Introducing baby Eli

Baby Eli Edwin Whitney was born at home on April 3, 2011 at 9:29am.

He weighed 8lbs 14oz and measured 21 in. He was our biggest baby by over a pound.

I had a wonderful water birth and for the first time one of our babies was born into daddy’s loving hands.

For 10 days leading up to the birth I had been experiencing prodromal labor. So when contractions started again on Saturday night I didn’t pay too much attention to them; I was convinced it was more of the same.

I lay down, walked, drank some wine and finally got in the warm bath tub to chase them away so I could sleep. The contractions did go away for around 45 minutes so I went to bed.

But at 11pm though they started again, the same tightening in the back and belly but this time they were all lasting nearly a minute (unlike the “fake” ones that were 35 seconds long). These contractions were irregular so I was a little confused.

At 2:30 I woke Eric up and I told him I was having contractions and they were not going away. They were coming every 10, 5, 2 and again 10 minutes apart. He filled up the birthing pool and I relaxed there. All the sudden I notice I didn’t have a contraction for 20 minutes so I got disappointed. Then I got a contraction that lasted 1:30 min and it was very strong. I labored in the pool for a while wondering if this was the real deal. Eric wanted to call the midwife, but I kept pushing it off. I was afraid that if she showed up she would tell me that I was just going through more prodromal labor and that I was only a 2 dilation. I had told Eric to call her around 6 but we actually called her at 7am. Eric explained the situation and Kathy, my midwife, said that she would come and check things out and if it wasn’t the real deal she could go home. We agreed and she arrived at 7:45am with all her gear.

She checked my vitals and then she checked me and gave me the best news I had heard in a long time, “You are dilated to a stretchy 8.” Wow I was so excited. It was game time from then on out I was focused, concentrated, and ready to work. She also said that if the baby wasn’t in a very odd position I would have had the baby already so she sent me to do some squatting and sitting on the exercise ball while they were filling up the birthing pool again.

My contractions now were very painful and coming every 3 minutes.

I got in the birthing pool and one of the midwives was pouring warm water on my back, which felt very good (I was kneeling and leaning forward over the edge of the pool).

Then I decided to push. I felt a pop and Eric said he saw a cloud coming out. They asked me if my water broke but I wasn’t very sure about it.

I felt something different in one of my pushes but the baby wasn’t coming out so I decided to switch the leg I was bending and I pushed again, it felt like the baby went down. I got excited but then I felt as if somebody was pushing the baby back inside and I was confused and in pain.

The baby was coming out with his hand over his head so the midwife was trying to pull the arm down. As the midwife guided me to squat down deeper I got a really hard push and the baby came out. I didn’t wait for a contraction to push. I did it with all my might because I really wanted to be over with it and baby Eli came out. I flipped position very quick as I caught my baby under the water and sat down back against the side. It felt so good holding my baby. I kissed him and told him that I love him. I patted his back and he cried.

Eric came to my side and we cried of joy. The girls were there; they saw their little brother being born and were overjoyed. Grace said “I though being born was going to be disgusting but it wasn’t!”

God is good and we feel so blessed.