Bradford's Birthday

I know this is out of order, but one of the reasons I created a blog was to remember past events as well as post current ones. Even though the birth of our daughter was 9 weeks ago, I wanted to be able to remember her arrival. July 24, 2008 was a wonderful day for our family as we welcomed Bradford into the world. My original due date was Thursday July 31, and she was born exactly one week prior to that date. My doctor said she would induce if I was 39 weeks and 2cm dilated...which I was. We both sort of wanted things to happen naturally, but honestly, I was pretty uncomfortable the last few weeks and we decided that trying to coordinate Wyatt's schedule and out of town family coming in, that we would go for a scheduled induction if I met the criteria my doctor set forth.

We arrived Thursday morning around 6AM, I filled out some paper work, then we settled into room 338 at St. Vincent's and waited for things to happen. I received some pitocin around 7-ish and then the contractions started coming pretty frequently. Since I wasn't dilated enough to receive an epidural, they gave me some pain medicine. When I got to around 4cm, I was able to get my epidural, praise the Lord! It only worked on one side of my body at first, and before they gave me another boost of it, they told me to lay on my left side and let gravity do the trick. The main difference with Bradford's labor versus Wyatt's is that I felt more of the contractions with her until the epidudral/gravity kicked in, which it did 15 minutes later. I essentially went from 4 cm to 9 1/2 cm in about 25 minutes...very quick! So I started pushing at 12:30 and it actually went very well. I can almost say that party was easy...no joke!

We decided prior to her birth that we were going to let Chris be the one who announced if the baby was a boy or a girl. We had it in our heads that we were having another boy. Why? We don't know. We have no idea. But...when she came out, we heard her sweet little cry and I knew everything was OK since the doctor and nurse were smiling! However, my wonderful supportive labor partner of a husband was speechless...he didn't say anything for a good 10 seconds, and then he proudly and excitedly announced, "We have a girl!" I'll never forget that moment Chris told me we had a girl!

Bradford Elizabeth Williams came into this world at 1:15 PM on Thursday, July 24, 2008. She weighed 8 pounds and 10 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long.

When Wyatt came in to meet his sister for the first time, he noticed that she was "wrapped up like a burrito." That was his first comment...how funny is that? Then he quickly started to pan the room looking for mommy. Of course I was sitting on the bed (not going anywhere for awhile) and he gave me a big hug and then announced that I had some bracelets on my arm. Seeing that I was OK, I think, made him feel better about the situation. He was pretty interested in our "little tiny baby" for awhile, but the novelty wore off after a few hours. We are so blessed to have four grandparents who are active in his life, coupled with two aunts and two uncles who are equally involved. Wyatt did not have a shortage of attention that day whatsoever. He received his long-awaited Tractor Tippin' toy from Bradford and boy, let me tell you, he was on cloud 9. Friends and family were so gracious to all of us, including Wyatt, and we are so thankful to everyone who helped make this day special!