our new baby. That doesn't make Lara NOT your baby anymore. You can have more than one baby." Oh the wise words of my husband....calmed me imeadiately and helped me to focus on the excitement of the day ahead.
We checked in to the hospital at 7:30am. We had to wait in the little waiting area and were actually escorted through the hospital with an elderly couple who was there for (perhaps obviously) a totally different reason. We made it up to our room to settle in, gown up, and have my water broken. It was about 10 times more painful that I had remembered with Lara. On the opposite side, my godsend of a nurse was able to insert my IV on the first try, which, for those of you who are familiar with Lara's birth story, was a BIG DEAL. Things were off and running, and I got to get settled in.
Around 2:00 pm, I was getting tired and the contractions were coming much stronger than before. I hoped a little IV medication would help calm my body enough for some rest, but it did little to no good. After laying in a weird, painful haze for a good hour and 15 minutes, the "transition" began. The progress from 8 to 10 centimeters was upon us...well me... and it is the least pleasant part of the whole ordeal. At this point, I was VERY VERY tired....tired of labor, tired of being in pain. I also didn't want another run in with the "just breathe through your contractions while we wait for the doctor to come catch the baby" episode like I had with Lara. So I may or may not have lied to the nurse and told her I was feeling an iminent need to push. Now, I knew the end was "somewhat in the near furture" but the baby was by no means barrelling out as of yet. She checked me...9cm...Let me just tell you, being at 9cm is the MOST FRUSTRATING place to be in the whole world because no matter ho aw bad you feel you have to push... modern medical facilities will not let you do so until you hit the magic 10. In what seems like a blur though, I had the room convinced this baby's arrival was imminent. Dr. Hutchens showed up, suited up, and got the crew ready for the big show. I pushed..and pushed...and 20 minutes later...and handsome baby boy was born. 8lbs 12oz of pure handsome.
I say a handsome baby boy because at this point, we had no idea what to name him. I thought, for a majority of my pregnancy that his name was going to be Grayson. You could not have convinced me otherwise. But as the big day approached, Steven was less convinced by that name. So we sat in the delivery room, looking through baby name books...nothing standing out to me.... But the minute they handed me my son, I knew his name was Liam.
Liam Kristofer Paul Williams
Born April 13th 2011
8lbs 12oz
21 inches long
Proud to say I delivered another beautiful baby, without an epidural. Call me crazy, but I think there is something so empowering about giving birth without being numb from the neck down. After he arrived and was "fluffed up" he nursed for the first time....like a champ...and has been going strong since.
I could go in to detail about the events that followed that landed Liam in the NICU and why I will never be medically induced again, but that is for another post. Today is a day to focus on the joy and beauty that was my son's arrival into this world.
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