Monday, June 30, 2008

He's finally here!

Sorry for the late post, but it's been a little crazy here.

Introducing, for your viewing pleasure... William Walter Frandsen!
He joined us June 20th at 5:48 pm. Weighing in at a whopping 5 lbs 3 oz and 19 inches long.


You may be thinking to yourself, I thought he wasn't due until July 15th? Well, you are correct. But he didn't want to wait any longer. June 16th I went in for a routine checkup at 36 weeks. When the dr. checked to see if I had made any progress, he (as well as Devn and I) was shocked to find I was already dilated to a 6 and 90% effaced! He asked if I have been having contractions, and really I just had a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions, so nothing that felt like I was in labor. He said the minute they become at all regular, go to the hospital or you'll be having the baby at home or on the road! So we left there a little baffled and not really knowing what to say. I was put on "modified bedrest" meaning that I should take it easy,but he knows I have a 2 year old at home. He wanted me to make it at least another week to get to 37 weeks and plump up this baby a bit more. However, since I didn't feel like I was in any sort of labor I wasn't a very good patient. I took it a little easier, but now that I knew I didn't have a whole month left, I had tons to do to get ready for baby!

Anyway, Friday Donna (my mother-in-law) was leaving town for a week, Devn was at work and I was going to be stranded at home without a ride to the hospital if I went into labor, so to play it safe, I had Donna take me to the hospital before she left just to check things out and make sure I wasn't going to have the baby that afternoon or something. So they strapped all the monitors on my and gave it an hour to see what was happening. And believe it or not, I had been having contractions about every minute and a half the whole time (I could hardly feel them) and had changed 1 cm just in the time I was there being monitored. So they called my Dr. and he came an hour later and broke my water, I got my epidural, and about 2 hours later I pushed through 5 contrations and baby brother was here! Easiest labor ever! And those of you who remember my labor experience with our first child, this one was well deserved! Plus, I didn't have the nasty Nurse Kate doing everything contrary to what I asked for! Devn was doing a rotation in Cardiology so he was already there at the hospital, and was able to help deliver... one handed since I wanted a hand to hold!


I held him for about 10 seconds before they whisked him away to the NICU (a precaution due to his premature birth). He was having a hard time breathing for the first few minutes, but ended up breathing with no problems. He had low blood pressure, but other than that he was a healthy little boy. So they kept him monitored in the NICU until everything was stable. Once he started eating well they were able to send him home. So after 8 days in the NICU, 6 LONG days of driving back and forth to the hospital for feedings every 3 hours during the day, waking up in the middle of the night (not for a tiny precious baby to eat, but for a machine) to pump, and no rest whatsoever, we finally have him home with us! What a relief! I think we got some special treatment and the NICU Dr and nurses bent the rules for us since Devn spent 3 weeks with them during a rotation. They really shouldn't have sent him home according to the hospital rules until this Wednesday and they shouldn't have let us measure his feedings the way we did. But we are grateful for the special treatment and just thrilled to not have to be at the hospital anymore!

Luckily my parents were able to come to town to take care of Ellee while I was back and forth all day and to cook for us too! We couldn't be more thankful!

But we are home and all is well and Will seems to be thriving and gaining weight and eating well.