Eli made his grand entrance into the world first thing in the morning of March 20, 2010! (The first day of spring.. how perfect!) Apparently my baby boys like to make their surprise arrival with the gushing of fluids.. just very grateful it was my water breaking this time instead of the placenta abrupting! We made it to 37 weeks.. yea!! Eli was nice and "done" at 37 weeks though.. weighing a whopping 7lbs. 9.6ounces and was 20.5 inches long. (The nursery said he rated as a 39 weeker really and was ready to be here!) He was breech (and has been for every ultrasound as long as i can remember ) and has a few little characteristics to go with it (round little head, and his legs are always to the side(like little frog legs almost!) and lifted up.. it's nearly impossible to get him to straighten them yet (and ticks him off if you try to!) Remember last ultrasound pic... where his foot was in his face? Well he's been in that little ball for so long he still prefers that and isn't too happy about getting his blanket loosened up too much either (loves the swaddling!) He's of course cute as can be and just perfect in my opinion :)
Here's a link to more pics : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=405003&id=576240252&l=40b25f7e2f
Here's a recap of how I found out he was coming... (and his birth story I suppose...)it really couldn't have gone more perfectly! Friday I was at the perinatologist's office getting my ultrasound and stress test done. My appointment was actually supposed to be at 10am, but I went in at 2pm fully thinking that was my set time. (Yep.. looked at the wrong week when i wrote it down or something!) Thankfully they squeezed me in anyway! I was there awhile.. seeing as how they had to make extra time for me, but in the ultrasound was reassured my fluid levels looked great and so did the baby. At the stress test though he was being stubborn and didn't want to move a whole lot (he'd done the same thing Tuesday at that stress test as well which led to an hour long stress test instead of 20 minutes!) Today though I was having lots of contractions to go with it. (Some pretty darn good ones too) However once they got enough movements charted.. I was approved to go on home. I have to admit I'd been pretty frustrated lately about how to know at what point I should go see labor and delivery when it came to contractions. I wanted to make sure i would get there in time to have my heparin wear off so i could be awake for it, but didn't know at what point that should be! My doctor had been sick and I hadn't seen her in ages, and obviously the doctors i saw in place of her weren't going to set my c-section date for her. So i went home still a little discouraged about how to know when to go in to reduce the less risks of pure craziness like last time! I would have felt fine with going a couple of more weeks if I KNEW i wasn't going to go into active labor or go too quickly (anything to add additional risk factors) I actually felt quite fine still physically. About 45 minutes after I left the office, I was still in Joplin waiting for Cody to get off of work. Ansel and I were there (Grandma watched him for me during my appointment and they'd invited us to stay for dinner) I was getting ready to go do another heparin shot (my first shot had been at 10:30 that morning) but when i stood up to leave the living room I was suddenly (and completely) DRENCHED!! This was such a blessing actually because I KNEW it was time to go to the hospital, I hadn't yet taken another shot, Cody had just gotten off work (and showed up just a minute or two after my water broke), plus Ansel was there where someone could watch him.. (and to top it off the hospital was just down the road a little ways)I seriously could not believe how much fluid there was!! (and it didn't stop until after he was born!) When we got to the hospital they took us on up to Labor and Delivery where I was monitored until the time was right. Since I wasn't dialated very much yet.. they decided to let the heparin wear off (the first blood test they took was still a little high) and decided they'd wait 12 hours after my last shot to retest and see where my blood levels were. (That way.. since there was time still.. I could wait it out so I could be awake for it!) Of course contractions definitely picked up and were often just a minute or two apart by the end.. but around 11:30pm or so the last blood test came back perfect so they began to prep for surgery! The nurse anesthetist who was doing my spinal turned out to be someone I'd met just a few weeks earlier! (Her husband is in my nursing classes, and I'd ran into them at the mall and we'd chatted a bit then!) The spinal was a piece of cake.. and oh so wonderful. It completely relaxed me and i couldn't stop grinning (and crying at times) as I awaited the beautiful sound of my baby's first cry!! Cody was in there too, and i just couldn't be more grateful that everything was going exactly as it should. The doctor took out most of my extra scar tissue as well (since there was lots of solid scar tissue pretty much all the way down seeing as how it took 4 months to grow closed last time!) That will be weird, but nice, to have a scar that's a line instead of a hard crater!
Anyway, when they pulled him out he definitely cried and cried!! It was such a beautiful sound! When they placed him next to my face after getting him a little cleaned up he quieted down his little eyes just blinked open and closed as he peered into my eyes. Such a perfect moment. He was so alert and aware and just amazing. Then they took him off to get a bath and such while the surgery continued and he and Cody were there to greet me when I got to the recovery room. We got to a post partum room by oh.. 2:30 am or so (it was late/early... I don't remember exactly when!) I didn't get too much sleep that night. He was wonderful and slept a lot but I was so grateful for him and just couldn't stop looking at him and holding him! I couldn't wait for Ansel to meet his wonderful new little brother the next day! When he did get to come meet him.. he was just grinning from ear to ear! He didn't say anything for a long time, but was just full of smiles! I'm so very grateful for my wonderful little family and for the opportunity to be blessed with a wonderful husband and two amazing little boys. I'm also so grateful for how this pregnancy went, and that we were able to get little Eli here safely! I'm truly blessed.
