Marion is here!

There are a few photos in this post. Lots more pictures if you click here.

She’s arrived! Little Marion Avery Williams was 5 days late, but she’s finally here. She was born on November 2nd at 11am in Vienna, Austria. She is 3.963kg, or 8 pounds 11 ounces. Karen’s water broke at about 1am early that morning. With no car here, we called an ambulance to take us over to the hospital. Karen really didn’t start going into labor until 9:30 or so. Before that it was just contractions every now and then.

About the name: Marion was a pretty name that just stuck with us. It’s Hebrew for Mary. Marion/Mary, means: wished-for child. It turns out my great grandmother’s name was Marion too and we didn’t know it until after picking the name. There’s a weird connection on that side of my family. I was born on my grandparents anniversary, Elora was born on my grandfather’s birthday, Karen and I were married on my grandmother’s birthday, and now Marion is named for my great grandmother! And had she been born on her due date like we hoped, she would have been born on my other grand father’s birthday. As it is now, she’s born on… Election Day?

Avery was a fun attempt at names that flowed nicely with Oliver and Elora. We looked at the letters in Oliver and Elora and wrote down names which had all the same letters with one “wild card” (the y). Ya, weird, I know.

Some fun notes on the delivery+hospital: Karen woke up from sleeping at 1am and said, “I just peed the bed or my water is broken”. We called the ambulance and a man who sounded just like Arnold Schwarzenegger said, “Veee aRrre koming to peek yew up.” (no kidding, the Arnie accent was quite reassuring). Karen was placed on the stretcher in the ambulance by a kid straight out of high school. Here in Austria civil service is required for all youths; either military service or medical assistance (EMS,etc). The poor kid was having a hard time with the stretcher and he had a trainer breathing down his neck the whole time. I just kept thinking… “please don’t drop my pregnant wife on the ground just because you wanted to practice using the stretcher”. But it was all good and they were very nice, in that unique Austrian way.

When we arrived at the hospital, which was huge and covers an area like central park, Ny. They told me I need to go get some forms signed. Not in the same building, but I had to walk across the park, find the right building (at 1:30am mind you) knock on the door, get a paper signed and carry it back to the right building. Didn’t really seem the most efficient setup…

The labor wasn’t making any progress so I went home around 2:30am and came back a few hours later after getting a little rest. Fortunately, our house was only about 1km away. Unfortunately, while walking back all the gates were closed and locked and I had to climb the fence (due to the security guard being asleep in the station and I didn’t have the heart to wake him so early/late). In climbing the fence and jumping down the other side, I wasn’t wearing the right shoes and really messed up my foot. Ok, it’s not my sob story, so more on Karen and the baby 🙂

One nice thing about the hospital here is they fed Karen breakfast and let her drink water before going into labor. Back home it was nothing but ice chips.

Karen had a midwife at this hospital working with her. She seemed really young for a midwife. Midwife brings up “old hag” for better or worse… but not the case I guess! The midwife really put Karen to work. Unlike in Kanab, where Karen had the epidural and was sitting in bed most of the time, this midwife had Karen walking around, rolling over and a few other things that shall not be mentioned! When it was time for the baby to come, the midwife told Karen to get out of bed (right as the worst, most painful contractions were starting no less) and stand up in a crouching position to push. Then she alternated contractions and pushing while standing and followed by laying down. Talk about a work out. I’m surprised Karen didn’t give her a piece of her mind! The baby almost came out while Karen was pushing while standing up. Then she laid down on her side and delivered her that way. All the moving around gave me something to do as I helped hold Karen up (with my gimpy foot that I couldn’t put pressure on)… but I don’t know if Karen appreciated the work out.

The baby finally came out and one thing that was a bit different is they left all the gooey stuff on her and immediately had Karen hold her while they finished up with the placenta stuff. Back in Kanab, Utah I remember an army of nurses rushing in and scrubbing the baby clean right away. Karen said she was happy that she got to hold Marion right away, especially since she still had some pushing to do. All the work paid off!

Marion is so beautiful, makes little squeaky noises, sticks out her tongue and like Ollie and Elora before her she has her eyes open and seems quite alert. After the labor, I inquired about my foot. The doctor’s expression seemed to say, “What do you think this is, a hospital?” (Only the biggest one I’ve ever been in…) They don’t have an emergency room at this gigantic, town-of-Glendale, Utah-sized-hospital, so I had to hobble my way downstairs and call a friend for a ride. And wait 4 hours in an emergency room at another hospital only to be sent home with a foot I can’t walk on, a bandage, and a prescription for cream to rub on it. So both Karen and I will be limping around for quite some time. Although I’m pretty sure I got the better end of the deal.

We’re so excited to have little Marion here. Later on we brought Ollie, Elora, and Nana back to the hospital. Oliver is so sweet with Marion, as you can see in the pictures. He said, “Baby soft. I love baby.” Elora was thrilled and just amazed at her little fingers and toes. The kids are already arguing about who gets to hold her the most!

Karen is at the hospital with her little computer and wireless internet connection so if you send email she can read them as she gets a chance. She’s supposed to be there for 4 days, as is required here in Vienna.

Well, that’s all for now 🙂
Love,
Chris, Karen, Elora, Ollie, Marion
and Nana (my mom)!
There are a few photos in this post. Lots more pictures if you click here.