Eli meets his Granddad...
Eli and his great-grandpa, and namesake, get to know each other.
Eli had his first taste of Guiness, with the help of his Mama, on St. Patrick's day, not bad for a week and a day!!
For those who have asked, below is the birth story, and after that is a short description of the ups and downs of our first week in the hospital. (All of the photos are above.)
The birth story:
Eli arrived 8 days early because a doctor's visit determined that my massive amounts of swelling was indeed becoming preeclampsia, the treatment of which is delivery of the baby. The appointment was on Friday, and we got a call Sunday morning to go to the hospital that evening for an induction the next morning. After a crazy day of preparations, we arrived with birthing ball in tow, took a final photo of my largeness, and tried to get a couple hours sleep. And yes, we did get laughed at by the security guard for walking in with an exercise ball, adding fuel to Jason’s theory that not many people show up bouncing a large rubber ball in the lobby (which he was).
The next morning at 6:00am the induction began. I knew I'd be limited to a 5ft radius near the bed due to continuous monitoring, but I was happy as long as I could be out of the bed and on the ball, etc. After only an hour of moving around, due to high blood pressure I had to stay in the bed to keep it as low as possible. Things continued to progress, and I got to 4cm by noonish, but the baby had not dropped at all.
My doctors had been concerned about the baby’s size as measured on several ultrasounds. He had measured in at the 97th percentile around his torso, which is not good for fitting shoulders safely through my pelvis. Two hours later, not much had changed. I had not dilated further, and he was not dropping. I agreed to try an epidural, hoping that it would help things relax and make progress.
Before administering the epidural, they needed to do a blood test. Two more hours had gone by (it was 4:00 pm by now) when my doctor returned to find me in the same state with no epidural and no blood test results. At this time, I was still at 4 cm, and the baby had not dropped despite pretty active labor. She felt that things were not progressing, I was having a really big baby, and a cesarean was the best option. I agreed, and away we went!
It is amazing how quickly things happened after that! I think from the time they wheeled me out of the room to the birth of our baby took less than 20 minutes. He was born with a very healthy set of lungs at exactly 5:00 pm. :D It took a bit longer to get me stitched up, and then the three of us enjoyed an hour together in the recovery area before going to our room. Our families were waiting for us, and Eli had a happy introduction to all!
The hospital story:
After Eli was born Monday evening, we were in the hospital until Friday afternoon. It was anything but a relaxing recovering time! One thing after another kept us on our toes! Tuesday we had a steady stream of visitors until that evening when the nurses became concerned that Eli’s temperature was elevated. They called the pediatrician, and when the temp did not go down, he was sent to the neonatal intensive care until (NICU) for antibiotics and tests. Newborns should not have temperatures, and they needed to make sure something serious was not the cause. It was really hard to see him hooked up to the machines with an IV.
On Wednesday, Jason and I spent the day going back and forth to feed Eli. It was a good way to get me walking after the cesarean, but it was a sad reason. That night when I went down to feed him at 3:00am, I got the good news that we could bring Eli back to our room! I called Jason to come join us, but he had just thrown up! Eli eventually got back to our room early that morning. Jason continued to throw up every thirty minutes until mid Thursday morning, and he was able to go home to recover from the stomach virus. On Thursday afternoon, Eli was able to come off the antibiotics, and his blood culture came back negative. He had a clean bill of health!
I still had high blood pressure, which should have gotten better after delivery. We were monitored and planned to go home on Friday. They did a blood test on Friday morning and said I could go home even though my blood pressure was still high. We were so excited to take him home!! We happily packed up, and said farewell to Fairfax hospital!
Since then life has gotten better and better as we have all settled in togehter. We did have one more bump when I got Jason’s stomach virus that Saturday night, but with the help of some anti-nausea medicine I got better pretty quickly. Eli continues to thrive, and weighed 10 lbs at his two week check-up! :D
Look for more frequent posts with much fewer words and many more photos!
(Ann 
Eli in recovery room shortly after birth.
Our first family photo less than an hour after birth.
The welcoming party as we arrive at the hospital room after recovery.
Yes, I'm tired, but I'm going out to get my first Guinness darn it!!
Out and about in Alexandria on the Potomac. The weather is encouraging us to get outside! :) 
