Will's story  
 

For more picturs of Will, go to Pictures from Cairns

We have been promising to send out a longer version of Will’s story so here goes!

Everything was pretty normal until my check up at 37 weeks. The doctor took my blood pressure and found that it was a little bit high. Not as much as it was with Piper but enough that he wanted me to get some further tests done. I had some blood work done the next day and when the results came back they showed that things were not critically serious but that my blood pressure was on the rise.

We met with the doctor again on Monday the 17^th to discuss some options. I went to that appointment with a packed suitcase just to be on the safe side. From having been totally taken by surprise by Piper’s birth I was not about to let that happen again!! He checked my blood pressure a couple of times and it had gone up a little bit more. We decided the best thing to do would be to induce. He thought we wanted to wait for my parents to get there (on the 20^th) but when we reassured him that we had people lined up to watch Piper he was happy to induce on Wednesday the 19^th.

Wednesday morning we left Piper with our friends Gay and Steve. We are currently staying with Gay and Steve in a small flat connected to their house. They have been hosting missionary couples in this flat for over 20 years and have had many missionaries stay to have their babies. They are a wonderful couple who were happy to watch Piper. Since we have been here for over a month Piper knows them well and was okay to stay with them. She cried a little bit as we left but I think it was just because she knew something was different.

We showed up at the hospital and were shown into a room with four hospital beds. The nurses explained apologetically that they were renovating four rooms on the maternity floor and that they had seven other rooms that were filled with the eight babies that had been born the day before (one mother had twins). They assured us that we would get a private room as soon as one was available but that I would have to labor in the four bed room in the meantime.

We got settled in and the doctor came at 7:30 to begin the induction. He put in the gel and then told us to go outside and walk around until noon and then come back. This seemed so strange to us but we followed orders! We walked along the beach and had a McDonald’s breakfast. Then walked all around for several hours to help speed up the contractions. Then it was back to the hospital at noon for another round of induction gel and some lunch (they feed you during labor here!!). After lunch we walked around some more.

Around 3pm the contractions were about every two minutes but weren’t very strong. We decided that since nothing much was happening Paul could go home for a while to feed Piper her supper and put her to bed. He went home and reported that she had had a wonderful day with Ms. Gay. She went swimming and read books and generally got spoiled all day long!

Paul came back to the hospital about 8 and by then the contractions were getting stronger and still coming every two minutes. We decided to go walk down in the hospital lobby. We walked around for a while and then chatted for a while with a friend of ours from Ukarumpa who had been flown in earlier that day for stroke-like symptoms (he is fine by the way and is back in Ukarumpa now). Paul continued to chat while I walked around some more.

About 8:30 I could tell that the contractions were getting much stronger. It was difficult to talk through them at this point. I told Paul that we should head back upstairs. Once we got there we told the nurse that we thought it was time to go to the delivery room. That was another kind of strange thing…they waited for me to be the one to tell them when I was ready to go. I’m so used to being told what to do in situations like that that it was a little unnerving to be so much in control.

Before we went to the labor room I went to the bathroom and my water broke so I knew things were getting underway. I labored for several hours and the pain was getting worse and worse. At one point I asked about the possibility of an epidural but was told that since it was the middle of the night it would take about an hour to get one. I decided to forget it. I got a shot of pain medication instead.

Around 10:30 I was told that the doctor was going to get some sleep before he had to come in and deliver the baby. By 11 I knew that things were getting pretty close but the midwives were hesitant to check me since I hadn’t been very far along the last time which was around 7:00. Finally we convinced one of them that she should check and when she did she found that I was 9 centimeters and almost ready to start pushing.

The midwives realized that the doctor wasn’t going to make it and were actually really excited to get to deliver a baby. Paul was worried that they would be too excited and would annoy me. I was in too much pain to even take much notice of them. Around 11:25 I was told to lie down on the bed and push whenever I felt like it. This again was strange to me since with Piper I was told exactly what to do and when and how to do it. After ten minutes of pushing our little baby was here!!

They wrapped him up and put him on my stomach before we could even think to check if it was a boy or girl. Then it dawned on us that we didn’t even know what it was. I checked and saw that he was a boy!! A couple of minutes after he was born the doctor walked in to finish things up. Then after a short while everyone just left and left us with Will to get to know him a little bit. They didn’t clean him up or check his Apgar or anything. We called our family to let them know that he was here!

After about an hour we went back into the other room. That night there was just me and Will and another couple in the room. They were laboring but hadn’t had their baby yet. Paul went back home to sleep and be there with Piper when she woke up in the morning.

The next day was the day Will met Piper and also my parents. Piper has been amazing with Will!! She hasn’t been jealous at all and loves to look at him and touch his hair, nose, arms and yes…his eyes! It was also great to see my parents later that afternoon when they arrived from Ukarumpa.

On Thursday two more ladies were admitted into our communal room. The first couple left to deliver their baby and ended up having a c-section. Then the next couple went in and had a c-section. The third couple labored all night long and ended up having a c-section as well.

The second night was pretty wild!! We had three women, three babies, two husbands on mattresses (Paul was at home again), family and friends in and out for hours, and then finally a night filled with snoring husbands and crying babies! It was insane!! I am glad that God allowed me to be in that situation with my second because I don’t think I would have handled it very well if it has been my first.

The next day (Friday) we had Will circumcised (something only 10% of Aussies have done) and then were able to leave a couple of hours later. I was glad to get home and get some rest in a room by myself.

Will has been an amazing little boy! He is a good eater and a good sleeper. He rarely cries and when he does he is easily consoled. We are so thrilled to have him in our family and are enjoying getting to know him. He looks just like his daddy and definitely looks like a sibling to Piper. Both of them are Stewart babies and we don’t see much Wulff in them. My biggest challenge so far is changing his diaper without getting a shower! Those of you with boys know exactly what I am talking about! I would love to say that my technique is improving but sadly it is not.

Thank you so much for your prayers. We are so grateful to the Lord for a safe delivery and a healthy baby boy. We couldn’t have asked for anything more. God is so good!!