Video of the Growing Belly

It's only been about four weeks since I had Eli but I can't even remember having a huge belly. I still remember the heartburn and frequent bathroom breaks, but all my other pregnancy experiences are a distant memory.

Eli has recently discovered his hair. He pulls on his hair, and then he gets mad because it hurts him. But he won't let go. He reminds me of a dog chasing its own tail. Or a monkey who gets trapped by sticking its hand in a small hole to grab something sparkly, and it could run free if it would just let go of the sparkly item, but it is too stubborn to let go so it just sits there trapped.

And here's just a couple cute pictures of how Eli spends his time when he's not pulling out his hair.

Trained Ears

I have started to be able to wake up from hearing Eli just fussing in his room when he's hungry at night. I've been amazed a few times that I actually heard his whimpers in my sleep.

Jeff has class every morning at 8:00. Last week I realized I had not heard his alarm clock go off since we brought Eli home. When he came home from school I was eager to ask him if he has been using his alarm. I think he thought I was being sarcastic because he quickly apologized for having his alarm clock go off three times that morning.

I didn't hear a thing.

How am I able to wake up to quiet fussing and sleep through three rounds of Jeff's alarm clock? Chalk it up to another one of the many miracles of being a mother.

You Know You've Entered Motherhood When...

Despite your best efforts, you still aren't ready for the day until 7:00 at night.

You plan your life in two-hour increments.

Going to bed at 8:00 is going to bed late.

You catch up on all your TV shows in the wee hours of the morning.

Your furniture is remodeled with splashes of white.

You forget to eat, sleep and go to the bathroom.

You worry about completely ridiculous things while convincing yourself they are legitimate concerns.

Even with the long nights, fussy moments, spit ups, and constant diaper changing, I love being a mom. (And it helps to have a baby who is so darn cute!)

This Guy

has his days and nights mixed up. I think our neighbors hate us.

Our second night with Eli I was concerned because he kept waking up all sweaty. I was so nervous he had a fever, but when I checked his temperature he was just fine. I did some research on the internet and that really got me worried because some sites said infants who sweat in their sleep are at a high risk for SIDS. I talked to our pediatrician about it at Eli's first appointment. He seemed a bit concerned as well but told me not to freak out about it. It's in the Thomas genes to be sweaty, so I convinced myself he inherited my sweatiness.

A few days after his appointment my mom figured out his "sweat" was really a mishap from Eli's new parents not putting his diaper on tight enough. What a relief. Eli's such a good baby considering how clueless his parents are.

A Baby Story

I love reading ladies’ labor stories so I wanted to share mine in case anyone is interested in the dirty details.

It all started on Thursday, June 3^rd. It was the big moving day. After a night of packing, we woke up at 7:00. Jeff went to school and I (against my mother’s advice) started loading up two cars with boxes while he was gone. I was so anxious to get everything in the apartment and settled before the baby came. I kept telling Jeff I was a ticking time bomb. We were just praying I didn’t go into labor until we at least had all our stuff in our new apartment.

We had a lot of help moving everything in. By 8:00 that night I was exhausted and ready for bed. I started feeling my stomach tighten and there was a little bit of pain with it, but I didn’t think they were real contractions. We did time them and they were about 10 minutes apart. I had Braxton Hicks contractions very regularly throughout my whole pregnancy so I just thought it was the same old Braxton Hicks. I went to bed.

At 4:00 in the morning I woke up to my water breaking. It was only a small amount of water, so I convinced myself it couldn’t have been my water breaking. I paced around the living room for about 40 minutes in denial and frequently leaking. I finally decided to call the hospital. I told them I wasn’t sure if my water broke or not. The nurse on the phone was like, “Well, come in and we can check it out. You know, sometimes pregnant ladies pee their pants and think their water broke.” That made me think it really was all in my head and I shouldn’t even be going to the hospital. I woke Jeff up anyway and we headed out the door.

As I got out of the car I started getting contractions. And my little waterfall was becoming a bit more constant. I still didn’t think I was in labor. We went to get checked in and I said, “Hi, I just called.” The nurse said, “Oh. You’re the one who thinks your water broke. Come with me.” I could tell they get this a lot. I could also tell they did not think I was in labor either. The nurse helping me asked me a bunch of questions and then did a little test to see if the fluid I was leaking was amniotic fluid. She seemed as shocked as I was to see that it was. They admitted me and started me on Pitocin.

When I got to the hospital I was dilated 3 centimeters and 90% effaced. I was feeling contractions but they were not near as bad as I expected them to be. I had heard I wasn’t able to get an epidural until I was at least 5 centimeters dilated because the epidurals can slow down labor. I asked the nurse if that was true and she said, “Nope. Just say the word and we’ll get you the epidural.” Awesome.

Time was flying by and my contractions still didn’t hurt too bad. I decided to hold off a little bit on the epidural because I didn’t feel like I really deserved it yet. I have watched all these videos of women giving birth and they looked like they were in so much pain. I wasn’t even getting close to that point. I was anxious for 9:00 to roll around so I could watch Regis and Kelly. My contractions started getting pretty painful halfway through Regis and Kelly and the anesthesiologist was in my room before the show was over. So I probably only had about 20 minutes of very painful contractions.

I have always told people that the two things I was most scared of about having a baby were the IV and the epidural. I was pretty calm for the IV because I was in shock I was finally really about to have a baby. And the epidural was a piece of cake. It was just three little pricks and it was done. Then I was home free. I took a nap, called some people, sucked on some flavored ice. I felt like I was at a spa. They checked me after I got my epidural and I was already 7 cm. Three hours of relaxing and I was “complete” so they started getting me ready to push.

I started pushing at about 2:00. It was weird. I couldn’t feel what I was doing. And I knew I wasn’t doing it right. The nurse kept pretending I was doing great but after an hour of pushing and no change, I started thinking the baby would never come. Turns out Eli’s head was tilted weird. When the doctors checked his position, they felt his ear instead of the crown of his head. I don’t know how he managed to wedge himself down that way, but he did.

They had me push from all angles to try and get him to move. They ended up having my doctor come in for the last hour of pushing to see if he could get the ball rolling. My epidural was wearing off a little bit so I was able to better feel how I needed to push. In between contractions my doctor asked, “So Sarah, is this the hardest thing you’ve ever done?” And I said, “No. Running a half marathon was harder than this.” And it really was! As I was going on two hours of pushing, I still thought the half marathons were harder than having a baby. My doctor thought I was crazy.

After two and a half hours of pushing, Eli Thomas Excell was born at 4:32. When he came out he wasn’t crying and I knew that wasn’t a good sign. He was grunting and his nostrils were flaring so he was given straight to the respiratory team. One of the first things I said after I had him was, “I could do that again.” My doctor was in shock and later told the nurses to remind me I shouldn’t get pregnant for at least six weeks. Don’t worry doctor, I could and I will do it again, but I’m not in a hurry to pop out baby number 2.

I got to hold Eli for about two minutes and then they rushed him back to the nursery to put him on oxygen. He looked pretty sad when I held him so I wanted them to take him and get him breathing the right way. He spent the first night in the nursery and just before bed the second night he was finally completely off oxygen and was able to sleep in our room.

We were supposed to go home on Sunday morning but the nurses forgot to check Eli’s Bilirubin levels on Saturday. We found out Eli had Jaundice and would need to be under lights. We spent all day Sunday watching Eli tan. After a long and stressful hospital stay, we were finally discharged Sunday night with a little light bed for Eli to stay in for the first two days he was home.

We were thrilled to find out last Wednesday that Eli’s Jaundice is gone, his breathing is good and he’s a normal, healthy little baby. We love the little guy and highly recommend having kids.

The morals of the story: The best way to induce labor is to move apartments when you’re full term, and if you can run a half marathon, you can definitely have a baby.

One Week

Back to Blogging

Silly me. I thought I would be so bored with a baby. One day I will get around to posting a very condensed version of Eli's birth experience. Jeff never did update this news: Eli ended up getting Jaundice and had to be under lights for the past three days. Today we were finally told he's free from the tanning sessions and we can hold him as we please. Eli's had a rocky start but everything is going super good now. So until further updates, here are some more pictures to satisfy your Eli cravings.
We can't tell my mom thanks enough for coming into town for a week to help us out. She's really helped us fix up our apartment and she's kept us well fed. She also keeps reminding me not to be such a paranoid first time mom.
The comb over.

Jeff trying to get his homework done with Eli in the incubator.

His first bath.
Fresh out of the hospital.
One of the big reasons I liked the name Eli is because it is such a masculine name. There are so many boy names that are turning into girl names and I liked Eli because I don't see that turning into a girl name any time soon. We've had two appointments with the doctor and both times as they were calling us in they called him Ellie. Didn't see that one coming.

Update on Eli #3

So while we are waiting for Eli to come stay with us in our room this is what we have been up to:

Sarah has been resting in her bed making phone calls and being on her computer. She deserves a little R&R after what she's been through

This is my office/bedroom/nook where I spend a lot of my time studying for my classes and trying to catch an hour of sleep here and there.

Eli has just been hanging out in the nursery. One of his favorite things to do is suck a binkie. So naturally that's what he spends most of his time doing. He is a happy little guy when he's not being moved around. He really likes Sarah to hold him.

Update on Eli #2

Eli continues to do well. He is completely off the oxygen now and looking much better. We were able to spend lots of time with him and feed him which went really well. We are going to stay another night in the hospital just to make sure everything is okay.

Sarah continues to recover and she is doing great. We are both anxious to bring little Eli to our home. If all goes according to plan we will be able to go home Sunday morning. Here are a few more pictures: