One Week Old

Ellis and I the morning of the 27th!

Daddy keeps Will company in the nursery after he is born.


Will at less than an hour old.

The first time I held little Will.

Will's first real outfit. He was NOT happy about changing clothes.

We're on our way home! (The going-home outfit I bought him on the day we found out we were having a boy was way too big for the little guy. I just put the onesie on him and the hat kept sliding over his eyes! :) )

Will's "first meal" at home.

Will turned one week old today. Sometimes I can't believe he is already been in our lives a week and other times I feel as if he has been in our lives much longer. Each day of motherhood has its own challenges, but each day also gets easier and easier. Will still won't go down at night - he likes to be held by someone the whole night. Ellis has done a superb job of using his "night owl" habits to let Mommy sleep. He usually takes the first shift, sitting in bed with Will while I sleep. When Will wakes up to be fed around 4am or so - I take over for the "morning shift." It works out pretty well. It is amazing how your life quickly centers around every 2-3 hours when you have a newborn baby. I would imagine it would be a thousand times easier if I bottle-fed Will because someone else could help out with his feedings, but I treasure the fact that Will is able to nurse and that he and I have our special moment of bonding when he nurses. Whenever I get frustrated, I try to remind myself of that.

In just a week, Will has really grown. He loves loves loves to be held. Hates to be diaper changed or messed with in any way. :) He has learned to go down in a pack n play bassinet during the day and I feel confident that he will do it in the night time soon too. Today, Ellis put together his swing, which Will used for the first time tonight. It worked beautifully - he loved it and went straight to sleep. He is still sleeping in it now! :)

Being parents is definitely the most challenging and yet the most rewarding experience ever. I continue to be amazed at how much I love Will - and seem to love him more and more each day.

At this "one-week" anniversary, we just finished looking at a CD of over a 100 pictures that Grandpa took of Will on the day he was born. It was SO wonderful to have all of those pictures, particularly because I missed most of it because I was in recovery. Some of those pictures are posted with this blog entry (hard to pick a few to share from so many!). But it made me think back on what it was like the day he entered our lives.

Last Wednesday, Ellis and I nervously checked in at the hospital at 10am. They were swamped and it was a bit chaotic. Apparently, everyone else decided to have babies on the 27th! So we were put in a small triage room because that was about all they had left! I immediately had an IV put in (ouch)! And sat in the hospital bed with the heart monitor listening to Will's heartbeat. Ellis's mother and Aunt Mary came at about 11 and my parents arrived shortly thereafter. They were able to come back into our tiny room while we patiently waited. Because of how busy everything was that day, they kept having to push back the surgery time (orignally scheduled for 12). Just when I was getting bored and not nervous anymore, the nurse came into my room at 10 to 2, saying that she had my pre-op meds to give. Mom was in the room at the time and so she left, knowing that I was about to go to surgery. The next 15 minutes were probably some of the most terrifying in my life! :) Suddenly, there was so much activity, I got SOOOO nervous. One nurse was throwing scrubs at Ellis, another was giving me gas pills and other miscellaneous pills or medication in my IV, a resident with anesthesiology was talking to me about the spinal they were going to give me - it was chaos!! And I must admit I suddenly really felt like I just wanted to scream - WAIT! But they wheeled my bed into the surgery room and had me crawl over to the surgical table. Ellis was waiting in another room while they prepped me. The spinal hurt but was not the most horrible thing in the world. Dr. Risinger let me hang on to her hand while they gave it to me and the pain was over pretty quickly. Once the spinal was in, my butt got really warm, then my legs and then my toes. Kind of felt like when your legs fall asleep and start tingling when they wake back up - but really warm. Finally, I couldn't feel a thing and they raised the screen. Then, Ellis came into the room. I was extremely relieved the instant he was there - sitting in a chair right by my head and holding my hand.

After maybe a minute after Ellis was by my side, I felt some tugging and pulling, and we wondered if they were getting close. I think Ellis and I both were just a little shocked this was actually happening. Then, suddenly, we heard this loud cry! They lowered the screen so I could see little Will come into the world. I touched his little foot and then Will commenced to greet us by peeing at Ellis and me!!! :) Hilarious! They quickly raised the screen before Ellis or me got showered!

After a few moments, someone brought Will over to Ellis and Ellis held Will close to my head. The best I could do was stroke his head with one of my hands while the doctors finished the surgery. Once they were about done and ready to close me up, Ellis left with little Will to take him to the nursery. Unfortunately, although the doctor told me I could see Will within an hour after the surgery, the nurses did not bring him to me in recovery or even after I was wheeled down to my post-partum room. It was a good 2 to 2 1/2 hours before I saw him. Although that makes me upset to think about, and I was unbelievably anxious at the time, I safely had Will in my arms eventually and nursed him right away.

The moment the nurse passed him to me for the first time was one of the happiest moments of my life!!!!