Susan’s Photo Blog

Eli and I had a fun little photoshoot while big sisters were out and about having fun with daddy.  He’s just such a happy baby!  This post is a bit out of chronological order, but I just had to share!  :o)  I’ll get back to playing catch-up soon.

We are blessed to have a front row viewing of the Howell Balloonfest, right off of our back balcony.  Here are a few of the highlight’s from this year’s Friday night launch!  These pictures were all captured with my 24-70 lens, so no crazy telephoto shots here.  These balloons were very close to us!

The splendor of a King, clothed in majesty
Let all the earth rejoice, all the earth rejoice
He wraps himself in light, and darkness tries to hide
It trembles at his voice, trembles at his voice

Our plans for another homebirth were abruptly ended when I was diagnosed with cholestasis of pregnancy around 25 weeks.  I started showing symptoms at 8 weeks, but since cholestasis almost always starts in the third trimester, it took awhile to be diagnosed.  Birth at or before 37 weeks is safest for the baby, so I had to start coming to terms with the fact that I wouldn’t be having the homebirth I had planned. My previous 2 pregnancies went to 41+ weeks, so the chances of giving birth at or before 37 weeks at home were slim to none.

On Friday, May 21, we arrived at the hospital at 10:00 AM for induction.  Our nurse, Susan, got us settled into our room, entered all of my information into the computer and got a tech to start my IV.  She also didn’t even bat an eye when I told her that I’d prefer being in my own clothes instead of a nasty hospital gown.  It was noon by the time the pitocin pump was hooked up and started.  Susan came in every 15 minutes to monitor things, and she increased the pitocin every 30 minutes, until I started feeling mild contractions.  After a few hours, I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes that were lasting 30-60 seconds.

The contractions felt very mild to me and I was pretty bored throughout the day.  Susan brought in the telemetry unit so we could go walking around and still be monitoring the baby’s heart and the contractions.  We walked around, laughed, joked, and tried not to be too bored.  I read a book, on and off, while Nick was taking care of some last-minute details related to our impending house sale.

monitors, IV’s, and a pitocin pump were certainly not things I enjoyed about this birth

thankfully, the hospital had wi-fi, not only for important things like the sale of house, but because some Facebooking helped distract me from my boredom

Around 5:30, Nick went in search of the gift shop to buy a deck of cards.  My OB walked in a few minutes later to break my water.  I started the day at about 1.5 cm dilated and after 5 hours on pitocin I progressed all the way to 2.5.  Ha!

Nick came back with the cards and we distracted ourselves playing games for awhile.  The contractions slowly intensified, but they still weren’t too hard to deal with.  Nurse Susan’s shift ended at 7:00 and we met our new nurse, Angie.  Susan had been great all day, and we soon found out that Angie would be awesome as well.  Thank God for that answered prayer.  My sister, Christi, arrived around 8:30 (she was our photographer) and we all played some card games together.

Around 10:30 or so, I thought it would be a good idea to try to get some rest, so I got back into bed and tried to sleep.  The contractions were strong enough that I had to actively relax through them, so sleep wasn’t really happening.  I was able to rest for awhile, though.  Nick got some sleep at that point.

Angie came in with someone else sometime after 11:00 and started setting some things up.  I later heard her say, “When I saw that they weren’t playing cards any more, I knew it was time to start getting ready for that baby.”  My contraction pattern changed while I was resting and Angie was concerned about a posterior position (I would have one strong contraction, followed closely by a weaker one, and then about five minutes before the next strong contraction).  She got out a bean bag and had me turn over with my belly on the bean bag to help the baby turn.  I started feeling some back labor after that, so Nick applied counterpressure through the next several contractions.

The baby must have turned because my contraction pattern changed and I didn’t feel the back labor any more.

Things were becoming a lot more intense by midnight and I had to actively work through each contraction.  By about 12:30, I was in the “I can’t do this anymore” phase.  Hello transition.  Basically, transition sucks.  A lot.

I admit to saying “No, no, no, not again.” through contractions at this point.  I also will admit to saying, “If she checks me and I’m only at 5, I want an epidural.”  However, I did NOT mean it.  I actually knew I was in transition at this point (unlike my previous two labors) and I knew I would not be getting an epidural.  A little after 1:00 Angie did check me and, low and behold, I was only at 5.  That was rough news to hear.

I got up to use the restroom at that point and told Angie that I wanted to get in the tub.  She started filling the tub for me.  I had another contraction while I was waiting for for the tub to fill and, at the end of the contraction, I felt a pushing urge.  An “Oh!” escaped from me and I said to Nick, “I can’t be feeling pushy.  I’m only at 5 cm.”  I got into the tub just before the next contraction hit, and again I felt a very short pushing urge near the end of the contraction.

I was probably only in the tub for 15 minutes, but it was helpful.  I knew that I needed to start pushing very soon, so I told Angie I was feeling pushy.  She rushed me out of the tub and then went to get my doctor (who wisely decided to sleep at the hospital instead of going home).

My doctor came in and told me to start pushing, and didn’t care that I wanted to be on my side to push (yet another reason that I appreciate my OB).  But, he did push the last little bit of cervix out of the way on the first push.  That doesn’t feel so good, but I was so ready to get the baby out that I didn’t care.  I pushed through two contractions and baby Eli was born!  I went from 5 cm to pushing in 30 minutes.

Elijah (Eli) Rex Gronow was born at 1:43 AM, on May 22, 2010.  He was 6 pounds 13 ounces, and 18.75 inches long.

I was completely overwhelmed as I held my little boy.  He was just perfect. . . perfect and tiny!  I was used to 9 pound newborns so this little guy was a big change.  Also, since he came much earlier than the girls did, he was covered in vernix. . . another new experience for us.  I was also so, so, so glad to have the pregnancy, labor, and delivery over and done with.  As I held him right after his birth, I said, several times, “I’m so glad it’s over.”

They eventually took him away to be weighed and measured.

And then he came back for some more snuggles.

that’s Eli with his Aunt Christi, my sister and our photographer

Our wonderful midwife-turned-doula, Kate, arrived just after Eli was born.  We were planning to have her there for the birth, but things ended up happening so fast at the end that we just didn’t call her in time.  It was absolutely WONDERFUL to have her there afterward, though, because Nick and my sister were both exhausted, so she stepped right in and took over.  She massaged my feet and legs for the longest time with wonderful oils.  It was simply wonderful.

After awhile, I looked over and noticed that both Nick and Christi were sleeping.  They worked hard to help me out, and it was getting to be quite late, er, uh, early.  :o)  I grabbed the camera and snapped a shot of each of them.

After I scarfed down a couple of sandwiches (hey, childbirth makes you ravenously hungry, in case you didn’t know) we eventually got transferred from our lovely, spacious LDR room to our teeeeeenie, tiiiiiny room on the mother/baby unit.  Christi and Kate left around 5:30 AM or so and Nick and I both got a little more sleep as Eli started drifting off as well.

The next day, the big sisters arrived with my parents for a visit.  They were in love!

Eli is a snuggly, cuddly baby and we are in love with him.  Having a baby this tiny is new for us.  He’s just so little!  It was a rather miserable pregnancy, and definitely not the labor/birth we had planned, but God answered our prayers and we have a perfectly healthy baby boy and had a wonderful birth experience, despite the circumstances.

Busy with a brand new baby boy!  I really did try to post these pictures awhile back, but the photo uploader stopped working and then Mr. Tech Support (my husband) didn’t tell me he had fixed it.  Ha!

Elijah (Eli) Rex

May 22 ~ 1:43 AM ~ 6 pounds, 13 oz

I have the birth story written, but I still need to go through the pictures from labor/delivery so I can do a post with the story and the pictures.  Maybe I’ll work on that tonight.  I’m also going to try to get caught up on the last three months.  Since I’m feeling quite a bit better, I’m actually taking more pictures again.  I still have lingering symptoms of the cholestasis of pregnancy but I’m hoping that they will continue to subside, as is expected.