Good Will O'Grady

It's a boy!!
William (Will) Gordon O'Grady was born last week at 6lbs and 19.25inches. I was a little surprised to find out that all of those kicks and jabs were coming from a little boy and not a little girl -- what fun to not know until the last minute!

Labor was trying. I consider my wife one of the strongest and most noble people I will ever know. She started having contractions on Saturday afternoon. They were pretty mild, and not overly painful, and we went to bed excited that we may be waking up soon to go to the hospital. About 1:30 or so, a couple of house after we went to bed, Megan woke me up to say that the contractions were stronger and hitting in a more regular pattern. We started timing them, and in a couple of hours they were lasting about a minute and coming 4-6 minutes apart -- so we knew it was time to go. Steve and Jan had just arrived home from the funeral of Megan's Grandfather (Gordon Cornwell) and were spending the night with us. They decided to meet us at the hospital.

By around 3:30am we checked into our birthing suite. We had a TERFFIC nurse who monitored how things were going. The contractions were in Megan's back and were incredibly painful. Before long the doula arrived. After about an hour or two in the hospital, the contractions became incredibly painful, so much so that Megan threw up, but she was not dilating. At that point we had the option of staying in the hospital, partly because Megan had passed her due date, or going home. We were told she could be in this stage of labor for several days, which to me seemed unbearable. Staying in the hospital would have increased the potential of medical intervention (breaking the water, giving Pitocin, etc) so Megan opted to go home, as our intention was to try as much as possible to have a natural birth. She was given an Ambian and we were advised that when she woke up her labor would be stalled or have turned in truly active labor (dilating her cervix).

The Ambian put Megan to sleep, but she woke up for every contraction. At this point they varied between 6-11 minutes and lasted a minute long, and she was in excruciating pain for several more hours. Since we had not slept much the previous night, I laid next to her and in between contractions we would wake up and I would apply counter pressure to her back during the contractions to try and help.

After about 6 hours of this, we realized the pain was intolerable and decided to head back to the hospital. I encouraged Megan to get whatever she needed to alleviate the pain, since it was so constant for so many hours.

To speed the story up: we got to the hospital, and Megan seemed to relax a bit more for an hour or so. The contractions continued as they had been, but she seemed more at peace being there. When examined, we found that the contractions all day Sunday had dilated her two centimeters, putting her officially into 'active labor' and she decided to try to go another few hours without drugs.

Jen Lux, our amazing doula, was present and amazing throughout the entire hospital stay. She knew how to support Megan, talk her through the pain, encourage positions that sped along the contractions, and generally guided Megan and I through the process better than I could have ever imagined. Before long, we knew we were getting close. Jen pushed Megan to try a couple of other positions and after that and a stint in the tub, it was time to push.

Megan endured these final stages with more grace, strength and courage that I believe I will ever have. It was amazing to see the plates of our little son's head emerge slowly and then come together as he entered the world. There was so much commotion the few seconds after he arrived that I couldn't see what I needed in order to announce the gender to Megan -- and then the doctor held his legs to confirm the fact -- he's all boy!

The doctor and nursing staff were unbelievably amazing. The nurse the helped us through the last four hours or so told us that it was a privilege to be a part of our birth, because of how strong Megan was and how we all were able to work as a team.

William is Megan's maternal grandpa who would have been 100 the day that Megan started having contractions (Sat) and Gordon is her paternal grandpa who just passed away.

We are in love with our little Will.