William Alexander

On January 13th I was finally able to go home. I walked out of the hospital for the first time in 45 days. I rode in a car for the first time in 45 days. I saw the world again. I gained so much perspective from my time on bed rest there, it changed me so much as a person and I am still realizing that even now. One thing is for sure, I never take my time with my family for granted. I am thankful every night when I go to bed and my husband is there to hold me.

I quickly transitioned back to life at home, and didn't really have any scary moments at all. Slowly I began to be more active and independent, and it was great feeling like a normal mom again. Evy was exttremely attached to Daddy after everything that happened, but thankfully I was having a chance to enjoy her and focus on bonding again before the new baby came. At this point we still did not know the gender and were having a hard time coming up with a name for a girl- thankfully we didn't have to!

Over Valentines Day weekend Alex and I stayed at a local Bed and Breakfast in Stillwater- a place we have been to a couple times now and really love. I was so glad we were able to share that special time together even though we knew the baby could come at any time.

The week leading up to Liam's birth I had been having contractions more often in the evening but they would soon fade off before I even went to bed. I remember thinking that we were probably pretty close. Finally, on March 3rd, I was 37 weeks and in the clear. We all took a sigh of relief. I could have the baby any time!

I was feeling somewhat nostalgic and nervous about having the baby, not as prepared and excited as I would have liked. I was still just beginning to feel like I was back into the swing of things, and not sure if I was going to be able to handle the big change. Well, the night of March 4th I remember talking to my Dad for awhile about his new girlfriend, we were so excited, he hasn't dated since I was in high school and we couldn't wait to see what would happen for him in the future. I told him I was having contractions and kind of jokingly said, "this could be the night!" But I didn't really believe it yet.

Well instead of slowing down I started having more and more contractions and started getting kind of excited. Alex and I went downstairs to talk to my sister-in-law who was living with us at the time and her fiance. My sister-in-law had been at Evy's birth and I was hoping she would be able to come to this next one as well. About midnight we went to bed even though I was beginning to be in a lot of pain. The night went by quickly, and about four in the morning my sister-in-law knocked on out door and told us we better go to the hospital. I was groaning more than I thought!

The rest of the labor went quite quickly, once I was up contractions came quickly and by the time we got to the hospital around 6:30 am, I was dilated to an 8! Good thing she told us to go in!! I wanted 2 of my closest friends, Heidi and Sam there, as well as my mother-in-law. I knew that this would be a special memory I would share with all of them. I had a midwife, and student midwife who actually delivered the baby and did everything, she was really great.

The room was really calm and quiet in those early morning hours and I was just focused on getting through each contraction, squeezing Alex's hand tightly when one came.

Finally (to me) it was time to start pushing. And like the last time with Evy, the contractions were not very strong to help me push her out. I didn't want to move at all but the midwife new that if anything was going to happen, I would have to get up and get gravity to help me. So up I went and sat down on the toilet. I knew that it was going to hurt so much but that I would have to push with the next contraction that was coming, so I took a deep breath and pushed as hard as I could. Which followed with me half yelling, half bellowing because I swear the baby just flew down my birth canal like a slide. I seriously thought the baby was going to fall out! So they quickly got me back to the bed and two quick pushes later...

 Our sweet precious BOY was born! We were so surprised and just thrilled. And the first thing I said with him was exclaiming how tiny he was! He was SO small, 5 pounds, 12 ounces. He had a beautiful face and brown hair which I had been hoping for.

 We were both ecstatic. We had wanted a boy so badly, but didn't want to get our hopes up so we tried not to think about it too much. And then when he came, we couldn't even wrap our minds around it. It really took me a good month to fully comprehend that I had a son. If you notice how unusually pale Alex looks in these pictures it's because he almost fainted! Like I said before, the last few moments of the delivery were extremely intense!

 The first day in the hospital when your baby is born is seriously the BEST! I remember sitting there as our family came to meet him and reminding myself to just soak it all up. It was a beautiful, unusually warm sunny day and the weather perfectly matched how I was feeling.

 Becoming a mother of two. What a blessing and a privilege. It took me a long time to adjust, but that's a whole other post :)

Thanks for reading the birth story! I can't believe that in just 2 short months we will be celebrating Liams first Birthday!