Where has the time gone?! Can't believe the last time I posted I was on bed rest at 34 weeks. Well, I came off of bed rest the following week and ended up going past my due date by one day. Labor lasted 3 days. I started having uncomfortable contractions early Sunday morning but they were all over the place...13 minutes apart, 5 minutes apart, 3 minutes apart, 8 minutes apart. This lasted for several hours, went away completely and then came back. Finally, on Christmas (my due date) we decided to go to the hospital to be monitored just to make sure everything was ok, which it was. I was dilated 2 or 3 centimeters and baby looked good so I decided to go home and rest. About midnight my contractions got really intense and some were lasting as long as a minute and half to two minutes so we went back at the hospital. I figured that by at least 5 or 6 am Elam would be here. Hahaha, so much for me figuring anything...
20 hours later and my plan of giving birth naturally just didn't happen! I had gotten to the point where I had had no real rest in a few days and I was exhausted and not tolerating pain real well. Mike and Jennifer (my doula) were so great and were so supportive. I knew it was time to finally give in and get an epidural when Mike and Jennifer went from "you are doing great. Keep breathing through this contraction" to "I think you may want to start thinking about an epidural". My doctor was great and wanted to respect my wishes for a natural birth but at that point they just wanted to avoid a C-Section. Let me just say the Epidural was AWESOME! I didn't feel a thing and pretty much relaxed enough to go to sleep immediately for a few hours. I was given pitocin to help my contractions (like I said, they were all over the place!) but Elam didn't do too well with it so they turned it down and before I knew it, it was time to push! Ok, so let me just say I was not expecting to push that long! I have sooo many friends where their baby came out in 2 or 3 pushes. I pushed for over 2 hours! Each time I was told I was doing a great job...after an hour I started to think they were lying to me, lol. But finally he came:-) If you are a parent, you know that words cannot express the feeling of seeing your baby come into this world, hearing him cry for the first time and then holding him for first time:-)
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| Elam Michael Hall, born 12-26-12 at 7:42 pm weighing 8 lbs, 5 oz, 22 inches long |
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My handsome little man at 2 months
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Elam is now 2 months old and is my pride and joy. He is sleeping through the night for the most part. Every now and then we'll have a night where he wakes up a couple times, but overall he is doing great! He loves his hands, one of his favorite songs is the ABC song, he likes watching Baby Einstein videos and likes his play mat as long as he is on his back looking up. He doesn't care for tummy time but we still do it anyway:-) He is so close to rolling from his back to stomach but his arm gets in the way:-) He doesn't mind having his diaper changed as long as it's after he has eaten. If you do it before he eats he definitely lets you know how he feels, lol. He is an amusing baby to watch while he sleeps...he sleeps with his eyes open sometimes (something that really freaked me out to begin with) and makes lots of faces.
