It's a boy!

William James Wehr--to be known as Will
Born 10:36 p.m. Central time, Friday, September 28, 2007
9 pounds, 8 ounces, 21 inches long
lots of hair the color of Melissa's

Melissa was admitted to Mercy Hospital in Cedar Rapids at 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 28, as planned. A nurse was with her practically non-stop from the time she was admitted. By 8:30 she was settled in a large birthing room, with IV drips of fluids, insulin, and an antibiotic (she tested positive for Group B strep, not uncommon in pregnant women). At 9:00 the oxytocin drip was started. She was almost at 3 cm dilated and she actually was already having contractions when she got to the hospital, but she never felt them; the monitors picked them up immediately. Once the oxytocin was on board, the pain increased and she began to realize she had more than a backache. Up until around 2 p.m., she had contractions but handled them well with her breathing technique and was laughing and talking in between them. Her Dad and Peggy and I were with her and Mark all morning, Mark's sister Michelle came around 11, Mark's mother Marna came around 1.

At 2:15 p.m. Melissa had a much stronger, more intense contraction. Then her eyes got really wide and she thought she had gone to the bathroom and was embarrassed. I said, "Are you sure it isn't something else like your water breaking?" and at that moment the gush came, and the nurse confirmed it at 2:17. Then 1 1/2 minutes later the doctor walked in, ready to break her water--too late, doc! Things picked up after that and at 4 p.m. Melissa said, "I'm going to start getting crabby now, so everybody has to leave." The waiting area was right by her room and the nurse's station, so we could easily see who was going in and out of her room with what additional bags of fluid or whatever. At 6:50 p.m., Mark came out and said Melissa was fully dilated and was going to start pushing, but the doctor had warned it could take 3 hours. We were all sure it wouldn't take that long, but after 3 hours, her nurse came out to the nurse's station and said, "We're calling it. We're going C-section." During the 3 hours of pushing, the baby had not made much progress.

Within 15 minutes, we saw the arrival of the anesthesiologist (Michelle, who works in Mercy's cath lab, said he was one of the best and frequently specifically requested), and the neonatologist (again, Michelle said he was the best, so she was very confident). A neonatologist is always called in for C-sections, and this doctor came all dressed up and had obviously not been in the hospital when he got the call. Within minutes of their arrival, Melissa was wheeled in her birthing bed into the nearby operating room, so she saw us all standing there and we waved to each other. At about 10:40 we saw the neonatologist leave the area and presumed from that that the baby was born and was fine. At 10:45, because the other parties with us in the waiting area happened to not be speaking at that moment, I could hear the intercom-like communication to the nurses station that said, "We have a little boy at 22:36." Then within seconds, the lullaby chimed throughout the floor, the signal that a baby had been born. I told everybody that was the confirmation and I was sure I heard that it was a boy. We all sat there tensely waiting for official word. A nurse came out to us with a big smile on her face and apologized for not being able to tell us anything because of HIPPA, but she would send Mark out. He came out 5 minutes later with the announcement. Earlier in the evening, we all speculated about how Mark would look and what he would say at that moment. He had a slight smile on his face but was obviously exhausted himself, and as soon as I heard his voice I heard mostly concern and only a little relief. It took a minute for the happiness to come through.

In the operating room, Melissa opted not to be totally knocked out for the C-section but only have a spinal that would leave her alert, basically numbing only her lower half. However, that went slightly abnormally. The epidural she had had worked completely on her left side and only partially on her right side. She had been given a bolus epidural, but that didn't take on the right either, and then the spinal on top of that "traveled" too far up her spine so that she felt like she couldn't breathe. She panicked. They tried first the nasal canula to get her some oxygen, but she was really "freaking out" that she couldn't breathe. The anesthesiologist tried to talk her down but had to go to the hand-pumped oxygen because she said she couldn't feel any air in her lungs. Mark was very worried about her. As soon as they got the baby out and she saw him and held him for a second, the anesthesiologist sedated her so that she slept for about 20 minutes. He told her when she woke up she wouldn't have that feeling of not being able to breathe--and that's how it worked out. The baby was given a bottle and breast fed a little while still in the operating room. His first blood sugar reading was good enough that he could stay with Melissa and Mark rather than go to the NICU as was originally expected. At midnight, the new family finally got to go back to the birthing room and we finally got to get a glance at them. At 12:15 a.m., we were allowed in the room for a few minutes.

Mark held the baby with confidence and pride. Melissa looked totally exhausted but was smiling. The baby is BIG! At 9 pounds, 8 ounces, he has almost already outgrown the newborn diaper size. Because he is so long, he doesn't look like a pudgy baby. Melissa was surprised he has so much hair. Mark is glad it's her color and not his. We had all speculated earlier in the day that this baby would have to be a redhead because so much red hair runs through both families.

Melissa just called at 9 this morning. She didn't sleep well after we left because she kept waking up and looking to make sure Will was breathing. He has had several more blood sugar readings and they have been going up and down pretty much parallelling his feeding cycle. A pediatrician from the practice they'll be going to examined him this morning and said all is fine. Melissa and Mark are both very tired. Her blood sugar is running high, so a doctor from her internist's practice will be seeing her this morning to work out what to do for her insulin--either keep her on a drip or put her back on her pump are the two most likely choices. The anesthesiologist came to see them at 7 this morning. Melissa thanked him for all he did because he really worked at keeping her calm and reassured, but she thinks he is upset at the way things went last night. He told them her breathing panic was not normal, that that effect of the spinal was never supposed to happen. He gave them great detail about what happened within her body and reassured her there will be no aftereffects. She is only just now beginning to feel pain from the C-section incision, but she's been told she will get pain medication, she just doesn't know when that will start. She and Mark are going to try to get some more sleep this morning, so I hope they'll get the chance. There are a lot of people who want to hear all the news and talk with them, and of course there will be a steady parade of friends wanting to visit.

I was calm throughout the morning and afternoon in Melissa's birthing room and in the waiting area and took frequent walks around the hospital to give them some space. Once she started pushing, I got more tense. As those 3 hours wore on, I got more and more scared for them. During the C-section, I was constantly having to hold back tears and was totally wound up with fright. Overhearing that nurse's communication from the operating room was when I could finally breathe more normally again. Then with Mark's quick summary of what happened in the operating room, I tensed up all over again until I could see Melissa for myself. During the entire day yesterday, Ed's wedding ring, which I wear on my right hand, never before got such a workout of squeezing and twisting and rubbing.

Because of how late it was in the Eastern time zone when we finally had concrete word about Will, I called only my sister and Ed's daughter Judi (who had called several times during the evening for updates). Before I went to bed at 2 a.m., I e-mailed neice Pat, cousins Carole and Dot, and neighbor Bill Morgan. So that should start the word spreading. Now this morning I have the happy chore of calling and e-mailing more people with the news. I called my mother already--though I'm not sure she really absorbed all the details I gave her--and already got a call from my next-door neighbor Sherry who was sure that baby had to be here by now. As a flight attendant, she sometimes is assigned a flight to Cedar Rapids and sometimes is here even overnight. From her comments about already having a baby gift for Will, I'm guessing this new baby is getting something Iowa Hawkeyes from her, and she says she may even try to visit when she has an overnight in Cedar Rapids. Even though sometimes I yell at God for what happened to this family this year, I also thank Him for such good neighbors and friends and for the blessings of family.