The week preceding William's birth
This entry is mostly written just to help me remember...
The Tuesday before William was born, our area suffered a huge ice-storm. It was beautiful but treacherous. Over three thousand telephone poles were snapped in our area, thousands of trees were downed, and almost every single tree in our town was damaged. Yards and streets were piled high with fallen trees and huge branches. We lost the beautiful 100 year old maple in our backyard. (Ben cried when they came to chop the rest of it to the ground.) We loved that tree. (The picture to the left is not mine, but it is indicative of what it looked like here.)
Tuesday night we lost our electricity. We had a fun night using candles and flashlights, and huddled in pairs in the beds. We didn't really get cold until the next morning. Brad had to leave for an all day business trip (his boss has a car that can make it through anything) and we tried to continue with our school routine at home. By noon we were hungry and cold. Brad had called to tell us that Wal-Mart had a generator and was open, so we went there for lunch and tried to warm up (along with everyone else in our county). When we returned home, we had our power back on. We were lucky. Some of our friends just a few blocks away didn't get their power back on for three weeks.
On Friday morning the roads were passable so we went for Kievan's oral surgery. She needed two teeth pulled and two cyst-like growths removed. We thought she'd be better in 24 hrs like the doctor said. She wasn't. We had planned to go out of town for Brad's birthday (and to get to a place where the stores were open) but postponed our trip till Sunday. Kievan still felt very badly, unfortunately.
Sunday was a hard day for me (along with Kievan). The longish drive made me have regular but weak contractions which I thought were Braxton Hicks. I felt very pregnant, tired, and pretty uncomfortable. Unexpectedly, we ended up staying at a wonderful hotel Sunday night thanks to the generosity of some friends. Around 4:30 in the morning, when I went to the bathroom, I noticed a small amount of blood. I was concerned that it was the mucous plug and that William's due date was still 5 weeks away. I woke up Brad who called the midwife, but she did not think it was anything dangerous.
We packed everyone up and headed home. The drive was very uncomfortable for me and the contractions grew in intensity. They were 5 minutes apart the 3 hours and were just the same as every other time I've gone into labor for real. Once we got home I went to bed. I was still bleeding a little, but it looked like old blood. I hoped that the contractions would let up; my fear was that William was still too young to have a safe birth. I was also terrified of having to have an emergency room delivery (I have a hospital phobia...).
The contractions never did slow down, and around 6pm I noticed fresh blood, not a whole lot, but more than the previous instances. We ended up going to the hospital (stopping on the way for Brad to get some dinner) and I was checked in. I still wasn't bleeding much, undressed myself, and was put onto the examination table and had the fetal monitor strapped on. William's heartbeat sounded strong and regular. Within a few minutes I could tell I was bleeding a whole lot more and told the nurse. From my end, I could't tell that this changed anything. I could still hear his heartbeat and it sounded fine to me. I didn't feel bad, so I figured we were both OK. The next thing I knew I was on my way to have a C-section, and then I heard William cry so I figured he was fine and I felt fine. More later......
Now for some pictures~
Ben: proud of his new brother (Will is less than 1 week old here)
Allie: thinks he's so cute (Will is less than a week old here)
About 2 weeks old here...
The Tuesday before William was born, our area suffered a huge ice-storm. It was beautiful but treacherous. Over three thousand telephone poles were snapped in our area, thousands of trees were downed, and almost every single tree in our town was damaged. Yards and streets were piled high with fallen trees and huge branches. We lost the beautiful 100 year old maple in our backyard. (Ben cried when they came to chop the rest of it to the ground.) We loved that tree. (The picture to the left is not mine, but it is indicative of what it looked like here.)Tuesday night we lost our electricity. We had a fun night using candles and flashlights, and huddled in pairs in the beds. We didn't really get cold until the next morning. Brad had to leave for an all day business trip (his boss has a car that can make it through anything) and we tried to continue with our school routine at home. By noon we were hungry and cold. Brad had called to tell us that Wal-Mart had a generator and was open, so we went there for lunch and tried to warm up (along with everyone else in our county). When we returned home, we had our power back on. We were lucky. Some of our friends just a few blocks away didn't get their power back on for three weeks.
On Friday morning the roads were passable so we went for Kievan's oral surgery. She needed two teeth pulled and two cyst-like growths removed. We thought she'd be better in 24 hrs like the doctor said. She wasn't. We had planned to go out of town for Brad's birthday (and to get to a place where the stores were open) but postponed our trip till Sunday. Kievan still felt very badly, unfortunately.
Sunday was a hard day for me (along with Kievan). The longish drive made me have regular but weak contractions which I thought were Braxton Hicks. I felt very pregnant, tired, and pretty uncomfortable. Unexpectedly, we ended up staying at a wonderful hotel Sunday night thanks to the generosity of some friends. Around 4:30 in the morning, when I went to the bathroom, I noticed a small amount of blood. I was concerned that it was the mucous plug and that William's due date was still 5 weeks away. I woke up Brad who called the midwife, but she did not think it was anything dangerous.We packed everyone up and headed home. The drive was very uncomfortable for me and the contractions grew in intensity. They were 5 minutes apart the 3 hours and were just the same as every other time I've gone into labor for real. Once we got home I went to bed. I was still bleeding a little, but it looked like old blood. I hoped that the contractions would let up; my fear was that William was still too young to have a safe birth. I was also terrified of having to have an emergency room delivery (I have a hospital phobia...).
The contractions never did slow down, and around 6pm I noticed fresh blood, not a whole lot, but more than the previous instances. We ended up going to the hospital (stopping on the way for Brad to get some dinner) and I was checked in. I still wasn't bleeding much, undressed myself, and was put onto the examination table and had the fetal monitor strapped on. William's heartbeat sounded strong and regular. Within a few minutes I could tell I was bleeding a whole lot more and told the nurse. From my end, I could't tell that this changed anything. I could still hear his heartbeat and it sounded fine to me. I didn't feel bad, so I figured we were both OK. The next thing I knew I was on my way to have a C-section, and then I heard William cry so I figured he was fine and I felt fine. More later......
Now for some pictures~
Ben: proud of his new brother (Will is less than 1 week old here)
Allie: thinks he's so cute (Will is less than a week old here)
About 2 weeks old here...
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