Eli's birth story

So here's Eli's birthing story:

To be or not to be induced?
From day one my Dr told me she would induce me at 39 weeks if I wanted to, since this is my third baby and I'd had a full-term baby before. At first we were thinking, yes let's do it! At 39 weeks Tim has spring break and would be able to be home with me for a few days instead of worrying about school. As time grew closer I began to feel uneasy about being induced and I didn't think it was such a good idea, so we decided to just wait it out and hopefully the baby would come when Tim wasn't in class! At my 38 week appointment as I was about to tell my Dr we had decided not to be induced, she told me that she wanted me to be induced! I guess the baby was measuring very small and the ultrasound had shown my amniotic fluid was low. She explained the placenta may not have been doing a good enough job and it would be better to have him start growing on the outside. SO she scheduled me to be induced Wednesday March 14th at 39 weeks, my mind had been made up for me!

Evening of Tuesday March 13th:
It was weird knowing that no matter what I was going to be having a baby tomorrow, I'd never experienced that before. We had arranged to drop the boys off at our friends (THANKS IVERSONS!) the night before as I had to go in at 5:30am. I didn't anticipate it would be so hard leaving them. We took them to our friends house and by 9:30pm they still hadn't gone to sleep and were both crying. It was so hard to leave them there and let them cry and not understand where we were going, I felt awful. I cried all the way home. This could also have been an overreaction due to pregnancy hormones but it was so sad. Trying to get to sleep knowing what is in store for the next day is rough! I think I slept about an hour, maybe. I'm not sure if Tim slept at all.

Wednesday March 14th:
I woke up at 5, right before my alarm went off, I'm not sure if I was really even asleep. We had everything ready and left for the hospital!

We arrived at the hospital and got to the desk, it was weird to be there in the labour and delivery department having had absolutely no pain or contractions, "Hi, I'm having a baby today"..... We got set up with the IV (trauma!) and filled out paperwork. The next step was to add the pitocin which would begin contractions. They checked me: dilated to 3cm.

8:30am: they finally started the pitocin, they said it would take about an hour to begin doing anything, I thought this was going to be a really long day. My Dr came by to see me and said she would come and break my water around noon. Contractions began coming but everything was going really slow.

11:30am: the nurse checked me I was only 4cm. I was having regular contractions but wasn't in a lot of pain. I decided to get the epidural before my Dr broke my water just in case things went really fast and I didn't have enough time, I wanted my epidural!! The only way I can describe how it feels is crunchy. It's like you can feel it going up your spine, ew. SOOOO worth it though!

Feeling good after my epidural

Tim being Tim

Around Noon: Dr Nonweiler comes in a checks me, I'm about a 5. Waters are broken, yay! I am so hoping things go faster from here.

12:30pm I feel something, blood! Oh no I freak out, but I guess that's a good thing? I thought bleeding was bad but the nurses said it's actually a good thing, it means I'm dilating. So at this point my contractions really start picking up and I start to FEEL them! No, what happened? I liked being numb! I kept trying the "clicker" to give me more epidural but nothing seems to be happening. The pain wasn't excruciating but was pretty intense and contractions were coming every minute. I thought I must have been close.

1:15pm: My contractions are BAD. I was a bit mad, I was going to call the nurse to have the guy come and give me an extra dose of epidural, but then I started to feel pressure, crazy pressure. I really really wanted to push. I called the nurse and she checked me and then said "OK don't do anything, don't push." She told the Dr to run. Every contraction that came without pushing was really intense, I remember telling Tim over and over whilst crying, "I want to push!" I've never wanted to do anything more in my life!

1:25pm: My Dr arrives and they rush and set everything up, I really thought I would be pushing for literally 2 seconds, it was so intense.

1:26pm: I begin pushing and this is where it was kinda nice not to be completely numb. I could actually FEEL when I was supposed to be pushing and I think the contractions helped me do the work.

1:35pm: It felt like an eternity, it was actually only 9 minutes. And he's here. I watched his whole body come out, it was really cool. He cried SO loud! I can't describe that feeling of utter relief that comes right after the baby is born, it's like the last 9 months have led up to this moment and I can't believe he's finally here. She gave him straight to me for some skin-to-skin and Tim cut the cord.

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Choosing his name:

By the time he was born we had narrowed the name list down to Ethan and Eli. We decided a few days before that since I was choosing his middle name (Ford-my maiden name) Tim could choose which name he liked best. I was a little more partial to Ethan but I liked both names. After he was born Tim chose Eli. I was a little disappointed at first but now I can't imagine his name not being Eli, Ethan sounds weird! He is my baby Eli Ford!

2 days old

Me and my boys

Our BIG family