Eliot Gregory came into this world on June 7th at 12:55 am. He weighed 5 lbs 8 oz and was 17 3/4 inches long. He was 35 weeks and 2 days gestation but is doing very, very well. He's currently in the NICU for body temperature control issues and jaundice, which are both common for his gestation. We hope to have him home safely by the beginning of next week, if not sooner.
On Tuesday, June 6th I was continuing to have irregular contractions during my stay at Trinity but also had the addition of more pressure all afternoon. I let my nurses and doctors know and they encouraged us to do a check for progress. So the once the boys left after dinner, the doctors came in and I was measuring 8 cm. Since all the doctors were already there and we likely wouldn't gain much by waiting, we decided to move forward and prepared to meet our baby.
Pete got the boys to his parents (thankfully!) and headed over to the hospital. We did an epidural at 9:30 (more procausionary in case I had to have a C-section, as I wasn't really having very many strong contractions or pain). Then, the doctors came in around 10:30 and broke my water. We were anticipating that things would really start moving fast. However, contractions slowed down and weren't being picked up on the monitor. We relaxed and both slept a little. Then doctors added some pitocin, which helped to get things going. I started feeling the contractions through the epidural (again, not painful) but they still were not being picked up on the monitor. Pete left around 11:45pm to let Max out and to get pants and a sweatshirt, since we decided we had some time. Nurses came in around midnight to mess with the monitors and checked me again - fully dilated and effaced. We were ready but had to wait for Pete to get there!
They called the doctors in and everyone was in the room around 12:40am. It was a full house with my doctor, nurses, neonatal nurses, neonatal doctor and normal nursery nurses. I pushed for about 15 minutes and our son was born! It was the most peaceful birth I could have imagined!
Eliot came out screaming - and it was the sweetest sound to our ears. No one could have prepared us for how amazing hearing the first cries of our baby would be! I think we both shed a tear or two - I know I cried pretty hard.
The rest of the night/morning was a blur. Eliot nursed right away for an hour. We were on cloud 9 and couldn't settle down. Then, we were moved into a new room and all slept for a bit.
The boys came in around 7:30 that morning with huge smiles and Andrew asking, "so what is it???" Alex wanted to hold him right away and couldn't hid his happiness. Andrew took a little warming up (he had wanted a baby sister) but now is pretty smitten too. They have visited every night and always want to hold him or see him.
Eliot's first 24 hours were very good, but he started showing signs of jaundice and had issues controlling his body temp. So it was to the NICU. This was a stop we were hoping to avoid, but it hasn't been concerning as I would have thought.
We are just overjoyed to have him here - healthy and happy!
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