will’s fresh 48 | a personal story | fairview heights fresh 48 photographer

will’s monday morning birthday began on saturday evening. we had eaten dinner at my in laws and after we had returned home + put the girls down for bed, I noticed for the first time that he wasn’t moving nearly as much as he usually did. he was typically most active at night, particularly after 8PM so I did make a mental note but laid down to sleep. during the night i was up a few times and was still not feeling much movement. the next morning (sunday) i tried several things to jumpstart his movement. i bounced on my exercise ball, took a walk, laid on one side and then the other, had a donut and then finally decided to call into the hospital to get their advice. to my surprise, they encouraged me to come in right away, bring my packed bags (my due date was the next day) and prepare for an induction.

by 2pm, our induction was underway. having been induced with both of our other children, this felt a little old hat to us except that my primary doctor was out of town so that was a bit of a twist. the other doctor, having only met me once, practiced cautiously so we labored with very little progress and at 11:30pm we even had to pause the whole induction due to will’s fast heartbeat. once he was stabilized, we got to start the entire induction over again which I now refer to as the added bonus. anyway, by 3AM my water was broken + we were finally making some progress. 7ish hours later, at 10:26AM (literally 6 minutes after my sister had given me a farewell hug and said ‘see you on the other side!), hubby said ‘it’s a boy!’ and our journey as a family of five officially began!

at first glance, i don’t find him looking much like either of the girls we’ll stay tuned to see if he begins to look more or less like either of them as he gets older. he is certainly THE perfection addition to our family though and every day with him has been a dream come true! all 7 pounds, 7 ounces and 21 inches of him are loved and especially adored by his two big sisters. we love you, william jonathan!