Wesley David: Birth Story

can you believe how close they were?!

I'm sitting here on the sofa, with David on the other end and his sweet boy in his arms, both are passed out. Who can blame them? :) I don't want to forget a moment from the day he was born and our first couple of days with him in the hospital. I can't even count how many times I have reread Penny's birth story (here), and I know I will treasure every detail of his also.

I talked about it in my last post, but we had set an induction date at our most recent doctor appointment, which was Tuesday. The induction date was to be Sunday, November 15. I was still confident (and hopeful) though that he could make his arrival all on his own. All day on Thursday, I was feeling like things were happening. I wasn't having contractions, braxton hicks or real ones, but my body was feeling different, achy on another level, and just different. I told David, some family and a couple of friends that I would be surprised if he didn't make his arrival within the next 24 hours. That same day, David and I decided we needed to kick all our "last minute" to do list items into high gear. This included me finally getting the rest of my hospital bag packed, and re-reading a few certain chapters of "Baby Wise" (I need to meet that man and thank him profusely), among other things. David and I were working on getting some of these things done and chatting about his middle name, because we hadn't yet picked one. His first name was set, and we had narrowed down his middle name to two, and had decided to just wait to see which one he looked like to us once he was born. At around 10 pm, we decided to hit the hay.

I (fully) woke up at midnight, after drifting in and out for a little bit. (You'll think I'm crazy, but after I woke up at 12:00, I told David I thought I had been having dreaming that I was having contractions. I know, I must have been exhausted to sleep through contractions!) I stood up just a few minutes after midnight when I realized they were contractions. I thought I would time a couple before seeing if I should wake David up. After I had 3 in a row that were 4-5 minutes apart, I knew I needed to wake David up. He moved FAST. I touched his shoulder, and said "David, I'm having contractions." He responded with a shocked/excited "really?!" and then jumped out of bed. He timed a couple for me while he got our things together, just in case. After about 4 more contractions came and went, all about 4-5 minutes apart, we decided it was time to call Meghan to come over to the house while we headed to the hospital. While we were waiting, David suggested we head into Penny's room. We get in there and look at our sweet little girl once more as our one and only. I was crying, so, so hard. Bittersweet tears. Knowing that our days would never be the same, never again just the two of us on our daily adventures, but instead we get another little buddy to join us! Like I said, absolutely bittersweet.

Meghan got there within 10 minutes, and we were off! We are so thankful this happened in the middle of the night, we didn't have to deal with any traffic and were at the hospital in about 30 minutes. We kept timing the contractions in the car. I wanted to have as many documented as I could, since we wouldn't be timing them for very long. By the time we got to the hospital, we would only had 1 hour of timed contractions, but they were 4-5 minutes apart the entire time. We got a parking spot right in front of labor & delivery...again, thankful for it being the middle of the night! We head in and they checked us in right away. They got me a wheelchair and wheeled us to our first room in triage at about 1:30 am. The nurse went ahead and checked me, I was at 5 centimeters. This was of course early on Friday, and that Tuesday before, I was a 2.

With Penny, I had planned on having a natural birth. Though that was my goal, I told myself it was okay if I ended up getting an epidural if I couldn't handle it. Due to my health issues, they suggested I get one with her. The main goal of it was to try to help lower my BP to avoid other medicines. Since having one with her, my fears of an epidural disappeared. I knew how my body would react to one and we didn't have any issues, so I was totally fine with getting them in births since. So that brings us to the triage room again, and I told them I was ready for an epidural. The contractions came on so incredibly quickly, and were getting progressively stronger with each one. The nurse went ahead and ordered the blood work needed to get the "ok" for an epidural, and then we just had to wait. They went ahead and continued tracking my contractions. We were in triage for maybe 45 minutes before we got a room in labor & delivery.

We get to our new room at around 2:30 am. My doctor was on the way to the hospital, and our new nurse (Gail, who was just the sweetest) checked me again, and I was at 7 centimeters. Things were happening fast. They were still waiting on my blood work to get the okay for an epidural. They went ahead and called the anesthesiologist to go over the paperwork to sign for the epidural (yes, please resuscitate me if needed.) Finally (FINALLY) I was given the okay for an epidural. It was about 3:15 when I got it. I only felt 2-3 more contractions before it fully kicked in, and it was wonderful. I was able to rest, David was able to give updates to family and friends.

For the next hour or so, David and I talked about how we couldn't believe we were already there, at the hospital, about to have our son. We talked about how starkly different this experience was from our first. It really put in perspective how utterly crazy our first go around was, though we absolutely adore each of the experiences. My doctor soon arrived, and checked me again. I was at 8 centimeters. At around 4:30 or so I decided to see if I could nap for a little bit. I ended up falling asleep for an hour. A full hour! The only time I recall waking up during that hour was when the nurse let me know they were going to give me a little pitocin, just to make sure the contractions were still progressing. I was half asleep when they told me this, so I don't recall why I needed it, but I didn't mind, I was napping!

at around 5:45 or so, My nurse woke me up to check me again, I was at 10. She said "okay, its time to start pushing." David and I looked at each other, again, both in shock with how smoothly and calm this whole experience was. At that point, it was just the three of us in the room, with the lights dimmed, and we were both rested. I told the nurse "I feel like I am going to wake up and this will all have been a dream. It has just been so smooth." David absolutely agreed. It truly all felt too good to be true. Gail told me my doctor would be back in the room shortly, but she was told we could "go ahead and get started." So, with just the three of us, she started counting to 10 for pushes. I only pushed 4 times or so before our doctor came in and took over. Along with her came 2 nurses for Wesley. With the 6 of us in the room, it was still such a calm experience compared to the dozen+ people during Penny's birth. Then, David made a comment similar to one I had heard before..."Mckenzie! He has brown hair just like Penny did!" I pushed maybe another 4 times for my doctor, and it was done. At 6:12, he was here! They put him right on my chest and I was in awe that moment was here. We couldn't believe it. He was so handsome, and puffy, and sweet. He had his own little cry, different from his sisters. It was such a sweet sound!


We ended up staying in the Labor and Delivery room until late morning/lunchtime. The recovery rooms were all full, so they were waiting for one to clear out before we moved. We didn't mind, the labor & delivery rooms are much bigger than the recovery rooms. At around 9:00, Meghan, Meredith, and Penny arrived! We were so excited for Penny to meet her new brother. She came barreling into the room, no idea what was going on exactly, but just the happiest little face, of course. She marched up to my bed, and said "hi!" followed shortly by "up!". So she comes into my bed and looks at her new brother. She glossed over him fairly quickly, ready to move on to exploring the rest of the room instead (for a 15 month old, I'm not surprised!). At around 10:00, Penelope and Wesley's godmother Meghan came in to meet him. Seeing people meet your new baby for the first time is incredible. I have loved seeing everyone meet him, and just fall in love with him as we did. Meghan was able to stay for a bit before taking Penny back to our house to play the rest of the day! Meghan and Meredith stayed longer eventually heading down to the cafeteria to grab some lunch to bring back to our room. At 12:00, they got back to our room with lunch and a surprise...my dad! My mom was coming and arriving early evening, but my dad originally wasn't able to come until the Thursday afterwards. He told me that when he and my mom got the call at 2:00 am he said he couldn't not come, even just for 24 hours. So he hopped in the car once he got packed and headed over! He decided to keep it as a surprise and took a chance with going straight to the cafeteria, hoping Meghan and/or Meredith would be there for lunch. Of course, it worked perfectly.

Not long after that, we were moved to our recovery room. It was a smaller room, but was so nice! We were glad to know we would be staying put in that room for the rest of our time there (we had 6 room changes during our time in the hospital with Penny). At around 1:30, the kids' godfather, Brett, came to meet little Wes. Unfortunately, he couldn't stay long, as "cuddle time" was from 2-4. First off...cuddle time?! How adorable is that. Their version of "no visitors/quiet time". So David, Wesley, and I were able to have some down time. At 4:00, my mom made it to Nashville and came right to the hospital! She was able to meet our sweet guy and stay for a few hours, through dinner time and that evening.

Wesley didn't sleep well that night. After only nursing once that whole day (the nurses assured me that was normal, and warned me he would cluster feed like crazy after the first 24 hours), his hunger hit him like a ton of bricks and he ate nearly nonstop the entire night! It of course kept David and I up the whole night also, but we were so glad he was finally eating.

The next day, Wesley got to meet some more of his family! His Aunt Jackie, Uncle John, and Cousin Joey came in just after lunch and were able to stay for a bit. They brought him the sweetest little lamb stuffed animal, I know he'll love it the older he gets. David's dad was able to come by that evening to meet his newest grandson, too! After he left, we decided to try to get some sleep. Wesley didn't sleep well that night either, unfortunately. He was ready to eat the entire night again! At around 3:00 am, one of the nurses suggested taking him to the nursery so we could get some sleep. I really didn't like the thought at first, and it took quite a bit of convincing from David, but I agreed. We both needed to take advantage of getting some rest. They of course promised to bring him to me as soon as he showed signs of being hungry. He was fussing a little bit, but they carried him up to the nursery (we didn't know this at the time, but as soon as he rounded the corner leaving our room, he stopped crying). David and I fell asleep immediately, and woke up at 8:30. I KNOW. They said he slept the whole time as well. It looks like we both needed a good rest. They suggested the reason he didn't sleep well in our room was because.....he could smell me. What? I know. They said newborns can actually tell when their mom is near by their scent. Which then can trigger them to want to just nurse, which also explains why he stopped fussing for me as soon as he left the room. Pretty incredible, right?

I know I said it before, but I have just loved getting to see everyone meet Wes. We are treasuring these memories already, he is so loved, especially by his sweet sister. She excitedly exclaims "buba!" every morning when she sees him for the first time, and loves cuddling with him, and giving him kisses. I am most excited to watch these two grow together as siblings. Such a sweet relationship ahead of them.