I've been wanting to write Will's birth story down for the last 8 days, and I've finally made the unbelievably long and laborious trek from my beautiful new babe to the laptop keyboard. This last week has been a blur...a joy...an emotional roller coaster...a beautiful blessing...filled with dirty diapers...so much fun! I love being a mommy, and am smitten with William Christopher Farley.
Thursday, May 3rd
3:15 AM - I had been sleeping fitfully with a few contractions, but at 3:15 I woke up wide awake with a contraction that was suddenly much stronger. I waited until the next one, then woke Chris up to "warn" him, and decided to go hang out in the kitchen to figure out if this was real labor. I did the dishes, moved food from the fridge to the freezer, snapped some beans, and walked around, timing each contraction. When I had to stop walking to breathe through the contraction (around 4:00 AM) I decided to wake Chris up.
Funny Side Note: Chris thought that only a few minutes had passed between when I first woke him up and 4:00. Since we had already made one unnecessary trip to the hospital, he was actually a little frustrated that I thought we should start packing up without giving the contractions more time to get stronger. I then got frustrated with him because I was in quite a bit of pain and he was telling me he wanted to sleep some more...but we eventually got on the same page and he realized that yes, I actually was in labor and we needed to go!
5:00 AM - We got to the hospital, settled into a room, and continued having some pretty sweet contractions. :) We called Maria Lovin (who was our doula and was totally awesome!) and Chris and I experimented with counter-pressure until she got to the hospital. Chris' official job became to apply counter-pressure on my hips during the contractions because it felt SO much better when he did! He was a total stud - I think he may have worked just as hard as I did!
7:15 AM - Maria showed up and really helped focus me during the contractions. Since Chris was behind me pushing on my hips, I didn't really have anyone to look at/focus on...having Maria there was SO nice!
8:15 AM - They decided to check me and found out I was already dilated to a 7! Right after they checked me I decided to get in the tub...and WOW! Unbelievable. Awesome. Is this a hospital or a hotel?!
9:30 AM - Checked again, and was at a 9. The doctor asked if I wanted my water broken (I totally thought I would be the one to have their water break in a really embarrassing place, but no such luck!), so we went for it and things started heating up real fast! About half an hour later I was at a 9 1/2 and they said those hilarious words "try not to push". Sorry...but the urge comes, it's pretty hard not to push! I did my best, and eventually they just said to go for it.
I ended up pushing for about an hour and a half. A disheartening moment was when the doctor came in about 30 minutes into pushing, checked me, and told the nurse to call him in about 3 hours to update him on the progress. WHAT?! I got determined then...Oh no sir, this baby's coming out! He had to come back about 45 minutes later, and Will was out by 11:30!
Here are Chris' texts updating family about the progress. I'm not quite sure how he had time to text everyone so many times...I don't remember having a spare second during this whole process!
5:31 AM - "At the hospital, strong contractions! Haven't checked dilation yet."
8:22 AM - "Dilated to 7. We are doing pretty well! Let's pray this baby into the world people!!"
9:32 AM - "To 9, pushing soon. Doctor broke water."
10:55 AM - "Been pushing for about an hour. Nicole is TIRED!"
11:42 AM - "Welcome William Christopher Farley to the world. Will is here."
12:38 PM - "8 lbs. 3.5 oz"
1:17 PM - "Just had some food. Happy Baby now.
1:58 PM - "Visitors are welcome."
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| First family picture! Try not to judge my appearance, I was recovering from a pretty hard workout. :) |
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| Will's first check-up...got a 9/10 on the Apgar Scale! Atta boy. :) |
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| Totally beautiful :) |
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| This man is seriously the best dad ever! |
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| First mommy/Will snuggle time. We've had LOTS of these since then! |
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| Grandpa Stellmaker was pretty happy to be holding his first grandson! |
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| Mom was MADE to be a grandma. :) |
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| 3 generations of Farley boys |
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| All the details |
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| My beautiful boy. :) |
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I was so glad to have had Will in the morning, as it gave us time to recover a little bit before people were done with work and ready to come meet him. We got to have our first nursing session, he got cleaned up and checked over, and then we just had some snuggle time and I ate some food. :) My parents and Chris' dad Tom came first (around 2:00), and the crowds showed up after work. I didn't know if I'd want many visitors, but I ended up LOVING the activity! It felt like a perfect end to a pretty perfect day.
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| Aunt Amy |
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| Aunt Rachel |
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| Uncle Bri Bri |
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| "Aunty" Jen |
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| "Aunties" Dani and Natalie |
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| We somehow didn't get a picture of her that night, but NanaVon (Chris' mom Yvonne) got to meet Will his first night too! |
We have such an amazing support system here, and were so thankful to have such great family and friends who were so excited to meet Will!
