William Wallace Shewmaker joined the craziness on Tue, Dec 15!

Below is an email sent to friends and family the night of Tuesday, December 15.

THE FACTS

William was born via emergency c-section at 5:30a on Tuesday morning.

It looks like Dana will be discharged on Saturday.  William still has several weeks to go in the neonatal ICU -- best guess right now is 4-6 weeks.  We have great doctors and nurses and are so thankful for that.

Our main prayer request for now is that he be able to get off the ventilator asap (1-2 days) so that we can hold him and that he will be able to take some breastmilk thru his IV in a day or two.

Will's' Vitals:
*born at 31 weeks, 5 days (that's close, if not accurate.)
*good heart rate, blood pressure, and does not need oxygen
*3 lb, 13 oz (Dad was actually off here.  He was 16 inches long.)
*20 inches (again, close)
And see the attached picture taken about 30 minutes after delivery.  He looked much better by the end of the day.

THE COMMENTARY

You know, you would think that when your wife is at the hospital and could go into labor at any hour, that I would be ready to just wake up and hop in the car to be at her bedside.  Not to mention that on Thursday no less, I had a practice run at all this.  Well, when Dana called on Tuesday morning at 2am telling me to get to the hospital, I was still scurrying around the house trying to find everything I needed.  Really, is anyone surprised?  (I know my family isn't ;) )

So, for those of you who don't know yet, Dana had an emergency c-section on Tuesday morning at 5:30a.  After several hours of recurring sharp lower abdominal pains later accompanied by contractions, William tried coming thru the birthing canal feet first like he was jumping into a laundry chute -- neither of which usually end too well; but he gets points for his daring courage.  As I waited in the hallway for the cue to be brought into the c-section room, I kept thinking, "Boy, this is happening fast.  My son must be freaked out."  When the nurse walked out and told me that the c-section was done and that our son was ok, I was disappointed to have missed the big show.  My one condolence: for all of the times women have been "all dressed up and nowhere to go,"  I can now sympathize.

Walking with William to the neonatal ICU is a trip I will never forget.  And so was the hour spent alone in a labor and delivery room waiting on news about Dana.  (I should confess that I did sleep for about 30 minutes, so Dana might be a little concerned that I wasn't worried enough.)  However, God was right there with each of us  (It is amazing all of the different ways the Holy Spirit works.).  And please KNOW that your prayers comforted all of us.  They still do.

For those of you who emailed with congratulations, prayers, questions about visiting, etc., first, thank you so much; second, obviously, the visiting situation will be a little different so let me visit with Dana about that tomorrow.

We love you all!

p.s. A friend wrote this tonight: "Well, extra days in the womb when 90 percent of women deliver within the 48 hours [after water breaks]…PRAISE THE LORD!"  So true!  And I love it! 

p.p.s. The subject line of this email was going to be "Freedom!," however, on second thought I didn't think that moving from a womb with a single umbilical cord to an incubator with several tubes would qualify.

NOTE:  We later learned that Willie Nelson was playing in Austin on the day Will was born.  That's pretty cool!  However, it doesn't give anyone license to call him Willie.  His mother will look at you ever so harshly, if you do!