William Thomas Steele was born on November 25, 2012.
As many people know, he was "scheduled" to arrive on November 29, 2012. I had made plans to host a birthday party for David's mom on Sunday (Nov. 25) at lunch, to attend a shower for Thomas & Meredith on Sunday afternoon (Nov. 25), to go to a trial on Wednesday (Nov. 28), and to throw a birthday party for Eileen on Wednesday evening (Nov. 28). At my last doctors appointment, on November 21, there had been no "progress" made towards labor, so there was no reason to think that my plans might be altered.
We put up our Christmas decorations on November 24 (Saturday) and I, for some strange reason, polished all of my silver- this hasn't been done since we got married over three years ago. On Sunday, I got up to shower for church and realized that I probably needed to call my doctor's on-call line. I told David that we'd probably be going to the hospital's labor & delivery unit. When Dr. Powell called back, she did instruct us to go to the hospital.
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| Last picture before heading to the hospital |
So I showered, dried my hair, did my makeup, and we got things together to leave. About 90 minutes after we'd been told to head to the hospital (David was getting irked at how I took my time), we dropped Eileen off with David's parents and set out for Monroeville.
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| Eileen and me |
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| Our last picture as a family of three |
I was hooked up to the monitors and checked for signs of labor. Things were kind of "iffy," so David headed out to get some breakfast for himself while I walked the halls of the hospital to hurry things along. About 20 minutes later, I was having regular contractions and Dr. Powell and my nurse Mrs. Cindy Jones decided that we were going to have a baby! (Because I wasn't yet at 39 weeks pregnant- I was 38 weeks, 5 days- I had to be "in labor" in order for my insurance to cover my c-section... thus the necessity of regular contractions, etc.)
They began prepping me for my c-section and I was wheeled back and getting my spinal before David got back to the hospital.
Getting an epidural with Eileen when I was in the middle of labor and had been for
hours was no big deal. Getting a spinal, which involves a large needed being stuck into one's spinal column, when I was not exhausted from labor, was quite another story. I briefly contemplated trying to talk my doctor and the nurses out of doing a c-section, realized that was futile, and just tried not to think about it. Really, the anticipation was much worse than the actual spinal.
I was wheeled back to the OR at 11:46, the c-section was begun at 12:06, and William was born at 12:09! He weighed 6 lbs, 6 oz, and was 19.5" long. And absolutely adorable.
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| William |
My mom had left Tennessee when we called that morning and she arrived in the afternoon. David's parents came after the shower and they brought Eileen to meet her new baby brother. Oh, it was also David's mom's birthday!
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| My mom (Sittie) and William |
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| David's mom (Mumsie) and William. They share a birthday! |
We got to go home on Tuesday (less than 48 hours after my c-section!) and we're settling in. The surgery was much easier this time around. It might have been too easy- I absolutely overdid it when I got home and spent most of the weekend in pain.
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| William dressed to go home |
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| In his car seat |
We're recovering and Eileen is gradually getting used to having another baby in the house.
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| Eileen meeting her baby brother |
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