Our lives will never be the same again and we couldn't be happier about it. I have so many different thoughts, memories and reflections about that day...and the day before for that matter!!
Contractions started around 3:00 am on Tuesday, August 12th. ALOT had happened leading up to that point mainly because Eli wanted to wait until he was good and ready...and 15 days past his "due date"! Because we were giving birth at a hospital we had to schedule an induction at the 2 week mark, but our midwives were pretty amazing and flexible and we were able to negotiate with them to wait just a little bit longer, so the actual induction was scheduled for Wednesday, August 13th. We were planning to try an herbal induction at 6:00 am on Tuesday and I really wasn't looking forward to drinking castor oil so I'm glad he decided to come on his own!
We labored at home until about noon and the contractions were 3-4 minutes apart. At that point, I thought things would keep progressing but boy was I wrong! Contractions slowed and almost stopped on the 20 minute drive to the hospital and then we had to wait in the lobby for about 20 minutes because there were no triage rooms available. We got settled into the triage room so they could monitor me and check on progress. Our midwife, Anna, stopped in and after watching the monitor for a little bit and checking me...found that I was already at 6 cm. She told us that when she first saw me she was so close to just sending us home because she didn't really think I was in labor. Apparently I managed the pain well :)
I had really wanted to be able to move around with the contractions so we tried a lot of different things...including walking, using the labor ball, showering, getting into the tub (which btw was AMAZING except for the fact that the tub was so big and hard it was hard to find a good position for contractions), and having Dan help with a few positions etc....Around 11:00 pm our nurse and midwife came in for a chat to figure out what our next steps would be since my water still hadn't broken. My contractions were slowing a bit, so we decided to try to sleep for a few hours since I'd been up since about 3 am and then get back after it in the early morning . And just like that...an hour later my water broke while I was sleeping! Unfortunately there was a tiny bit of meconium in the fluid so that automatically meant I wouldn't get to do the water birth I had wanted...disappointing...but we definitely just tried to roll with it.
I honestly can't say enough about the support team I had...They were all there pretty much the entire 22 hours of labor at the hospital: Dan, Julie, my mom and Megan. Dan was an AMAZING support the entire time and I know I couldn't have done it without him!! Julie supported both Dan and I and was such a blessing before the birth, during the birth and even after! I remember looking up multiple times to see my mama there and just praying...that in and of itself was incredible. And Megan had 3 other births that same night...but she somehow juggled those and then came back in the middle of the night to be with us!
Eli is now 4 weeks old TODAY...Happy Birthday buddy! We cannot imagine life without his sweet face....right now he grunts a lot but there is a fleeting smile and he's starting to kind of "talk" to us which is really fun. He's starting to get a few more rolls in his arms and legs and can find his thumb every once in a while. He loves to be in the Boba and dad has gotten really good at putting him to sleep in the fleece sling. We can't wait for all the other new things he's going to be experiencing over the next few months!!