The story

(This post about Eli's birth has been about a week in the making. I've worked on it a little here and a little there. Turns out it's a lot harder to get things done with two kids...)

On December 27th I had an appointment with my midwife. The baby's due date was December 28th (I say "the baby" because we had yet to pick out a name). I was starting to go into panic mode because Joseph only had until January 3 off from school, so if this baby came at all past his due date (like Jake, who was 5 days late and they had to induce me) then I wasn't going to have a husband around to help out. During my appointment, I knew I would have a little convincing to do since midwives don't usually induce without a medical reason. I came prepared. I had my list of "medical" reasons why this baby HAD to come right now:

1. Jake was 5 days late and was big (over 9 lbs.) and I just really didn't want to put my body through that again if I didn't have to.
2. My body just doesn't go into labor on it's own (this is somewhat debatable as I've never exactly given it a chance.)
3. Thanks to my white coat anxiety, I had a tendency to have high blood pressure when I went in for my appointments. That couldn't be good for the baby.

Some begging and pleading ensued, and finally my midwife consented and called the hospital to see if they had an opening for an induction. They said that the best time to induce was that night! At 6:30! All of a sudden my heart started pounding and I wasn't quite sure if I was ready for this, but since I had already pleaded my case with the midwife, 6:30 that night it was!

After some arrangements to watch Jake were made (thanks Nana and Papa!) and my house was cleaned (thanks Abby!) we drove to the hospital! At 7:30 they broke my water and the contractions started immediately, and finally after about 5 hours of some serious labor, I decided to have that blessed epidural. Unfortunately, however, the epidural stopped my labor and the midwife wasn't sure how I was progressing, so she went ahead and checked me because we were both "curious." All of the sudden she gasped, exclaimed, "You're crowning, you're going to have this baby right now!" and 3 contractions later, out came one of the most beautiful babies I've ever seen (I know, all mothers think that).

We were still stuck on a name, but Joseph kept telling me that he thought he looked like an Eli. That name was not one of the ones that was on our list, and I was not convinced. I really wanted to name him Andrew, so as a compromise we decided on Eli Andrew.

I had plenty of help when this baby came! Of course, Joseph was home for the week following his birth, so he was able to help with Jake and bond with Eli. My family came down and spent a few days with us then my mom stayed for a week to help out. In fact, I just got back from dropping her off at the airport. Yeah, I cried when she left. I'd like to blame it on the hormones, but really I think I was just scared to do this on my own! In reality, though, those fears are unfounded because Eli has been an absolute angel in every way (sleeping the majority of the time), and even though Jake has thrown his usual toddler tantrums, he has been a sweetheart also. I'm almost afraid to write that because I don't want to jinx it...

Welcome to the world, Eli! We are so thrilled to have you in our family and look forward to starting another new chapter in our lives with you.