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New mommy to my son, Elijah Ryan. Wife to my husband and best friend, Nick. New homeowner and HGTV obsessed. Wedding Planner for Two Be Wed. Avid Pinner. Lover of writing, books, movies, vampires (not the Twilight kind) and Harry Potter. Enjoys lazy days, coffee and spending time with my little family. Here to share my tales of mommyhood, marraige, love and life.

Friday, March 25, 2011

The Birth of Elijah

So I tried very hard to write this on the one week anniversary of my little man's birth but being a new parent is tough, and time flies. Unbelievably though, it has been an entire week since I gave birth to the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. I can't believe how fast time flies and I already wish I could freeze time so he would never grow up. I wanted to share my birth story of how Elijah Ryan entered this world because I will never forget the moment my whole life changed.
Elijah Ryan Joseph
March 17, 2011 at 4:58 pm
7 lbs. 12 oz.
19 1/4 inches

We arrived at the hospital at 5 AM, nervous and excited that this was the day our little boy would be born. At the time of my arrival, I was already 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced so we were well on our way. Around 8 AM I had dilated to 3 cm and it was time to break my water. Everything they say about this is true, its warm and literally feels like your peeing yourself. By this point, my contractions were getting stronger because of the pitocin and I requested my epidural. Mind you I'm not really good with needles so I was mad nervous but I'd like to think I hid it well. However I was really afraid to get the epidural on my own since they don't allow anyone in the room other than the nurse and the anesthesiologist. However, the epidural wasn't really as bad as I thought it would be. Just slight pressure here and there. The worst part was the anesthesiologist leaving mid-epidural to incubate someone. Afterwards, we played the waiting game. I spent most of the day unable to feel my legs and switching sides every few hours. By 3 PM, I was 9 1/2 cm dilated and the contractions were longer and stronger. Even with the epidural I could feel the contractions. I decided not to increase the epidural because I wanted to be able to feel something in order to push when it came time. Which leads me to the hardest and most important part of this experience, the pushing aka the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Around 4 PM is when we officially started the pushing process which involved me holding my breath, while pushing as the nurse counted to 10 x 3. Eventually this because so exhausting. I could literally feel all my energy being drained from my body and my thirst was insane. All I wanted was water. As the baby was closer to crowning the real problems began. The baby's heartbeat got real high and then real low all too fast. Apparently my cervix was too small for the big guy and he was stuck in the birth canal. This part is real cloudy for me because I was drugged and exhausted, but Nick remembers everything vividly and has shared bits and pieces as we've looked back. Because things were getting real serious, one of my delivery nurses tried a new method and handed me a towel and we basically played tug-a-war to push the baby out. Surprisingly it worked and my arms were sore as heck for days afterwards. After 58 minutes of pushing, the doctors decided I wasn't going to be able to push this baby out on my own and had to use forceps to pull him out. Then panic set in because I didn't hear any wailing baby cry, instead all I could see was my son blue in front of me. Immediately I started asking, "Why isn't he breathing? Is he OK?" The nurses got to business quick cleaning him off and removing the fluid from his lungs. However they weren't able to remove all of it so he had to go to the nursery immediately to be monitored. I was so sad I couldn't hold my baby and spend the first hour of his life staring into his perfect little face. After delivering, I was too tired to even hold him up. It wasn't until 10 PM that I was able to really hold my son for the first time and it was indescribable. I fell in love instantly. He was the very definition of perfect and I couldn't get over the fact that I was apart of creating something so perfect. He was everything I'd ever wanted or imagined and more. I was so proud of me and Nick for what we had gone through and this symbol of our love. Experiencing birth is like no other experience ever, it will change your life and who you are forever. It really is the most magical thing I've ever been apart of. I guess after 9 months of a fairly easy and smooth pregnancy, a delivery of that magnitude balanced everything out. The books definitely didn't cover everything but that's okay because it just made it that much  more unique for me.

And now a week later, here I am. I'm loving every second of being a mother. Even the lack of sleep. It's crazy how your body just naturally adjusts to not sleeping. Elijah is the sweetest baby ever. He's always so calm and content. Sleeps all day and through the night. Doesn't really fuss over anything. All I ever want to do is kiss his perfect little face and hold him close to me. Although I really miss being pregnant (Surprise!), the bond of breastfeeding makes up for it. And everyday I can't get over my little creation of love. How much I love him already and want to give him my all and the best of everything. He has stolen my heart and I will never be the same because of him.

Well I know this is a novel of a post so I will leave you with some pictures of the birth! Enjoy!
Daddy holding Elijah for the first time.

First family photo.
Love at first sight.

Perfection.

The two loves of my life.

2 comments:

  1. i love this and i love the josephs. its so amazing to hear the details of the delivery. :] im so proud of you and that nicky j. can't wait to see all three of you guys.

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  2. Beautiful love story! I couldn't agree more with you that your heart is forever changed. Congratulations!

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