ELIZA

We know you all want to see the pictures first, so here they are, in reverse chronological order. The last picture below is actually the first picture of Eliza.

Eliza’s birth story as told by her father.

The apprehension for her arrival began in earnest on Thursday the 22nd of January. On this day Emilee and I visited her midwife. She examined Emilee and determined that she was 2.5cm dilated and 80% effaced. She animated us by informing us that she didn’t expect to see us at the appointment the following Thursday, meaning that she expected delivery to occur within the week. Well this shocked Emilee and I and we begin to prepare ourselves mentally for the birth of our child. Emilee went to her last day of work the following day a little worried that she may go into labor. Every night we went to bed expecting to wake up during the night with labor in full-swing. As the week passed Emilee experienced transient contractions with no distinguishable pattern. In fact, a couple of nights Emilee awoke me and informed me that she was experiencing intense contractions and that I should time them. In the dark I fumbled for my stopwatch and prepared to time the next contraction. The next contraction never came and Emilee and I drifted off to sleep, only to wake the following morning wishing that our baby had arrived. It was almost like Eliza could sense we were timing the contractions and she didn’t want us to hurry her. Severely disappointed, the week passed without further excitement and we went to see the midwife again on January 29th. She was truly surprised to see us again in her clinic. Again she examined Emilee and informed us this time that Emilee was dilated 3.5cm and was going to give birth within 24 to 48 hours. She went as far to tell us that the only way Emilee was not going to deliver within the next 48 hours was if she walked around with her legs crossed. Our hopes and expectations again were spiked. We made an extra effort to go on extra long walks every chance we got. Without event the 24 and 48hr time-points passed. By now we had lost total faith in the predictions of our midwife. Finally, Sunday February 1st arrived and Emilee passed the morning experiencing intense albeit erratic contractions. She decided not to go to church that morning for fear she might begin active labor in the middle of worship services. I went to church alone but left my cell phone on vibrate mode in my pocket. After about an hour and 15 minutes at church I received a call from Emilee that her contractions were intensifying. She asked that I come home and I did promptly. Her labor began around 2pm in the afternoon and contractions were coming about every 15minutes. By 7:30pm contractions were coming every 5 minutes and were lasting about 1minute. So we called the hospital around 8:15pm and told them we would be coming shortly. We left for the hospital around 8:30pm and arrived around 8:50pm. We checked Emilee in and we found out that we had the good fortune of having our midwife there on duty. We joked with her that it had been more than 48hours since she had psyched us up about the imminent arrival of our baby. The midwife examined Emilee and found that she was dilated about 5 to 5.5cm. The midwife was elated, but Emilee was disappointed, she expected after 7 hours of ever-increasing-intensity labor that she would have dilated more than an additional 2cm! I tried to encourage her, and assure her that her progress was good. We then were designated as ‘keepers’ and were checked into our very own labor and delivery room (room 10). Emilee was fitted with an I.V. and fetal monitor and the nurse spent the next 40 minutes filling out paper work and asking Emilee question after question between contractions. Finally about 10:20pm they examined Emilee again and found that she was dilated to 6.5cm. Emilee was heartbroken, the past hour had been filled with very intense and painful contractions, she felt she should be further along than 6.5cm. Our nurse sensing her desperation took this opportunity to find out if Emilee would reconsider her decision to not get an epidural. Emilee relented and the nurse without thinking or asking twice put the wheels in motion for Emilee to get an epidural. I was unsure whether or not I should try to encourage Emilee to resist the urge for the epidural. I knew going in that she didn’t want to get an epidural, but I didn’t want to make her feel bad about for wanting pain relief. Luckily, our midwife redeemed herself and suggested to Emilee that before she get an epidural that she try taking a hot shower. Emilee accepted the invitation and within 10minutes was taking a nice relaxing hot shower. The first contraction came and went in the shower. Then the next contraction came, and Emilee begin to scream, she said she felt like pushing, she said the baby felt like she was going to fall out. The nurse hurriedly ushered Emilee back to the delivery bed and examined her and found that Emilee was completely dilated and that our baby was on her way out! She called for the midwife and for the next 30-35 minutes Emilee pushed with all her might with each contraction. She was amazing!! and after about 7-8 contractions with Emilee pushing 3-4 times per contraction Eliza was born at 11:11pm. (Although we weren’t yet sure that that was going to be her name until next morning.) Eliza was beautiful and perfect. She weighed 8 pounds and 4ounces was 21.5in long, had a head circumference of 14in and a chest circumference of 13.75in. She had a substantial amount of dark hair on her head, with thicker patches on the side and back of her head.

To sum it all up, Emilee was absolutely amazing, and Eliza is the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen.

Click on the slide show above to visit the picasa album.