Everything but fireworks

The long awaited baby William Bacon Eastler was born at home in a planned water birth on Saturday, May 2nd at 7:50pm. Although he looks tiny to us, he weighed 9 lbs even and was 22 inches long. Big sister Savannah cried a few tears when she saw she was not going to have the little sister she had been expecting, but changed her mind right away when she decided that Daddy needed another boy around.

The moment William was born he picked up his head with his strong neck muscles and looked around at everyone with his steely blue eyes. Other than the recessive chin dimple that runs in Kevin's family, we are trying to figure out which planet he came from since he's his own little man, resembling neither Mom nor Dad so far.

Daddy holds his newborn son just minutes after his birth while Mommy is in stage III of labor.


Savannah meets her baby brother William.

My CNM stayed with us for 3 hours after William was born to make sure we were all doing well and at that point we were. Unfortunately, near midnight we discovered that my uterus, which had suffered no trauma and was intact, had stopped contracting normally, called uterine apnea or hemorrhage. When the uterus stops contracting or doesn't contract at all, the blood vessels don't close and fill with blood. I hemorrhaged between 2-3L of blood overall (between the house and the ER) and had to call 911 after losing and regaining consciousness since my midwife was already too far away to treat me for the emergency care I needed. From the floor where I had passed out, I directed Kevin and my mom until help arrived (now I know I can stay calm amidst even my own emergency). Within minutes we had EMTs, police officers, firefighters and a helicopter on scene. All we were missing amidst this parade was fireworks. As Kevin says, we'll probably have some explaining to do to the neighbors, but at least we live where helicopters can easily land.

Fortunately, Savannah slept through having a helicopter land right outside her bedroom window and the excitement of having two dozen pairs of boots running about the house.

Kevin and Baby William followed me to the hospital and stayed with me after I was released from the care of the ER. We are all doing fine now but I'm on best rest for 7-14 days. My blood pressure when I stand up is very low (86/58) and I have to concentrate on not passing out, so until I build up my hematocrit, hemoglobin and iron levels, I won't have the energy to do very much for a while. Overall I feel better than after Savannah was born, I just don't have any energy.

Savannah holds the new prince, her term. She quickly realized sharing a castle with a prince could have benefits, namely, she's the only princess.

Dearest holds her grandson.