Oh Baby!

Holy cow, what an incredible day! This morning, my parents and I got up bright and early to meet Beth at the hospital. She'd checked in at 5:30 am and they started inducing around 7:00 am. By about 10:30 am (I think... it's been a really long day), she was dilated to a 10 and felt ready to push, but her doctor was at another hospital. They stopped giving her pitocin to slow her contractions, and she started pushing at 12:00 pm. A very long hour and a half later... Baby Will finally came out at 1:35 pm. He had plenty of visible hair and weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 20 inches long. Seeing the birth and being right at Beth's side throughout the whole ordeal was absolutely incredible! What a miracle!! Of course, as soon as he came out, I started crying and gushing "Oh! He's so beautiful!"

Now, for the surprising parts of the birth experience: first, Beth didn't yell, cuss or otherwise utter a peep the whole time. She just frowned and pushed. She was so strong that I started thinking to myself "okay, this won't be so bad." Second, Will was purple when he was born, which was kind of alarming, but he cried out right away, so I could tell he was alright. Third, and Beth might be embarrassed that I'm saying this, but I was more concerned about the well-being of her vagina than she was! After the baby was born, everyone rushed over to the table where they were fixing him up, but I stayed with Beth and asked the doctor "Now, is she okay down there?" The doctor informed me that she was indeed okay down there and what she could expect in terms of healing. I told Beth she could thank me later for caring about her vagina.

We left after Beth had a few moments with the baby to go across the street for some coffee and sandwiches, and when we got back, we got the terrifying news that she was hemorrhaging and was really sick. I swear, my heart stopped. Everything had gone so smoothly with the birth; it just didn't seem possible that something could have gone wrong so quickly. After a few nerve-wracking moments in the waiting room, we got to go check on her. Her doctor thought she was fine and that the bleeding had stopped, so Scott left to go run an errand (he wanted to go pick up her new mommy gift and let the dogs out) while Mom and I stayed with her.

Suddenly, the doctor came back in and said she was concerned about the bleeding and wanted to give her another epidural and try and figure out what was wrong. Mom and I stayed with Beth, holding her hand through the painful, terrible ordeal, meanwhile calling Scott to tell him to turn around. The doctor had to try to stop her uterus from filling with blood and make it contract. I won't describe the process, but it took more than an hour and it was just gut-wrenching to see Beth in that much pain. The room was full of people, there were alarms going off everywhere, and Beth kept throwing up because her blood pressure was plummeting. Mom and I were really worried that they were going to have to take her into surgery and operate on her uterus. Finally, finally the doctor was satisfied that the bleeding had stopped and that her uterus was okay. Right about that time, a very worried Scott burst through the door, convinced that something was terribly wrong since neither Mom nor I were answering our cell phones. We had been too busy holding onto Beth!

By about 6:00 pm, everything had calmed down and we got to see Baby Will. Beth and Scott named him William David Hughes after my great-uncle and my dad. He is such a beautiful boy; a tiny, elfin face, fuzzy brown hair and precious fingers and toes. When Beth got to hold him, he just stared into her face, watching her.

I am so very thankful that God protected Beth throughout the birth and during her awful ordeal afterwards. I simply cannot imagine losing her.

Now... do I want to do this anytime soon? That's the question everyone keeps asking. Before the emergency, I would have said sure, but afterwards, I realized that I'm not quite ready. It will probably take me a while to forget how painful that was for Beth! But, the nurses kept telling me "We promise this isn't normal!" So, I know by the time the Lord blesses us with a baby, He will also prepare me for the delivery. I just hope I'm as tough as Beth was!!! She made us all so proud.