Nikki, David, William, Elliott, and Layla: Baby William

Welcome Baby William! Born a few weeks early on December 6, 2009 at 10:55 p.m. He weighed 7 lbs. 1 1/2 oz. and measured 20 1/2 inches long.

So, let's start from the beginning. Saturday we were out Christmas shopping until after 10:00, and then we decorated the Christmas tree until after midnight. Then at 3:55 am, I woke up because I thought I felt a "trickle." When I went to the bathroom, my water broke! I was shocked. I woke David up, and called my OB. The on call doctor, Dr. Henderson, told me to go to the hospital. That's when David had a small freak-out. He felt very unprepared because we didn't have the hospital bag packed - which was mostly my fault because I kept putting it off thinking we had until Christmas! After telling David I needed him to "calm down," we packed the bag, and we were on our way to the hospital.

We arrived at Rex at 5:00 am. They sent me to the triage where they made sure that my water did break. In fact, it did, and I was admitted. The nurse asked me if I had been having contractions, to which I said no. Then she looked at the monitor, and asked "you don't feel that?" Looks like I was having contractions, but they weren't painful. I started to feel them more and more, but they still weren't very painful. I made it all the way to 5 cm without having painful contractions, but then I stalled out. Also, the baby never dropped. So, after getting an internal monitor to monitor my contractions, it was confirmed that I was in "inadequate labor."

So, at that point, they started pitocin. That's when things started to get painful. I decided very quickly that I would like to have an epidural. The doctor gave me the epidural, but the first time he couldn't get it to set right. So, he had to do it again in a different spot. Just when I thought things were getting better, I realized that the epidural wasn't working on one side. After trying different positions, they decided to re-do the epidural. Finally, it worked!

Next thing I know, I'm 10 cm dilated, and they say it's time to push! I started pushing at 8:45 pm. After two hours of pushing, the doctor decided that the baby needed some help. After using the vacuum, William David Brown was born at 10:55 pm.