"THE STORY"

Well friends, here is the story 'some' of you may have been waiting for. It's a fun recollection of the day Walker was born. What a great time that sometimes I wish I could repeat, and other times I breathe a sigh of relief that it's over and we made it! :)

Last Saturday, October 6, we slept in because Forrest was on their 'off week' in football so he got the day off! I remember telling him in bed...we better enjoy this now because it'll be our last Saturday to sleep in for a LOOONNNNGGG time. Little did I know how true that would play out to be. I started having 'uncomfortable' pains/ cramps at 8:30am and thought hmmm maybe this is the start of contractions. So I just tried to grin and bear it and relax. Then I thought, if this is it I need to shower up, shave my legs, and be ready! So by the time noon rolls around the pain is probably a 4-5 on a 10 scale. I time them for 2 hours and call the doctor on call to see if she thinks I should come in because I was already dilated to a 3. She said, yeah just come to L&D. So it was a VERY quiet day at Hillcrest Hospital, a lazy Saturday afternoon with only 2 other women being cared for. So I go into the TINY room...to be asked 101 questions (do you plan on keeping the baby, do you feel safe in your home environment, etc). Then the nurse checks me and to my surprise I'm a 5!! Ahhh--it really sunk in then that I think we were there to stay and not leaving unless we had Walker with us. So thankfully, Forrest was off all day and home with me all day Saturday (which he normally would have been at work watching film, etc).

Fast forward to now I'm walking to the L&D room (ahhhh--trying not to freak out). They give me the epidural (yes thank you) which was not bad at all...things were slow so she took her time and took special care of me. Forrest was still in the hall chillin' and watching SEC football I think. Then the 'doctor on call,' not my usual doctor came in and broke my water. I knew that would get things sped up. All the while, Forrest and I are trying to contact my doctor because I really wanted him to be there to deliver the baby. We even called his house phone but to no avail he was at the Baylor vs. Colorado football game without his pager (bummer.) Later on I was fine with the way it was all meant to play out and Dr. Sawyer did a great job---they say she's the best!

So I'm more comfortable now with my epidural in and my friend & current roommate & best nanny ever, leaves her duties at the BU game and comes to the hospital to support us. Meanwhile, Forrest and I are making lots of calls to family and friends to let them know....today is the day. An hour or so later around 7pm....she checks me and I'm a 9/10 and almost ready to start pushing (DOUBLE AHHHH). I couldn't believe how fast I progressed. The TV of course was set to the SEC games of the week...I mean it wouldn't be a fall Saturday unless football was on right? So in between pushing during my contractions Forrest got distracted with the game, guess it was a little overwhelming for him too. At 7:35 I started pushing and got pretty frustrated because I didn't think I was doing ANYTHING....but I was because soon I felt this pain of all pains that I thought would literally kill me...and 2 seconds later he was out at 8:23pm. The quote 'push through the pain' definitely helped me because I knew if I did that Walker would get here sooner and the pain would be over quicker. I was soooooooooooo relieved when he popped out ...there are no words to describe it...and yet can't believe he was inside of me for 9 entire, adventurous months with moving from Alabama and back to TX.

It was in no time that we had 'many' friends join us for Walker's 'birth'day. We were honored to have them join us so soon after his arrival. The Taylors, Campbells, Richardsons, Johnsons, RK, Kim, Tracy, and Melissa. At that point I still was so relieved 'I made it and did it' that I didn't care how many people showed up! Their excitement for us was/ is priceless...Forrest later commented..."What if we were still in Alabama...how many people do you think would have come to see us at the hospital?" (No offense to our AL friends we still have there, you know who you are). God is so good and knew where we needed to be and where he wanted to surround us with supportive friends for this amazing miracle to come into our lives. I need to count but I'm sure our count for the entire weekend was about 40 people in and out.

That night we waited until 1:30am for Walker to be delivered to our room. We did opt for him to be taken back to the nursery because we were 'wiped out' and knew we probably could not care for him as we needed to being so wiped out. We stayed all day Sunday and left early evening Monday night. That Sunday morning my boss, music minister, led the service doing a 'fall musical.' At then end he announced to the entire congregation in both services that his assistant did all of this work for the musical and went so far not to be there for the actual musical that she had a baby! Very sweet of him! Thanks Chris.

I had never spent a night in the hospital so it was an entirely new experience for me...being waited on hand and foot and being checked on every hour on the hour (pretty tiring)...it's truly amazing if you stop and think about what a woman's body goes through in the previous 9 months and then to deliver a baby...such major things going on with your body and its dynamics. Not an easy thing!

So that's about it. Very humbling again to see how many came to visit us at the hospital and brought meals and flowers and diapers and gifts. The body of Christ was definitely around us and felt greatly. As Walker turned 1 week old yesterday, it was great to reminesce on this blessed journey. He is our miracle in the waiting for 2 years, and God's faithfulness was/ is evident every day in our lives from now til we are with Him in heaven.

The first week has been pretty challenging with the 'no sleep' and feeding him. It's quite an adjustment but very worth it. We had a great Tuesday and Wednesday at home with Forrest taking those days off. We took Walker to the pediatrician on Wednesday morning and he weighted 7.7...he lost about 1.5 lbs from the time he was born but now he is a good eater and back up to his birth weight. I was pretty sad when Forrest went back to work but knew he needed to do that. We would continue to ask for your prayers for our sleep adjustments and schedule that each day it would be a little easier to figure out what we need to do and how to be the best parents for Walker. Thankfully, we have a fantastic 'support' group of friends through church and other various outlets that are going through the same journey we are within a week or two. It's soooooooooo nice to talk to others who are going through the same thing you are at the same time.

Here is a picture of us on Friday (aka: gameday)! The head coach's wife got Walker a Cadet onesie (who was made my a mother of a sorority sister of mine at MSU--which we just discovered after the fact.) We wore our blue in support of the big game the Cadets had. Unfortunately, we lost in overtime 21-14. :( Forrest's parents come this Thursday, and I can HARDLY wait to see them. It's been since the first week in June since we saw them. How we missed our families during this time but know they were with us in spirit.

Onto Week 2...we give all glory to our great God for giving us this perfect miracle we can now claim as our son....Walker Paul Williams.