Wednesday, August 25, 2010 - Part 1

The best day of our lives!

Meet Eli

He's such a good baby and we love him so much already! I could just sit and stare at him all day.

We came home from the hospital Saturday afternoon and are doing well. We're camped out downstairs in The Auburn Room. We have a two story house and all of the bedrooms are upstairs. My doctor said the stairs are fine, but they sure aren't easy!

I wanted to record "the story" of Tuesday/Wednesday and Eli's birth. It will probably be boring to all of you, feel free to skip over this post, but I want to be sure I write it down so I remember all of the small details later on!

Monday afternoon we went to the doctor. I never got to give you all of the details. I was certain that we would be hearing good news about either being dilated or that we would have an induction date. Neither of those happened. I was not dilated at all. We were then given three options:

1) We could schedule a date to induce. However, Dr. Simpson thought it would be unsuccessful if we did that. He felt that either nothing would happen since I was still at a 0 and my cervix was still "hard, thick, and closed" or that if something did happen I would only get to a certain point in labor, probably after several hours, and then we'd have to do a c-section. He didn't recommend this because then, more than likely, I'll have gone through labor and a major operation (very ironic).

2) We could schedule a c-section, but he told us to keep our goal in mind. He made it a point that both Eli and I were healthy, and although he knew it was hot and I was tired and ready for my baby, he wanted me to keep in mind why we would need to do a c-section, but he would do it if I really wanted him to.

3) We could wait one more week and see if my body made any changes of if Eli would come on his own. If nothing in another week he would certainly induce then.

Wesley and I, as much as I hated it, choose option 3. As much as I wanted my baby, it's the only one we had peace about. Because I was full-term, he wanted to make sure Eli and I continued to stay healthy. We had another non-stress test (hooked up to a machine to monitor Eli's heartbeat, monitor his movement, and check for contractions-which I was not having any) and ultra sound Monday afternoon. Dr. Simpson also scheduled another non-stress test and u/s for Thursday afternoon, and then again the following Monday.

We left that test glad and grateful that everything still looked good, and we had a healthy baby, but very disappointed. Monday night I did NOT sleep well at all. I was up every hour to go to the restroom, and I was having cramp-like pains very low in my abdomen/pelvic area. I didn't think these were contractions, at best maybe Braxton-Hicks, because they were very irregular, my stomach wasn't tightening, and I wasn't having back pains.

I woke up Tuesday morning so tired - sleepy and just physically exhausted. Wesley tried to get me to stay home from work, but I had already decided I was going to finish out the week, and then regardless of if Eli had come or not, I would be on my maternity leave. Tuesday was a very hard day at work. I was tired and those pains in my stomach continued. By lunch they had become worse (in intensity and length between the cramps). Several people were commenting that I didn't look so hot (don't you love it when people tell you that?!). If I was standing up, I had a hard time sitting; if I was sitting, I had a hard time standing up.

After lunch I decided to call my doctor. Well, wouldn't you know, their office was closed for lunch by the time I decided to call. I finally got someone on the phone around 2 pm and my doctor said since I was just two days from my due date, go ahead and go to the hospital and let them check me to see if I was in labor. So, I left my class and went down the hall to the gym and told Wesley what the doctor had said. We decided to finish out the day and sneak out right before buses (we both have bus duty in the afternoon).

We left the school around 2:45 and were at the hospital by 3:00.

Once we were there, a nurse checked me and I was 1 cm dilated (you've got to get to 10 before you can deliver), but my cervix was still very high and thick. The monitor showed that I was having some contractions. My doctor decided to admit me at this point, give me something for the pain, and just monitor me overnight.

I'll stop here for now because this is getting very long and someone needs to be changed and fed! But, I'll leave with one more picture of my handsome little guy!