William Keyser Allen

Our little William has joined our family!  I have to say for 9 months of being a little less excited than usual for his arrival I sure couldn't wait to see him when the time finally came. Here's what happened:
Tuesday evening July 12th:
Doug was taking the day off on Wednesday so we were discussing our plans for the day.  We were going to meet my Mom in Amarillo and do some shopping.  I was so excited to get out of Clovis for the day and really looking forward to shopping at some real stores.  Also the Young Women's president had called earlier that day and asked if they could come do a "Service Shower" for me the next evening.  I have a hard time letting people do things that I am perfectly capable of doing myself, but I didn't want to make them come up with a completely different activity so I said that they could, and we may not be home so she came over to get a key.  So Doug and I made our plans, we would clean up the house in the morning and then head to Amarillo for the day.  I think it was at this point I made the comment "You know this baby is going to come tonight."  Why? Because this was the last night we would be without help and have to call someone to come take care of the kids, and also because I was really looking forward to getting out of town for the day.  So off to bed we went.  At 2am I woke up, which is nothing unusual, I haven't slept through the night in at least a month!  But this was different, I couldn't decide if my water had just broke or if I had just peed my pants.  There wasn't enough liquid for me to think my water had broke, so I was a little embarrassed, but soon I realized that it was indeed my water.  Doug was laughing at me because I was really confused and didn't know what to do, I just kept wandering around the house.  He got our stuff ready, I called a friend that said she would come stay with the boys that night then take them home with her in the morning.  And we were off to the hospital to have a baby.
Wednesday July 13th:
We got checked in and in our room and things seemed to be going really well.  I started having some contractions that were happening every 20 min and I was excited to finally have a baby with no extra help.  Then things sort of just stopped.  I was getting so frustrated.  No contractions, no pain, nothing.  We hadn't even seen the doctor and I was feeling like the baby would never come.  The nurse brought me a birthing ball to sit on and try and get things going, I started making phone calls to figure out plans for the baby blessing and make the time go faster, and Doug went and got his computer from work so he could get some work done.  Finally at 11am they decided to start me on Pitocin.  We had been at the hospital now for about 9 hours and NOTHING had happened.  But of course once you start pitocin then there is no turning back!  A few hours later Blake from our ward stopped by, he works at the hospital and does epidurals.  So he got my paperwork done so that when I was really in pain we didn't have to worry about it.  That was really nice.  And he wasn't even the person who was working Labor and Delivery, he came over specifically for me! When I finally did have the epidural, around 4pm, my pain was so bad I was glad to not have to sign anything.  After the epidural Doug left to meet my mom, pick up the boys, and have some lunch/dinner.  I still hadn't made much progress.  After the epidural, and getting my blood pressure stable I think I probably took a nap.  Doug got back we watched TV, played a game and became increasingly frustrated that things were taking so long!
Finally at 9pm the nurse checked me and said I was ready!  By this point I was so tired I didn't think I would have any energy to push, and I definitely didn't feel like I was pushing hard enough to get the baby out.  But just thinking about holding our little William got me through and 20 minutes later he was in my arms, crying just a tiny bit.
Thursday July 14th
The next few hours they cleaned us both up and then told us there were no recovery rooms so we could either go in a shared room or stay in the delivery room that night.  We choose to stay in the delivery room.  Around noon they were finally able to move us into a semi-private room, and we just had to hope they didn't need to put anyone else in there with us (they didn't).  James and Mikey came to visit us.  James was really nervous about being in the hospital and wouldn't let go of Doug's hand.  But when they saw me they were both so excited.  They really didn't want anything to do with the baby, but James did finally give him a few kisses.
Some things about our Sweet Little William:
He does not cry!  He has only cried a few times for just a few minutes.  Really it is more like whining than crying.  When he gets hungry he just starts grunting and trying to suck on his hands.  I like to call him a little piggy because that is what he sounds like.
He hates having a dirty diaper.  This is really the only time he is has been fussy, so I always know just what to check.
He has really cute, dark hair.
He loves to sleep!  We were getting really worried the first day because we could not get him to wake up to eat.  As soon as he was born he started looking around for something to put in his mouth.  After about 3 am that first night we could not get him interested in sucking again.  He just wanted to sleep!  Finally about 1pm the next afternoon we were able to force him awake enough that he nursed a little.  Since then he has been an eating champ!
We are so excited to have this little guy in our family and can't wait to learn more about him.  And I will post pictures soon.  I took a couple in the hospital before the battery in the camera died and Doug couldn't find the charger.  So when we get home we will have to take a ton of pictures to make up for it. Also hopefully once we get him home the boys will start to be a little more interested in their little brother.