...how wonderful life is now you're in the world.
Corny, but true. Our sweet little boy was born on July 28, 2011. The day before (Wednesday) I had gone to the doctor for my 40 week visit (I would be 40 weeks that Friday). He checked to see if I'd made much progress and, to my complete disappointment, I hadn't. He told me he guessed I would need to be induced at 41 weeks, so we got that all scheduled and planned on being back there in about 9 days.
That evening I decided to take an extra long hard walk just to see if that might make a difference. I had been taking walks pretty regularly, but they got more intense as I started losing my patience to meet our baby. I went to Trident Lake on base and walked around it 4 or 5 times. I remember thinking it was hurting more than usual to walk and I had the feeling that there was a bowling ball between my legs. By the time I got home I collapsed on the couch and complained to Andrew about how sore I was. This was one of our last nights of just hanging out before he went back into the wire to stand posts, so we stayed up until 1 AM or so just watching TV and talking. I remember waking up at 3:45 AM and realizing that I had been dreaming that I was having contractions. It turns out, I actually was. I wasn't positive it was the real thing at first because I had had so many BH contractions and was never sure what to take seriously. I went to the bathroom, came back to bed and woke up Andrew to tell him that I was feeling a lot of pressure and we might need to go to the hospital. He'd heard me say things like that a million times before, so I can't blame him for not taking me too seriously. He told me to let him know and rolled over and went back to sleep. Not 10 minutes passed before my water broke and I flipped the light on to tell him it was definitely time to go. I think he was more flustered than I was at first.
Overall, labor couldn't have gone better. It was long, but I expected that and I ended up being so grateful for the epidural. One of the first things the hospital staff told me was that my contractions would be more intense since my water already broke. After 10 hours of dealing with the pain and finding out I still had 4 or 5 cm to go, I decided I needed to get some rest before it was time to push. Thankfully, the epidural didn't seem to slow anything down and I was complete before the pitocin even started to take effect. I pushed for about an hour and William Andrew Matthews came out at 10:52 PM, happy and healthy. Well, maybe not that happy, but definitely healthy! 6 lb. 10 oz. 19 in. long.
Since then we've been a happy little family of three. Of course, there have been some times we've wanted to pull our hair out, but that comes with the territory. We had a little scare last month when Will had a fever and had to be admitted to the hospital for four days. Everything turned out fine, but those four days were stressful. They had a very hard time finding veins where they could draw blood and place his IV, so he had to get stuck by needles roughly 15 times. I'll never forget how hard that poor baby cried. He ultimately had to get his IV placed in his head and had to have a spinal tap as well. I was so happy to get him home and am still thanking the Lord that there was nothing seriously wrong with him.
In other news, we found out that our orders here have been extended two years, which means we'll be here until April of 2014 instead of September of 2012, as we originally were told. Our initial reaction was disappointment, but God gave us peace about it since this was clearly Him telling us where we need to be right now. I'm very grateful for a husband who saw the bright side of things and was able to pass those feelings along to me when he delivered that news. Silverdale would not be our first choice of places to live right now, but it's really not about what we want. I know God will bless us here and there are many good reasons to stay, especially with Will in the picture now.
Will and I are going to start attending a Bible Study Fellowship program through our church. I'm really looking forward to meeting some young christian moms and maybe even finding some future friends for Will, now that I know we'll be here longer! I'm trying hard not to be the paranoid, obsessed mother who is afraid to drop her baby off in the nursery, but, I have to admit I'm failing. The bible study is only a couple of hours, so I know he'll be just fine. The worry that comes with having kids really catches you by surprise.
Our one year anniversary is coming up this Sunday and sweet friends of ours are coming to babysit Saturday night so that we can go out for the first time without Will since he was born. It will be some much-needed time to spend together without spit-up on our shoulders.
Oh, and the cats are good, don't worry.
