Our Newest Addition: William Asher Franses!

On February 14, 2012, Joseph and I found out that we would be expecting our second child.  Joseph had said to me that this was the best Valentine's Day present I could ever give him, and I concurred.  This is how I found out:

Woo hoo!!  I didn't want to deal with the plus sign
or minus sign.  I just wanted to see a "pregnant"
or "not pregnant" as a definite answer.

This is what I sent Joseph once I found out:

Prego!!  (Pregnant, get it?)  Hee hee.  

Alexander was the second person that I told, because I was THAT excited!!  I also told our dog Oscar, but he just looked at me in a perplexed manner.  Joseph and I waited another day and finally told our immediate family members and made them swear to secrecy to not tell anybody else until we made it to the 12 week mark.  This is how we told our family members:

Some of our family members had a hard
time reading what it said on the t-shirt...
but when they did see it, we got a FLOOD
of phone calls and texts all at once!
(My parents and sister were kind of perturbed
with me because I had spoken to them yesterday
for Valentine's Day and didn't tell them then.)

Once we reached the 12 week mark, we decided to share our exciting news with the world.  This is how we notified everyone:

Fast forward to 41 weeks and 3 days later, our little, or not so little bundle of joy decided to join the world by being forced out of his comfortable home for the past few months.  Joseph and I left Friday, November 3 to go to the hospital to start the cervical ripening.  With tears in my eyes, I said good bye to Alexander (we haven't been apart for more than 24 hours since his birth) and left him in the care of my in-laws, Elias and Linda.  We arrived at Mt. Auburn hospital around 8 p.m., were admitted, and the nurses began to monitor William's heart rate.  Unfortunately, there were no open beds in the labor and delivery wing by the time I got there, so the nurses sent us home (because William's heart rate was good) and told us to call back the next morning.

Alexander is giving William a kiss good bye before we head
off to the hospital.

One more kiss for good measure. :)

What a sweetheart!  Still kissing William. :)

The happy family of 4 (including dog) about to become a happier
family of 5!

Elias, me, Alexander, Linda, and Oscar saying good bye before
William's arrival.

Slightly disheartened, but happy to have a good night's rest at home, we went back home for the night.  The next day, Joseph and I had a nice breakfast, said our good byes once more, and headed back to the hospital around 9 a.m.  I was induced on Saturday, November 3 and was in and out of the labor and delivery room because I wasn't in active labor and there were other women that were.

Then, back to the labor and delivery room on Sunday, November 4, I was given two more doses of cytotec in order to ripen my cervix.  To our dismay, the medication didn't take, and I was then started on pitocin at 6 p.m.

Me, enjoying a big meal before the big push commenced.

By 10 p.m. the contractions were beginning to become unbearably painful, I still wasn't dilated, and instead of biting the bullet and trying to do it au natural, I opted to get an epidural.  From my previous experience with giving birth to Alexander, my body was refusing to dilate until I didn't have to deal with the pain.  Once I got the epidural, I almost immediately began to dilate and by 2 a.m. Monday, November 5, they said I would be ready to push in an hour.  I was fully dilated, but William was still a little high up in position.
By 3 a.m., I began to push for what seemed like forever.  In between pushes, I was taking in oxygen from a mask in order to help me breathe and muster up enough strength to push once more.  After about an hour and a half of pushing, I was beginning to become pretty tired.  That's when our doctor suggested that I use a mirror so that I could see what everyone else was seeing when I was pushing.  (Normally that would gross me out, but since I had been pushing for so long, I decided that it couldn't hurt to try.)  The doctor got a giant mirror and aimed it so that with each push, I was able to see William's little head trying to peek out.  Surprisingly, it didn't gross me out, but helped me to gain perspective as to how much harder I would have to push each time.
By about 4:30 a.m., the doctor (who coincidentally delivered Alexander in the same room) told me that if I didn't get William out in the next 2 rounds of pushes, that they would have to use a vacuum to get him out.  (What's funny is that the same doctor threatened me with the vacuum with Alexander as well.)
I looked at Joseph and said, "Let's do this!"  I took another long hit of oxygen from the mask and pushed with all of my might.  Then, I saw our little guy emerge and heard his cries.  He was finally out in the world and Joseph and I were completely overjoyed!  William's umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck (and coincidentally so was Alexander's when he was born), but he was fine.  Joseph went and tended to the baby along with the nurses in the room, and I laid on the bed, absolutely exhausted and was weeping with joy.  I was happy to be done pushing and was excited to meet our new little guy face to face.
William Asher Franses was born on November 5, 2012 at 5:00 a.m.  He weighed in at a healthy 9 lbs. 8 oz. and was 21 1/2 inches long.  Once the nurses weighed William, everyone in the room went, "WHOA!!  No wonder it took you a long time to push him out!"  We were all shocked that he was so big!

William on the warming table right after he popped out.

William's first cries.  

Me and William in our first picture together.  So in love :)

Daddy and William's first picture together. :)

That same morning after William had gotten checked out by the nurses and had all of his first tests done, we were moved to the postpartum wing of the hospital.  Joseph left to go and get Alexander and my sister so that they could meet William.  

In preparation for this event, we had Alexander pick out a gift to give William.  He chose a knit cap that looks like a lion (it's somewhat creepy looking, but he loved it) and a onesie that says "Little brother."  Then, we put together a "super big brother bag" that William had ready for Alexander when he got to the hospital.  

Once Alexander saw William, he said, "Hi William!" and then made a straight line for his present and was pretty much preoccupied with his gifts during the remainder of his visit to the hospital.  This kid is too funny. 

William's gift to Alexander.

Alexander checking out his presents in his big brother bag.

Joseph and his new little man.

Joseph, introducing William to his big brother Alexander.

My sister's boyfriend Pete and my sister Kristen, meeting William
for the first time.

Alexander giving his little brother a kiss...

...and a hug!  What a sweet brother.

"William is little!" said Alexander.

He liked giving his brother hugs and kisses.

Our first family photo together.

Tita Kristen and little William.

Our little guy, all wrapped up in the hospital.

His tiny little feet with lojack on so that no one could steal our little guy.

His little fingers wrapped around mine.

Joseph giving William a little supplemental formula until my milk kicked in.

Absolute joy. :)

Look how big this guy is!  We learned very
quickly that he did NOT like to get his clothes changed.

He has a really loud cry for a newborn.

William getting his first sponge bath.

Our nice and clean baby!

Our little dude is out cold.

Our other little Boilermaker.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Alexander was busy
making a welcome home sign for William.

Yup, he was pretty proud of it!

I love his "posed" smile!  It's so cute!

Alexander is a proud big brother.

Welcome home William!!

After being in the hospital since Saturday morning, Joseph and I were clamoring to get back to the comforts of our own home by Tuesday morning.  We asked to be discharged early, and were able to leave by 6 p.m. Tuesday evening.

William's first car ride.

He did not like getting unswaddled to get into the car seat.

Once we were home, my mom (who flew in from Vegas to help out for 10 days), Alexander, and Oscar were there to greet us.  It was so nice to be home and to see everyone.

Me and William who is wearing his lion hat that Alexander picked out.

William, deep in thought. :)

Here's Oscar checking in on William.

We're so overjoyed to welcome this guy into the world (finally!!).  Thus far, he is a very easy-going baby and only fusses when he's hungry, tired, or is put on the changing table (he HATES it!).  He doesn't like having his clothes or diaper changed whatsoever.  

This little (or not so little guy) is 15 days old and is already wearing size 1 diapers and is wearing 3 month old clothing.  We were so bummed out that he couldn't fit into some of our favorite newborn outfits that we had saved from when Alexander was a baby.  Pretty soon he'll be playing for the NBA!  Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki