Elliott Scott Bytheway, born July 24th, 2008, at 1:54 am. 8 lbs 14 oz and 21.5 inches long.
so monday night justin and i went to the hospital because i thought my water had broken or was leaking. unfortunately they sent us home. an hour after getting home my contractions intensified and i started feeling them in my back. yes, dreaded back labor. it was so painful i wanted to cry and i tried everything to feel better. pretty much the only thing that helped was justin digging his fist in my lower back every contraction. i barely slept in between each contraction all night long, called one my midwives who wasn’t very helpful, so i told myself that i would wait until my water broke before i went into the hospital. tuesday passed in extreme pain. tuesday night the contractions intensified, and wednesday morning i woke up knowing i had a doctor’s appointment at 4:30. i tried to get the appointment moved up but they were booked. told myself i could make it to the appointment.
oh the pain. and i found out why when i got to the appointment and i was 100% effaced and 6 cm dilated. the midwife on call had me admitted to the hospital (which luckily is in the same medical complex). they found green stuff and started to worry that elliott had passed his first bowel movement in the womb and was in distress. i got to the hospital and they broke my water and found more meconium (the green stuff). once my water broke the pain intensified 3 fold. i got on hands and knees for each contraction and both my midwife and justin dug their fists into my back for an hour. finally it was too much and i asked for an epidural. once i could no longer feel my back which had been in constant agony for over 48 hours i was so relaxed and happy. my midwife let me sleep for a couple of hours while the contraction did their thing and it was heaven.
at 1 in the morning it was time to push which i did until 1:54 when out he came. he’d swallowed and breathed in a significant amount of meconium so my little poo-eater was whisked away to the nursery so they could suction it out after i only got about 30 seconds with him. i was so sad, but had other things to deal with. he was almost 9 lbs and 21.5 inches so he’s a monster. he doesn’t even look like a newborn and is twice the size of the other babies in the nursery. my poor body couldn’t handle it and he tore the heck out of me.
finally they sucked out a bunch of stuff from his lungs and stomach and he was able to come back and have his first feeding and then around 6 we were able to go to sleep. for an hour and a half. we’ve had a million visitors and we’re very very tired. it’s been quite the ordeal, but we’re so happy that he’s finally here, and on his due date no less! our little pioneer day baby. he’s beautiful.
before (me on my birthday exactly 2 weeks ago):
after:
