SIX MONTHS!!!

 ELI MICHAEL

 September 13, 2011

7lbs 6oz

20 inches long

 March 13, 2012

17 lbs 4 oz

28 inches long

Go ahead and file this one in the "better late than never" category of life, but here are some pics and thoughts of Eli's first day on the outside. It's been an amazing and exhausting 6 months, worth every second.

Eli's birthday had been scheduled for about 6 months (think I'm a little type A?). It was a little strange knowing what his birthday would be, since it eliminated the element of surprise, but after all of the (terrifying) surprises that went along with Sully's birth, it just had to be planned this way. Still, I admit as his scheduled arrival date approached, I hoped to get the process started a little more naturally. My methods included: eating pints and pints of raspberries, dumping cinnamon on everything I ate and attempting to walk around as much as possible. I even managed to waddle in Old Bills Fun Run the Saturday before he was born. I joked with friends I met along the way that I hoped my water would break as the route passed near St. Johns. No such luck. Eli enjoyed being crammed into my pelvis. The night before the big event we drove over to Idaho to leave Sully with Auntie Lisa and Uncle Mark. It was rainy and getting dark, but we finally got around to snapping a picture of my giant belly with the pregnant tree on Teton Pass. We'd done it with Sully so we wanted to do it again with. Eli, but summertime is so nuts it was hard to find the time!

 September 12, 2011, TETON PASS

Mark and Lisa treated us to an excellent meal at a Victor eatery, and then we bid adieu to our formerly only child and headed home to get a few hours of sleep. I managed to sleep until about 3 am, until the anticipation got the better of me and I decided I should wash and blow dry my hair (the latter being a luxury I rarely indulge in, but I knew there would be pictures). I eventually woke Mike up around 4:45, and watched patiently as he grumbled about the early hour (really dude?)  Then I watched enviously as he filled his cup with hot steamy espresso and filled his water bottle with ice cold water (I was prohibited from eating or drinking anything).  After that,  we were off to the hospital.

That morning was shaping up to be one of those perfect, perfect, late summer days in the Hole.  My mind began to wander (as it often does) to the thought of how lucky we are to have a reason to celebrate the beginning of summer (Sully's Bday) and the end of summer (Eli's Bday).  We arrived at the hospital, just as the sun came up.

Once inside, we were at the moment I had been dreading and fretting over for months (years, actually since the fear of this moment had kept me from wanting to have a second baby for quite sometime), but I found myself oddly calm.  The nurse got us set up and started prepping me-putting the heart monitor on my giant belly.  It was at this point of Sully's birth that all hell broke loose and the hospital went on red alert to get him out of me since his heart rate was barely existent.  I held my breath and kept my eyes peeled for the little heart rate number to flash a good heartbeat, which it did.  When the amazing, awesome Doctor Roberts poked her head in to see how I was doing I joked- "we've gotten past the first 30 seconds of this thing, I think we'll be ok!"

This machine was our friend this time.

 After that, it was mostly easy going, joking with Mike and with the nurses.  Soon I was being wheeled into the OR,  another moment I had dreaded based on my last experience in there, but again- cooler heads prevailed and I was as calm as could be.  In fact I only panicked a little bit when the drugs started to immobilize my legs,  I really disliked the sensation of my brain commanding my legs to move and my legs failing to respond- that jarred me in a way I was not expecting.  But just as that was starting to freak me out,  Mike was brought in the room and his presence is always calming because nothing on this earth alarms that man.

Ain't no thang!

From there things went pretty quickly,  the nurses and Doctors seemed a little frustrated by the massive amount of equipment in the room.  Apparently the room was being used to store a lot of equipment because the county was preforming a disaster readiness drill that day and they had cleared out some of the other OR's to make room for the festivities.  It seemed that everyone was trying to figure out how to navigate themselves around all of that stuff-  to us it seemed a lot like that scene from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life:

 

 "Ahh, and this is the most expensive machine in the entire hospital!"

 As Mike and I joked the team set about their business and while I'll save you the details of the sights and smells that ensued, I will say that after some pretty gnarly whaling on my abdomen,  a screaming, pink, little man was successfully yanked out of me and the rest, as they say, is history.

 "What the hell is going on here!?"

 "nice to meet ya!"

It took the team maybe 40 minutes to get me patched up, during this time Mike was with Eli as they did all of the post birth stuff.  I found myself crashing pretty hard from the adrenaline of it all, so I actually took a snooze on the OR table -that seemed odd to me, and I remember asking for permission to do so.

 Finally back in our room with Eli in my arms (I didn't have to wait an entire week like with Sul!)  all just felt right with the world.

Later that afternoon Mark & Lisa brought the newly minted big brother Sully to see Eli for the first time.  Sully had been pretty excited but mostly anxiety ridden about this whole situation- he was pretty concerned about the idea of his Mom being cut open.  So he sort of came into the room somewhat pensively, but once he saw Eli it was all over: "He's soooooooo cute!" he swooned.  Later that day, Mike had taken Sully home for a break, when he came back he had changed into his fancy clothes,  because Sully knows an important occasion when he sees one and demands to dress accordingly.  

The hospital stay was frustrating.  I felt pretty darn good and really wanted to get up and moving around.  But I was forbidden from doing much of anything, only allowed to eat ice, but not drink water?  (Um what?)  I was allowed to sit on the edge of the bed but not touch the floor (um, had it turned to hot lava?)  truth be told, when the nurses weren't looking I did what I needed to do, whether it broke the rules or not- since pressing the help button resulted in a 45 minute wait, if the help ever came at all- so screw it- I needed something from my bag, there was my bag, I went and got it! (in the nurse's defense, it was not their fault, they were understaffed and overwhelmed with 6 women in labor at once and a new computer system that apparently no one had trained them on)  I was discharged early,  I really couldn't take another night being there, after our most excellent St. John's new parent candlelight dinner and I was super-duper happy to sleep in my own bed!

YUM!

"I can't take another second here, lets goooooo hooooomeeeee!"

So there it is, the story of Eli's arrival.  The subsequent 6 months have been a blur but here we are- living the life with a babbling, drooling, demanding blue eyed little man.  We sure are glad he's here!