This is the story of how Eli entered our world...
(Feel free skip down to the pics if you don't want the
gory details! I think every mother loves to tell her birthstories. Each experience is special, exciting and unique.)
A few weeks ago I started calling Eli a boogerhead because of all the scares he was giving us during my pregnancy that turned out to be nothing at all. Our first scare was at 28wks when he began measuring small. Out of concern that he wasn't growing at a normal rate my midwife ordered an ultrasound -- which showed that he was of average size for his gestation. Turned out that my uterus was simply sitting very low. I suppose having three kids in four years will do that to you!
Our second scare came just last week when at a routine OB visit Eli's heart rate was consistently low. Another ultrasound that day showed my fluid and placenta were fine, but he was still a little stressed. I returned the next day for more monitoring and his heart rate was exactly where it should be. My midwife was no longer concerned and thinks the low heart rate the day before was probably low blood sugar on my part.
The biggest scare came early Tuesday morning (4/1) when I woke up at about 2am with fairly heavy bleeding. After an hour of it we decided to go to the hospital. We felt it was better to be safe than sorry. So I called our wonderful neighbor, Kay who dashed up the street to stay with Daniel and Caleb.
To our relief, Eli was not in any distress. The phrase the doctor used was he was "happy as a clam." Apparently, whatever was causing my bleeding was not bothering him in the least. I did have contractions for a couple hours, but nothing painful or exciting enough to write home about! The conclusion was that I was bleeding because of impending labor. So, they sent me home -- no baby...
After a fairly restful day I was still bleeding 14 hours later with no contractions and called my midwife again. She agreed that this was neither normal or good and I needed to go back to the hospital. Kay dashed up the street once more. We put the bags in the car and arrived at the hospital around 6pm on Tuesday night.
My midwife Diana was waiting for me, along with an OB from the practice. Again, the baby was happy as a clam. They did another ultrasound because at this point they feared I had a placenta tear. A regular ultrasound revealed nothing, but Diana and Dr. Bergstrom were not convinced there wasn't a small one somewhere. So they arranged a more high-tech ultrasound with a specialist in the morning. Their plans were if I did indeed have a tear they would induce labor since the tear would only get worse and the likelihood of having a c-section because of it would increase. But if my bleeding stopped and I was not having contractions during the evening they would send me home again. They just could not justify inducing at 38wks without a medical need. And of course, we did not want that either if Walnut still needed more time to grow. Patrick gave it a 50/50 chance that we would leave the hospital with a baby. At that point I was just 3cm dialated and not having consistent or painful contractions.
So, around 10pm on Tuesday I took an Ambien sleeping pill. They also exchanged the birthing bed for a regular, more comfortable hospital bed. Everyone wanted to make sure I got some rest since there was the possibility of a long day ahead of me. You'll have to get the details of that experience from Patrick. Apparently, the sleeping pill made me very drunk and I was asking all sorts of silly questions. I do remember being unconvinced that Patrick was indeed, Patrick!
I woke up just a little after 2am on Wednesday after sleeping a good four hours. And to my surprise had a contraction. It was not super painful, but strong enough to make me take notice. It was also in my back, rather than the front so I knew it was legit (you mothers know what I'm talking about). After two more contractions fairly close together I wandered out to the nurse's station. My nurse, Linda came dashing over because apparently I was still wobbly. I told her what was going on and we went back to the room so she could check me. I was 4cm. I wasn't that disappointed because I wasn't that uncomfortable. I guess I was happy that something was going on. Linda left me in the bed at 2:20 to call my midwife, Diana and run water in the jacuzzi. I wanted to have this baby naturally (no epidural) so bad and the thought of sitting in a tub of warm water sounded nice.
I decided not to wake Patrick up, thinking he should get as much rest as possible before having to coach me through a natural labor. He was wearing earplugs, completely oblivious to everything. I knew I would get him up when I couldn't handle things on my own.
I remember looking at the clock and it read 2:23 when another contraction came on and this time it really hurt. I jumped out of bed because I knew standing would help ease the pain. And I was SO disappointed. My thought was, "If it hurts this bad at only 4cm, there is no way I can go natural." I just prayed the transistion phase of labor would hurry up and come. Within seconds I started getting sick. Between up-chucks I managed to wake Patrick up who called for the nurses. About five rushed in and mayhem broke loose. Vomitting is a sign of transistion so basically I had gone from 4cm to at least 7cm in about five minutes. I was still standing in the middle of all the madness (feeling very alone or at least zoned in my own world) when Linda looked at me and asked, "Do you have to push, honey?" I think I just nodded my head. I was fighting the over whelming urge to 'bear down'. The nurses were working as fast as they could to get the hospital bed out of the room, get the birthing bed back in and break it down. All I kept hearing was, "Don't push. Don't push." I was like, you people are crazy! YOU stop pushing! I remember hearing a lot chatter about where Dr. Lennon was and how long until he would get there. At this point there was no way Diana would make it from her home. Dr. Lennon had delivered Caleb so at least it would be a familiar face.
The other thing that was causing chaos is they had to get an IV in me. I was strep-b positive, which meant the baby needed to recieve antibiotics during delivery and that had to go through an IV. Poor Patrick!! He didn't know whether to come up to my head and comfort me. Or go wait to catch a baby. At one point Patrick exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, that's a head!" Still no sign of the doctor!
Suddenly, Dr. Lennon arrived, pulling on his protective gear and just like out of sitcom sat on the rolling stool, slid into position and said, "Okay, you can push." I really wish we had a camcorder there. I'm sure the whole situation would cause a lot of laughs later. And literally, no lie, I pushed once - out popped a head. I pushed again - out came his body and Eli Joseph Wilson was born. It was 2:45, just 25 minutes after I had felt my first painful contraction.
Patrick and I were completely dumbfounded. We just stared at eachother in utter shock. There was NO WAY we had just had a baby. I kept asking if I was dreaming. But there he was, all 6ponds, 7 ounces of him. And I kept saying, "Thank you, Jesus!" I had prayed and prayed for a natural delivery and God had allowed it.
In recovery after everyone is all cleaned up!
Daniel and Caleb meet their baby brother. Caleb says, "woof, woof" at every animal he sees. His first reaction to Eli was "woof, woof." Daniel insists on calling him Walnut and we said he can call him that as long as he likes.
Our final scare with Eli came 24hrs after he was born. He had a blood culture that began growing bacteria. The concern was he may have contracted Strep-b since he never got antibiotics during delivery. Strep-b is extremely dangerous to newborns, a lot of times fatal if untreated. So, they began antibiotics just to be on the safe side. It had to be administered through an IV in his head. Ouch.
Daniel thinks Eli is great and has already spent a lot of time just looking at him.
Getting ready to go home. His shirt reads, "Thank heaven for little boys." We are so blessed with the three boys God has given us!
In closing this very long post, I just want to acknowledge and thank all the people that helped Patrick and I during this delivery:
Diana Buckwalter and Dr. Kelly Lennon from South Denver OB/Gyn
All the labor and post-partum nurses at Littleton Adventist Hospital who gave exceptional care.
Gary and Kay for watching the boys Tuesday night
Hollie for watching the boys all Wednesday
And most of all the Lord, for his favor in such an easy delivery, safety granted for us all and the precious life He has entrusted us.
This morning we went to a park. As we were getting out of the car, Caleb insisted on taking a book with him. (The boy loves to read!) He promptly sat down in the middle of the parking lot and began to read his book. Daniel said, "Mommy, Caleb is going to get hit by a car and then you will be sad." I answered, "Yes, I would be sad. Would you be sad?" His response: "hmmm... not quite."
Eli was well-dressed for Papa's arrival.
Eli's so big!! He can hold his bottle himself!
It was hard for the boys to say goodbye to Mama and Papa. Well, it was hard for Daniel and Caleb... Eli didn't show much emotion. But Caleb cried when they got out of the car at the airport. Daniel sat on Patrick's lap for about ten minutes after we got home and wiped tears from his eyes. He was trying to hard to be a big boy, but just couldn't stop those tears from flowing. 
Caleb spends about an hour every morning playing in his playpen. One day, it got very quiet and he was sound asleep! 
I was planning on letting him sleep as long as he wanted. Then I heard him start crying and Daniel came flying into the living room shouting, "Mommy, I woke Caleb up for you!" He was very proud of himself.
Caleb John
Daniel Forrest
Does Mommy have enough arms?
Wow! It's a dinosaur!
Opening gifts from Grandmama
Mama has arrived!
Caleb has the diaper bag and is ready to go out for the day
Bunny teeth
Eli's first bath
Mmmm, fried chicken!
