Because the little chap was a little TOO comfortable in my stomach, we ended up the last resort: induction. We started early Tuesday morning and it was a looooonnggg day of waiting.
According to our birthing class, there are four stages of labor:
1. Early Labor
2. Active Labor
3. Transition
4. Birth
But let's be real. There's really only three stages:
1. Pre-epidual
2. Post-epidural
3. Pushing
I had thought to hold off on the epidural as long as possible, "just to see" what it was like. Worst idea ever. Zach went to run an errand right after letting me squeeze the life out of his hands while I tried to hold still during contractions and epidural injection. He left a distracted, tense, and pained wife. He came back to a completely new woman- relaxed, happy, and ready to wait out the baby on a calm sea of blissful medication.
Until the pushing. Oh the pushing. I pushed until my face turned purple while Zach counted during my contractions. But Eli had his shoulder stuck so it wasn't until doctors descended en masse on my birth canal and squished his enormous head aside to unhook it that I felt the pressure let up.
Eli Scott was born at 10:32 pm after 14 hours of labor. A few tense minutes of meconium suction later and we heard the first cry. After that we could finally meet the squirming, kicking wriggler that we'd been imagining all these months. At 9 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches long he was a bit of a hefty surprise. But as my doctor said, "Look at you, look at your mom, and look at your husband. Did you really expect a small baby?"
Our hospital stay was punctuated by more than our fair share of visits from every shift of nursing staff, nursing supervisors, pediatrician teams, lactation consultants, social workers, med students, and housekeeping. They hauled Eli away for test after test so it wasn't exactly a restful recovery. But in the end we had a healthy baby (any problem would've been spotted by 8 million healthcare practitioners), so it was all worth it.
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| Eli did NOT like his first bath. His handled the second one only minimally better. |
We loved getting visitors in the hospital to oooooh and awww over our child and confirm to our bloated little egos that we had produced one gorgeous baby. Yep, we're THAT kind of parents.
I couldn't believe they let us just take this precious bundle home.
