Baby Eli is here!

Baby Eli is here!... and has been now for a month.  Wow, that was a fast month...

But let's hit the rewind button & start from the "beginning..."

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July 1.  6am wake, get ready go to work.  6pm come home from work.

ME:  Hi, how are you?  How was your day?

The Pregnant Lady:  I need you to sit down. ("Hmmm" I think).  I think I've been having contractions since 11 this morning...

ME:  "Awesome" (Why am I sitting down for this?  Did she think I was going to pass out?)  That's great!

So we have dinner, call the midwif, "we're still 5 minutes apart."  So we wait for a while... 10pm, "Now they're 2 minutes apart and getting stronger.."  You guys should come to the hospital...

So we check into the Birthing Suites..  Triage for an hour.  OK, let's get you into a room.

And thus begins a VERY LONG NIGHT...  Every 2 minutes the contractions come, and the groaning...  Makes it hard to sleep, not that there was much of that going on.

Only ice and water for the Pregnant Lady, that doesn't give much energy.

The Midwifs & nurses were very attentive throughout the night and into the morning, and with shift change comes one of our favorite midwifes, who we really connected with..  Such an answer to prayer.

And now we begin the long morning of trying to find a comfortable position, and investigating how much "we" are dilated...

Finally about 10am the word comes that we are 10cm...  Let's go... ... ...  And thus begins 4 hours of pushing.

Christine was amazing, she kept pushing...and pushing, and pushing.. but we didn't seem to be getting anywhere.. It was really starting to get frustrating... a little bit of progress would be nice...   They started talking about a C-section, and it was starting to look like that's the direction we needed to go... BUT The Pregnant Lady asked me to text a bunch of folks to pray that we didn't' have to do that...

...contractions were still coming every 2 minutes, maybe less, and the Sr. OB came in and said "the baby looks like it's getting close" and the Pregnant Lady was still pushing, which was easier than dealing with the pain of the contractions, so she kept pushing...

The midwif said "do you want to have this baby?"  The PL said "YES!!!"  and there was a flurry of gown putting on, and moving plastic bags and instruments and stuff into position...

He was Sunny Side up...  Meaning head down but face up, so he kept getting stuck..

We were close.  She tells me " Please put the camera down and help me push?!"

And of course, as soon as I put the camera down, here he comes!!!!!!!

I saw the head come out and then he stopped... "I need everyone on the table, now!" says the Dr. She reached into her bag of tricks, tried a couple of twists, the reached in and grabbed one of the arms and out he came.  That was a moment to remember...  Would have made a great reality episode on tv.

I had 3 seconds to identify if it was a boy or girl... and then they needed to get to work on him..

Amazing to hear my little boy's cries.  Something I thought I would never hear.

Mom was exhausted, and I have the highest respect for her and her efforts...  It was a truly amazing experience.

So now, 4 weeks later, August 2 is a month... we're now changing diapers, and feeding every 3 hours, and not sleeping that much, and learning what works and what doesn't, and we are filling up memory cards with lots of pictures and videos...

I think of my parents who went through this 49.8 years ago, and I wish I could talk to them and share stories and hear how they dealt with all the things that happen...  But that was not in God's plan...

And so this adventure of life continues, and just keeps getting better!

Such a blessing, such a responsibility, such a joy!