Saturday, May 16, Chris and I spent the day at the mall and just doing our usual Saturday running around. When we got home and got ready for bed later that night, it was hard for me to even lie down. I thought I was just having a little pain and suggested taking a ride to see if that would help. We got back home and I thought, "let's go to the hospital. I will at least get pain meds until I am induced on Monday."
We went to the hospital and the nurse checked me and I was a cm... Just like I had been for 3 weeks. She told me in order for me to get pain meds, I would need to dilate more. I had to walk around for an hour straight. It was painful. I had to stop every few minutes (I was having contractions) and when I was checked an hour later, I was at 3 cm. The nurse said she was going to check me in an hour. By this time it was nearly 1am. At about 2, I had dilated to 4 cm. I was kept overnight.
The next morning when I woke up, I was asked if I wanted an epidural. I knew then that he was coming soon. For the rest of the day I laid around and waited. Chris didn't sleep the night before and had less sleep than me, but he refused to sleep. Later in the morning/afternoon, my epidural started to wear off and they gave me more. It was so much though that I couldn't feel my legs. Chris and the nurse had to lift me to move me. It was not fun. The nurse finally came and told me that I was going to have to have some meds to have the epidural wear off some so I could feel to push. Dr. Patel had come in earlier and broke my water, so I was just waiting for them to tell me to push.
At about 2:15 the nurse came in and told Chris and I that we were going to start doing some pushing before Dr. Patel came in. We started some pushing for about an hour. It wasn't anything hardcore, but Chris and the nurse held my feet while I did some pushing exercises. Dr. Patel came in and from there it was go time.
I was doing 4 sets of 10 seconds for pushing and it doesn't seem like a lot until you have to hold your chin down and not take a breath for 10 seconds. Those 10 second seem like 1,000 when you are in pain. After pushing for what seemed like an eternity, Chris, the nurse and Dr. Patel had all started saying " He's crowning! Push!" I was worn out and slowing down until that point and as soon as I heard crowning, I went for it. They told me I could push when I
wanted since he was crowning and I think they thought I would take my time since I was so tired, but I went into beast mode and started pushing before the nurse could even start counting. The three of them got wide eyed because of my second wind, but I wanted him out! I pushed and Dr. Patel said he was a third of the way out, which made me go harder. The he was halfway out and I pushed harder and finally at 4:33pm, Elijah Alan Branson came into the world. Chris said throughout the whole pregnancy he wouldn't cry when Eli was born, but guess who cried more than me? I think I was too exhausted to cry, but trust me, I have made up for it when I look at him every day.
Our families all waited and when he was born, Chris went and told everyone and they all came to see him. We had to stay a couple more days so they could monitor us and he could be circumcised. We had so many visitors bringing gifts and food. Eli's first week was so busy we weren't home one whole day because of traveling to see everyone. Everyone loves him...the nurses were all Googly eyed over him too. They all wanted to watch him and kept going on about his blonde hair. I know that he has definitely won Chris and my heart.
