In case you haven’t heard, Wesley Owen Hill was born on May 25th at 1:47 a.m. He weighed in at 9 lbs., 5 oz. and was 22 1/4” long. Yeah, we were definitely shocked when we found out how big he was!
I know some people are interested in hearing the birth story, so I’ll take a moment to share. (There may be several rabbit trails…just to warn you!) This experience was much different than labor/delivery with Micah.
On Monday morning, two days after my due date, I had my appointment, finding out that I was “a good 4 cm dilated.” Everything looked like my body was ready for labor, except Wesley was still fairly high and was posterior. She thought that if Wesley turned the correct way, then he’d drop and labor would start. On a side note, I need to mention that I saw the doctor instead of my midwife, because my midwife wasn’t feeling well. After my appointment the staff wanted me to take a stress test. During this time I started to feel some contractions. The nurse came in and asked me if I was feeling the contractions and asked if they hurt. They weren’t really painful yet…just uncomfortable…mostly. Besides, I didn’t want to say they were painful and have the nurses make me stay at the hospital!! So after a really long stress test, I could hear the nurses talking out in the hallway…definitely nervous about letting me leave. After they made sure several times that the contractions weren’t strong yet, they finally let me go home, giving me several warnings and instructions.
Well, the contractions continued through the day, even after doing several different things to rule out false labor. With Micah, the contractions continued to get stronger as the day progressed, but not this time. I remember our childbirth instructor and previous midwife saying that labor can slow down/not progress with a bunch of distractions around, and if you have other children at home, to make other arrangements to have them elsewhere. Well, I didn’t take their advice, and I noticed that it did affect labor from progressing. And let me just add, we are SO thankful to have family close by. Tim’s sister, Rachel, was able to come down to watch Micah. She brought her son who is a month older than Micah. (Those 2 boys LOVE playing together and are just so cute to watch!!! ) Anyways, back to the story… after the boys went to bed my contractions started getting a little bit stronger. Around 10:45 p.m., they really started picking up in intensity. So Tim and I hopped in the car and sped down to Oconto Falls, WI—about a half an hour away. We made it to the hospital around 11:30. I found out then that I was 7cm dilated. After they hooked me up to the fetal monitor for a little while I was able to go in the whirlpool…which was wonderful!!! Somewhere around this time my midwife showed up!!! I was so happy to see her, because I expected to see the doctor instead!
After a little while in the whirlpool tub, they had me get out and checked me…9cm. With Micah, my water broke at the very beginning of labor. I’ve heard before that if your water doesn’t break, it acts as a buffer for the contractions. I totally agree! I noticed the difference! The midwife broke my water and as soon as she did, it was time to push! Seven minutes later Wesley was born! With Micah, I pushed for 3 hours; with Wesley-7 minutes! What a difference for that second-born.
We praise God for another baby boy and for a smooth transition so far. Micah has shown much interest in Wesley, as he’ll go peek in on him throughout the day when he’s sleeping. He’ll also go running in to check on Wesley when he starts crying…so cute! I just know they’ll be best of friends when Wesley gets bigger!
