Will's due date was January 9- Duncan's third birthday. By the 28th of December, I was SO ready to get him here. I was very uncomfortable, and I knew he was going to be big- I could just tell from the way he kicked and moved that he was a bruiser. Not to mention that on the day after Christmas, 1997, we packed away the Christmas tree and all the decorations and presents, and moved 90 miles north to a whole new town, away from everybody and everything I knew and loved. If you have never moved the day after Christmas, while nine months pregnant, with three small kids, I just can't suggest strongly enough to you that you avoid it at all costs. I really don't know how we survived that. I do remember being alone in our old house, dead on my fat swollen feet, scrubbing walls and bawling about leaving. Dan was in Logan, unloading a moving truck. I also remember my mom and dad coming over to send me home while they finished cleaning the old place. I don't know what I would have done without them.
At any rate, by December 28, I was so hopeful that all the stress of moving, combined with Duncan having come early, and knowing that the baby was big, would lead to a pleasantly early arrival with baby number four. I know my doctor and I discussed inducing me on December 28, and I don't remember if I backed out or if he did, but at any rate, it did not happen. Thank heavens. Having a baby three days after moving? I must have been nuts.
New Year's came and went. Mitch and Alisa started their new school, we got a new dryer, unpacked boxes,tried to get things organized, and ran back and forth to Salt Lake for doctor appointments. I was huge and swollen and exhausted. I just kept hoping that the baby would come early, on his own. My doctor wanted a planned induction because he didn't want me getting stuck in a snow storm on the way to Salt Lake and delivering on the side of the road. That sounded like a reasonable plan, So we scheduled me to come down to the hospital on Monday, January 12 and have the baby on January 13. That weekend was Duncan's birthday, which we celebrated in Logan, and I kept hoping all that weekend that baby boy would make an appearance on his own. He did not cooperate.
Monday morning, my mom came to Logan to stay with the kids, and Dan and me headed off. It was sunny and warm, not a snowflake in sight. No chance of getting buried in a snowdrift at least. We stopped at the doctor's office for a check up, and he told us that I was progressed enough that I didn't have to spend the night in the hospital after all. I could just show up bright and early the next morning. So we went to dinner and to see the movie Titanic, which was a major blockbuster hit at the time. That night, I started having contractions, and when we left for the hospital at six a.m, I was pretty sure I was already in labor. Just like when we had Duncan, it was warm, not like January at all, even in the early morning. And it was raining that morning.
By the time we got to the hospital (which I was still referring to as Holy Cross, but had officially changed to Salt Lake Regional Medical Center- lame), I had changed by mind and decided I didn't want to have a baby that day after all. Hormones, go figure. My doctor came in and talked to me, and was very nice and understanding, and said that if I didn't want to do it that day, we didn't have to. My husband was not that nice. He said that he had taken time off for this, and he couldn't afford to miss any more days. So I felt kind of pressured. Okay, I felt a lot pressured, and wish I would have told him to go jump in a lake. However, my calm, rational doctor also told me that since I was having contractions already, if I did go home, he was pretty sure I would be coming back later that day in labor. He also reminded that this was a BIG kid, and I was four days late already, and it might be best to just get on with it.
So we started the pitocin, and labor commenced. It took a while to get going, and nothing got very exciting until about four or five that afternoon. My doctor came over about two, and couldn't believe we didn't have a baby yet. He came back at five and thanked me for waiting until after office hours. Everything seemed to be moving slowly. The epidural guy came sometime that afternoon, and it kicked in and worked great again, just like with Duncan. They broke my water around five, and then things picked up, but it still seemed like it was taking this kid forever. Then the baby was sunny side up (face up), and I think they had to turn him, I don't remember if they had time. I didn't have too much pushing to do, and at 6:10 pm, we had our baby boy. What is funny is the first glimpse I got of him, I thought, "oh my gosh, he is so tiny!" Then a few minutes later they weighed him, and he was anything but tiny. 10 lbs. 5 ozs. That was a big baby, even for me. But gosh, he was cute. And dark. He was my darkest, hairiest baby yet. He was also nameless. We had debated so many names for our third son, and were 99% set on naming him Nicolas. But from my first look at him, I knew he was not Nicolas. He didn't look anything like a Nicolas. He was Will. William was my favorite boy's name, and Dan had always vetoed it, but even Dan agreed that this little tiger was Will. So unlike some of our other kids, he did not remain nameless for very long. He was William Daniel before he was even out of the delivery room. He quickly became Baby Will, then Chief Yum Yum, Wilberforce, Will I Am, and to the two younger sisters who came after him, he was Wiw for a while. And now he is seventeen, and such a blessing.
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