On November 16th, Rebecca and I headed to the hospital around 7 in the morning after her water had broken. It actually broke the preceding night but we weren't sure that was what was happening until later when it became more "apparent." Out of all the midwives there was only one we had not met and she was, of course, the one present that day to deliver our child. She evidently had years of military experience which seemed sort of obvious after meeting her. Our first conversation consisted of her chastising us about not getting to the hospital sooner. Not a great start. After that she warmed up considerably and ended up being really great in the delivery room. I guess some people aren't much on first impression but she was very in control and good at her job.
Rebecca had a fever that reached the 103 to 104 range and she was shaking like a leaf once the pitocin started. She opted for an epidural and it was the best thing she could have done. It really settled her down and she seemed almost perky after it kicked in. Her blood pressure was also elevated so we had to keep an eye on that as well. Because of the fever the baby's heart rate was up and after an hour of pushing our midwife told her the baby really needed to come out soon. Around 20 minutes later, little Eli was lying skin-to-skin on his mom. It was an absolutely amazing moment, one that only a new parent can truly understand.
Unfortunately, we only got to spend a few minutes with him before they took him to the NICU for observation. He was doing more grunting than crying so they wanted to make sure that his blood oxygen levels were where they needed to be. After about 10 hours he made his way up to our room to hang out with his bleary-eyed and bewildered parents.
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