Eliott's Birth Story

I know that not everyone loves reading birth stories as much as I do. If you are one of those people, feel free to skip this post or just look at the pictures instead. I did a birth story post after Logan's birth, so that I would be able to look back at it anytime, and I wanted to do the same with Eliott. The days or hours leading up to our babies entering the world so quickly become a blur. As hard as birth can be, it is also sweet and full of God's blessings, and I never want to forget that.

In order to tell my labor story, I should fill you in on a few things that happened before the real contractions started. Before I found out that I was pregnant, my mom had gotten us tickets to the very last women of faith "loved" tour. At my first ultrasound, we found out that the date of the conference (in Connecticut) was the very same day as my due date. I decided that if I hadn't had the baby, and was still feeling okay at that point, I would go because I was really looking forward to it.

Around the thirty six week mark, I started to have contractions daily. I thought that I would have him early, since a lot of the time contractions were only a few minutes apart and would last hours. But every night they faded away, and I woke up feeling fine the next morning. My due date was approaching, and I was still having the same symptoms that I had been having all month, so I decided to take the trip with my mom.

I love having all of these bump pictures together in one shot.

She picked me up Friday morning, and we drove the few hours to Hartford. I remember praying (through some very uncomfortable contractions) that he would just stay put for the weekend, unless it was God's plan for me to have him in the hospital there. We went to the first part of the conference Friday night, and got back to the hotel room late. I took a shower and got right to bed in hopes that the contractions would die down again. They did slow down that night, but unlike the month leading up to it, they started up again the minute I stood up and lasted all day long on Saturday. One of the contractions on Saturday left me almost in tears, and sure that I was going to have the baby that night.

As a side note, the conference was amazing! There is nothing like a stadium packed with women, all singing and worshiping God, to remind you that there is still hope in a world that so often feels hopeless. Some of the speakers were hysterical, while others left me in tears. I really believe God knew that I needed to hear their stories.

I was so thankful that my mom had reserved the hotel room for two nights when I had the chance to sleep in Sunday morning. My mom packed us up (having me walk as little as possible) and we headed home. I remember my mom telling me "you are going to go home and have him tonight". She could tell that I was in labor.

I got home around 4pm Sunday afternoon, and immediately washed the clothes that I had worn from my hospital bag. The contractions had been pretty constant since Friday, but had continued to die down at night. I dried my clothes and re-packed my hospital bag before I went to bed.

10pm I got into bed and was having very strong contractions (about twelve minutes apart).
11pm contractions were about eight minutes apart and so strong that I wasn't able to sleep at all.
12am they were six minutes apart.
1am they were four minutes apart.
2am I got into the shower and started to get ready.

At this point I knew it was the real thing and they wouldn't be fading away. I woke Dan up, and told him to start getting ready to leave. I asked him to call and find out who the on call doctor was. Of course, it happened to be the one doctor that I was extremely uncomfortable with, and really did not like. I told him that I would just hold the baby in a little longer until a different doctor's shift started. But I knew there was really no way I could hold him in any longer, and was devastated that out of all of the doctors in the practice, I ended up with that one.

3:30am We left the house with contractions just two minutes apart.
4am We dropped (a wide awake and very excited) Logan off at my mom's house.
We told him that the next time we would see him, he would be a big brother.
4:30am We got to the hospital.
5am We were all checked in and found out that I was already 8cm dilated.
The doctor broke my water. It seemed like just minutes before I was screaming that he was coming, and they needed to get the doctor into the room. After about twenty minutes of pushing (much faster than the six hours of pushing with Logan) we met our sweet little boy, Eliott Clark. He was born at 5:51am on November 16th. He weighed 9 pounds and was 20 inches long.

Once again, nothing in the world seemed to matter until I heard his first cry. I asked if he was okay about five times in the span of thirty seconds. Do those few seconds leading up to the baby's first cry feel like an eternity to anyone else or is that just me?

In the week following his birth, I was extremely emotional. I cried because I was sick of being in the hospital. I cried because I was tired, and they kept coming in to wake the baby up every forty five minutes. I cried because I missed Logan to the moon and back. But most of all, I cried because he was healthy. I cried because God blessed us with another baby, when I had spent so many nights unsure if that would ever happen. I cried because I was overwhelmingly happy and content.

Logan meeting Eliott for the first time. He was so in love.

His poor little head was pretty bruised at first.
Grammy and Grumps gave him his first Eliott sandwich. :)

Meeting his cousins, Eliza and Paige.

All of my boys in a sleepy pile.

Our first family picture.

Going home.

I laughed so hard when I saw this picture in with the others.

It so perfectly describes the first week... hazy and exhausting. 

But there really is nothing in the world like holding your new baby.

After we were home for a few days, and I had gotten sleep stretches of a full hour or two at a time, I was much less emotional about everything. It is amazing how much more sane I am with a little sleep. ;) Things seemed to fall into place pretty quickly. So far, the transition to two kiddos has been much smoother than I was expecting. Logan has handled everything so well, and Eliott has been a pretty easy going baby overall.