Julian James Williams

Friday, June 5, 2009 at 1:00 AM

7 lbs. 11.5 oz. 21.5 inches long

Jules was born via c-section on his daddy's 30th birthday after nearly 8 hours of pushing!!! By midnight I was too tired to go on... and it's a good thing. When the c-section was performed, it turned out he was positioned "sunny side up," just like his brother, and he was stuck!

The story begins on Thursday morning, June 4. Grammy Williams flew in all the way from PA to help out with Harry. As we were leaving for the hospital, Harry woke up and was very upset that we were leaving. It broke my heart and it was hard getting out the door. At 8 AM we arrived at the Kane County Hospital so that Dr. Bowman could break my water and get things rolling. I was already dilated 3 cm and 75% effaced for a week. The doctor felt confident that I would dilate fairly quickly after breaking my water. I was trying for a VBAC this time around. I did not want to suffer through weeks of recovery again. But as it turns out, it just wasn't in the cards that day.

After Dr. B broke my water, they put my IV line in and let me walk around for a while. I wanted to try to go as long as possible without medication since there was added risk with a VBAC and I did not want to jeopardize anything. Steve and I walked all over the hospital and outside. I started having contractions right away. It was scary since I never felt contractions with Harry. By 10 AM I was dilated to around 4 cm. I kept walking. Around 11:30 I was having frequent strong contractions and they were PAINFUL. I wimped out and got the epidural around 12:30 (it took about an hour for them to set it up and get it started). Dr. B checked and I was 5 cm.

For the next 4 hours I layed in bed and rested. The epi made me itchy and so they gave me benedryl which pretty much knocked me out. I was sooo tired. Each hour Dr. B checked me and I was another cm dilated. By 4:30 I was nearly 10 cm but there was a tiny lip of the cervix still not thinned out. He had me start to push and try to get the baby's head around the lip. It didn't work. He gave me a small amt of pitocin to help. An hour later I was no further along. Again, I pushed and pushed. Each hour we would try this again.

Around 10:30 PM things looked grim for a successful VBAC. i pushed nonstop for the final hour and a half and by midnight I was so tired and knew that it wasn't going to happen. The baby still was doing great so it was not a rush csection like with Harry. They called the appropriate staff and everyone showed up. By 1 AM I was in the surgical suite and Julian was ready to be born!

Julian was born on his dad's 30th birthday! He came out crying. :) I got to see him right away and Steve was there to help the nurses.

When I was wheeled back to my room around 2:30 AM Julian was waiting for me and I had an extra burst of energy now. I got to feed him and he was a great little nurser right off the bat. I love this little guy more than I thought possible. He has a big head of dark hair and looks like his dad right now. He's a very mellow baby and seems to enjoy looking around and taking it all in.