Birth Story: Joshua Tobias Williams

Birth Story - Joshua Tobias Williams

Well, we were scheduled for March 11th, 2010. During the few weeks prior Gerard had spent many days starting his new job with Apple in Cupertino, CA. We also bought two new cars, cleaned the garage (well Gerard did) because of threatened hail storm, got the boys overdue haircuts, checked my leg for blood clots, continued to be undecided on his name, etc. Well, you get the picture. Even the A/C went out the night before his birth but we were lucky to get a tech quick and had it working before 10pm. Anyway, my sister Sonya and my brother-in-law Kevin came over Wednesday night. We had an awesome dinner together, all eight of us, (9 if you count the a/c guy but he didn’t eat) and then they stayed over so they would be here for Thursday morning. I barely slept at all between getting up to pee and just nervous and anxious for the big day. Gerard and I took the kids to school. I couldn’t eat or drink after midnight and had my bags ready for the hospital so it was nice to take the kids to school rather than just sitting around waiting. Ben stayed home with Uncle Kevin. We got back home, gathered the hospital bag and loaded my big camera bag and pillow in the trunk of G’s new hotrod, gave Sonya some last minute instructions, the map, and cash for lunch. We headed out finally giving final kisses to Benny and drove over to St. David’s. On the drive we were talking and I wondered out loud ‘what are the odds we get that same wonderful nurse we had last time?’ We parked and made our way to L&D on the third floor. We walked in and I said ‘we are the 12 o’clock c-seciton for Sherri Williams’ and who was standing at the nurses station with our file? Nancy, our same nurse from last time, said “I have you right here” and she took us immediately and got us started with all the pre-op stuff. We did all the paper work, questions, baby monitoring, vitals, iv, checks, etc. Eventually the OR was ready for us. Dr. Doss checked in on us. I wanted to say ‘you hold my entire life in your hands’ but instead I just teased him and asked “you brought you’re A game right?”. We all laughed and he said ‘absolutely’. Nancy & I took that final walk, for my fourth visit to the same exact operating room. Gerard had his surgical outfit on by then and had to wait in the silver chair outside the doors until we were ready.
I get seated on the high, narrow table with some help from Nancy of course. I leaned toward her once again, find my happy place, and meditate to receive the spinal. Once that is accomplished they lay me down quickly because the spinal works by gravity so for it to spread best I had to lay down quickly. Then Nurse Nancy does some housekeeping, like cleaning the belly once again, shaving, cleaning, gets me a lovely catheter started, and even a patch to ground me, yes electrically, in case doc needed to cauterize something. At one point, Dr. Doss sticks his head in the OR and says ‘sounds like a barber shop in here’. Almost ready. While all the nurses are busy doing their chores, I am just focused on not hyperventilating. The anestesiologists is monitoring me closely and can tell I am battling anxiety. She is worried about pain but the spinal was doing it’s job. She offered Demerol and oxygen but as anxious and nervous as I was I didn’t want to miss a single moment. So I found the calmest mental place I could muster and took the oxygen. It helped a lot. It was really just anxiety. I was laying there on the table still able to move my arms and head only. I tuned into my remaining senses listening and looking at what I could. Gerard was sitting by my side, holding my hand, so sweet and attentive. The doctor was talking with the nurses, causual professional. Then every once in a while he would talk to me. “just takes a few minutes here, we are getting though layer by layer-doing ok?” He even joked asking “does my A game get adjusted for age?” The bantar and cutting went on for what seemed like forever but was probably 10 or 15 minutes at most I am guessing. Then the excitement hits. “We are to baby!” Gerard stood up to get a better look and the OR nurse is pushing hard with her hands on the outside to help doc deliver our baby through the incision. I swear that OR nurse was pushing with all her might, sounded like she was at the gym lifting weights, and Dr. Doss was pulling baby boy out at the same time. The got the head out first. Gerard got a picture. Then they delivered him the rest of the way and he lay between my legs still attatched by the umbilical cord while they looked him over, suctioned, and he was taking his first breathes. Gerard got a picture of this too. Everyone was like “that is a big baby!” and they start talking numbers and everyone in the room guessing his weight. The baby’s nurses took him over to the warmer, cleaned him up and checked him out, printed his feet. Lots of comments on his very big feet. They barely fit in the space for his footprints. It was pretty funny. They wrapped him up, let me see him up close for about 20 seconds. All those months and all those worries waiting on him and finally here he was 6 inches from my face, finally we were meeting him face to face.
Gerard got to carry him to the nursery escorted by the baby nurses. On the way dad got to introduce baby brother to the rest of the family. Sonya and Kevin had the other four kiddos waiting for baby and they got to see him and touch him even before he made it to the nursery. Gerard took him in and he got weighed and measured and further assessed. He was a wopping 10 lbs 8 oz and 21 ¾ inches long and got an apgar score of 8/9.
Meanwhile, I am still laying on the table as they continue to deliver the placenta and clean things up to close. The call came from nursery. Nurse Nancy announced his stats and the OR staff oooo-ed and awww-ed over such a big baby. I am laying there staring but I don’t remember seeing anything else but his little face up close and personal. I started calming even more and tears of happiness flowed. I hear the doc calling for sutures instead of staples and reporting ‘just a few more minutes to close and I am going to use sutures this time-you doing ok?’ my answer is yes once again and I simply waited contemplating our new baby boy. Finally the doc finished, said his contratulations and goodbyes and the nurses got busy unhooking me enough to transfer to a bed and head off to recovery.
In recovery, nurse Nancy was still with me. And, soon Gerard came to be with me. They brought Josh Toby to me and we nursed for the first time and we got to marvel at our little miracle. I got my special one time anti itch pill that helped with the super 24 hour morphine pain medicine induced itching and we basically waited. I managed to wiggle my toes after a bit and eat some ice chips and got our first family picture. Nurse Nancy took me, Gerard, and baby. Then, Gerard got me and baby and nurse Nancy. I am so thankful to have both of those pictures.
Pretty soon we were ready to move to my room so Gerard pushed baby in the nursery cart leading the way and the nurses pushing me right behind. Sonya and Kevin and the other four kiddos were just outside in the waiting area. It was so incredibly cool that they were right there as we were heading out of labor and delivery. We had to stop for everyone to get another look at baby and then walk on together. It was such a neat moment because escorting Josh Toby were basically 10 people!!! Me pushed by two nurses, Gerard, Sonya and Kevin, and his siblings, Abigail, Noah, Jonah, and Benny. We had our own little convoy down two long hospital hallways. It felt good to be surrounded by loved ones at such a joyous event and I hope that part of having a larger family is that they will always have each other to lean on and love.