Evan Ray Elkins was born at 3:51 pm on August 25, 2009. He weighed 9lbs 2 oz and was 20 inches long. Big Boy!!!! We are so pleased to announce the birth of our son. He is already 12 days old. I can't believe how the time goes by. Sorry to all of you who have been checking the blog anxiously awaiting his arrival. It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Evan decided to make his entrance into the world on Tuesday, just three days past his due date, what seemed like an eternity to his parents who were nervously waiting for any sign that the moment had arrived.
I woke up at about 2am and noticed some pains through my back that I had not had before. As time went on I became more and more convinced that these were the contractions that I had been waiting for. Around 3am I finally got out of bed, snuck downstairs and began to time the contractions. They were coming 3-5 minutes apart already but were not terribly uncomfortable. I decided around 4 in the morning to wake Kendall. He began to rush around the house doing what amounted to a lot of nothing. I calmly took a shower, dried my hair and sat down for what I knew would likely be my last meal for some time. We called the hospital around 5:30 and they decided that at my leisure we could go ahead and come in due to the fact that we live 45 minutes from the hospital. Better safe than sorry. We loaded up the car with everything but the kitchen sink (glad we did, you'll find out why in a bit) and we headed out, me, Kendall and my mom.
When we arrived at the hospital they saw that I was already 5cm dilated so they decided to admit me and move me to one of the labor and delivery rooms. As time passed the contractions became more and more intense. I was determined to avoid any type of pain medication and relied on my loving husband who on this day proved himself to be the loving, comforting, protective partner that I could only pray for.
Hoping for very little intervention, I was disappointed by how much monitoring the nurses wanted to do. The IV was painful and my wishes to walk, move around and relax in the tub were overlooked for the "safety of my son" who always seemed to be fine when the monitors were on. As things became more uncomfortable I began to have a harder time keeping still during the contraction. Shocker!!! Because the monitor would slip off the nurse finally decided to put an internal monitor on the baby's scalp. After this uncomfortable procedure that did not work and left me mad and them with no clearer picture of how he was doing it was time to push.
After 14 hours of labor and only 18 minutes of pushing Evan Ray was born. He came out like superman with his hand above his head and he was beautiful.
I was able to breastfeed in the first hour and everything seemed fine. As time passed Evan began to sleep longer and eat less. My colostrum was not coming in quickly and the baby had a harder and harder time getting satisfied. After the first night and day it became obvious that he was not getting enough. He had dropped from 9 lbs 2 oz to 8 lbs 4 oz in a day and a half. When they tested him for jaundice on the day we were to go home they found that his numbers were very elevated. We would not be going home for what would turn out to be three more days.
Evan had to be placed under lights and his blood had to be taken every 8 hours, something he found particularly painful. He was such a champ under the lights. He would lay on his back in his little diaper kicking and flailing his arms and legs with his little blinders on to protect his eyes. Not being able to hold him for nearly 3 days except to feed him was very difficult and I have to admit that it drove me to tears on several occasions. To make matters worse he decided that the ease and speed of the bottle was far superior to the method mommy was trying to force on him.
On day 12 I am pleased to announce that my milk finally came in, we kept at it and Evan now weighs more than he did when he was born and is strictly breastfeeding. He sleeps good, eats good and he loves his mommy and daddy. He is everything we could have ever asked for. A blessing from above. A hungry blessing, so I must go. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers and I am so happy that I got to share this news with you.
