19 hours later...

Will FINALLY arrived!!

William Mitchell Fansler
Sept. 3, 2009
11:03 pm
8 lbs, 12 oz

After I finished the previous blog.. the pain set in. I had no clue how far along I was or anything. It was a constant pain in my abdomen and lower back and it was just so uncomfortable!! I delt with it for about 45 minutes and then I said, forget it!! I am all in favor of getting an epidural so I didn't see the point in being in pain for any longer. Now, the epidural. THAT HURT. The first few seconds was no biggie, but then.. goodness. I was ready for that to be over. But apparently when I thought I was done, I wasn't. He had to re-do the catheter soooo I got to go through a little more pain while he adjusted that. It was awesome.... but it was worth it. I was in labor for 19 hours - starting technically at 4am and ending at 11pm. I can't even imagine doing that without an epidural. So, once I was all drugged up, I was expecting this labor thing to go pretty quickly. Maybe I was a little naive thinking that I would be done by maybe lunch time.. then it became dinner time.. then I was praying it was by bedtime.. My contractions were erratic - no pattern whatsoever. I would have 3 contractions back to back and then nothing for 7-10 min. Once I got to 9cm I was ooooober excited because I thought it was almost over. That was at 7pm - just when the NCSU vs. USC game was starting. I didn't get to 10cm until around 9:45ish and started pushing until he finally arrived at 11. Pushing is hard work, let me just tell you.. The whole labor was super easy until that part. I really had to dig deep to find the strength to push that big ole head out, but Michael was an awesome coach and just kept counting and encouraging me all the way. He even watched and gave me updates on how far out the head was. I couldn't see the head until I had only about 3 pushes left and my reaction was, "OH MY GOSH!".. it looked HUUUUGE. How in the world did that big thing just fit out of there?! Once he was out I was so releived and thought it was over.. but oh no no no.. for the next hour, my stomach got pushed and prodded to try and get the blood to clot - which it wouldn't. They call that a "postpardum hemmorage".. sounds fantastic doesn't it.. I had to get some medicine to try and stop the bleeding which then made me nausious.. OH I DIDN'T EVEN MENTION how I threw up 3 times during labor.. then twice afterwards. I'm making this labor thing sound horrible, but its a real miracle if you think about it and now I have the most beautiful gift I could have ever asked for! :)

So anywho- once the parents came up to see him (which was around 12:30), I tried nursing for the first time and it was successful. Then they moved us to our real room and I had gotton a shot for my nausia so I was completely out of it! We were awoken throughout the early morning hours for me to get checked and have my vitals taken, but then I think I got to sleep for atleast a couple of hours straight. And, I finally got to eat! It was wonderriffic.

William is doing awesome - he has eaten a total of 3 times since 1am and he is so precious! We decked him out in his NC State gear (even though they lost on his birthday) because we have to raise him right! Wolfpack Born and Wolfpack Bred! There is no such thing as starting too early :)

Michael has been wonderful throughout these entire 9 months. I have not been the easiest person to live with and last night during the pushing I know I wasn't easy to handle. He tried to joke with me at one point and tell me to "man up" and I told him I was going to punch him in the face. I look sweet in the after-labor pictures but I just saw some of me that apparently the nurse took as soon as he came out and I look like a person in an insane asylum! My hair is evvverryyywhere but at that point, I really did not care. Needless to say, those pictures will NOT be posted ;)

But anyway, we are all doing well and are so glad that this trip is over! Now the fun begins.....