William Pierce Dart

William Pierce Dart was born July 18 at 7:10pm and weighed 8 pounds 13 ounces and was 20 inches long.

The last time I blogged was Friday night, July 17th when I was already in labor, so I'll fill you in on the last few days. I received an epidural late Friday night. My contractions were getting more and more painful, and I wanted to be able to sleep a little that night. Early Saturday morning I was 3 cm dilated, and by 2pm I was 10 cm! My doctor got to the the hospital at 4pm, and that is when I started pushing. In the beginning it wasn't so bad, but my epidural was slowly wearing off, and by 6:30 I could feel everything and I was not a happy person! They called the anesthesiologist to come give me more, and waiting on him to get there seemed like pure torture! My doctor had said I would be allowed to push for 3 hours and then I'd have to make a decision between using forceps and getting a c-section. So at 7pm, when he still wasn't here, we decided to use forceps. I had been through a very rough two days of labor and hated to have a c-section at the last minute. So we waited on the anesthesiologist, and as soon as I had a little more pain medicine, I gave two more pushes with the forceps and he was here!

The next two hours were a blur. I remember telling the nurse over and over again that I just felt "out of it". I vaguely remember them bringing William over to me for a second before they whisked him away to NICU. Matt said I looked horrible - he said my lips were completely white and I looked like death warmed over. In the meantime, my family was in the waiting room and had no idea what was going on. Matt had texted them that William had been born, but they hadn't heard from him since then. Finally around 9:30 Matt took my family to see William in NICU while I was being taken to a different recovery room.

After I was situated in the new room, Matt went back to the NICU to see William and got to hold him and rock him for about an hour. Around midnight, once Matt was back in the room, a nurse came to help me get up to go to the bathroom. I told her I was feeling faint, and she told me to sit down in a chair. The next thing I knew, the room was full of nurses and a doctor and I was back on the bed. Apparently the nurse had been trying to get my attention and I was unresponsive, just starring ahead, so they called a "code blue" in my room. The doctor said it was probably due to preeclampsia. Preeclampsia causes you to have high blood pressure, so they give you an IV of magnesium for 24 hours after you give birth to lower your blood pressure and prevent seizures. Apparently my blood pressure had just gotten too low when I stood up. So the doctor told me to not get out of bed at all until 24 hours post delivery.

Sunday, my family came to see me for the first time since William had been born. They brought me flowers and balloons and stuffed animals! Also, Matt's dad flew in early Sunday morning just to see the baby! Matt brought me back lots of pictures from NICU, so I could see what he looked like. He had to be in NICU for several reasons. One is that he was born at 35 weeks, so they had to make sure he was ok. Since he is a premie, he wasn't interested in eating at all at first, so they had to give him a feeding tube. Also, newborn babies of diabetic mothers have a hard time controlling their own blood sugar at first, and his blood sugar kept getting too low so they had to give him an IV of glucose.

They finally took me off the magnesium IV at 7pm Sunday night, and told me that after a few hours I'd be allowed to get out of bed and take a wheelchair to NICU to see William! I was so excited! I'd been through a rough couple of days and hadn't even had a chance to hold my little man yet! It was amazing to get to hold him and talk to him!

Monday morning a doctor came by and said I'd be allowed to be discharged Monday night! Matt and I ordered the "Celebratory Meal" that the hospital gives new parents for lunch Monday. We then spent a lot of the afternoon in the NICU, and I was discharged around 8:30 Monday night. It was weird leaving the hospital to go home without William.

We spent most of Tuesday at the hospital again in NICU. The pediatricians told us that William had been off the feeding tube and the glucose IV all day, and he'd probably be able to leave Wednesday! So, we will be back at the hospital first thing tomorrow and hopefully we'll be bringing William home with us! We are so excited and we can't wait! I'll post more pictures soon.