Our new little sweetheart

I'm a bit tired, so this will be a quick note - but since it's the biggest news of our lives to date, I figured it was a good idea to document it.

My last post was on August 7th at around 12:15 in the morning. I was getting ready to go to bed and had been complaining about being pregnant still. Well, I went to bed about an hour after that - still pregnant. However, at around 3:30 I woke up for several different reasons - Cory had jabbed me in the back in his sleep, and my hand was dead asleep - and really hurting (I've been struggling with pregnancy iduced carpal tunnel). Well my hand hurt so much that I decided to look up in my pregnancy books to see if there was anything I could do. While I was doing that I had a couple of contractions - different than any other contractions I had before. So I started to read more in my book about other pregnancy concerns, and about contractions. After the first couple I figured I should start to time them because these hurt, and they were pretty close together. Well the first one I timed was about 5 minutes apart...then 4...then 3....then about 2 1/2 minutes...I continued to time them and they were between 2-4 minutes apart. So I woke Cory up to tell him, and I called the hospital to say I thought we'd be coming in shortly. The nurse talked to me for a while, and said - "Well, it's up to you to come in and be evaluated. I would suggest maybe taking a warm bath, and seeing how you feel after that." So I did - but the contraction didn't change other than hurting more.

So around 5:15 am we decided to load up our stuff and head to the hospital. They checked me and sure enough - I was in labor! I was dilated to about a 7 and one of the nurses said that I should have been in sooner - I told her I would have been if they hadn't told me to stay home :).

Anyway, I was still handling things well, but the nurse helped me to see that an epidural would help the process of labor, as far as helping me to relax, and still be able to enjoy the delivery without feeling grogy, or out of it. So we finally got the epidural (after trying to chase down the anestegiologist who had come to get us set up, only to decide to take a nap for 1/2 hour before getting me taken care of). Anyway, the contractions were still noticable, but the pain was minimal, and that was nice. However - I hated not being able to move my legs - it was a crazy feeling.

So in the mean time while all of this is happening my mom is trying to make it in time for the delivery - trying to make the 7 1/2 hour trip MUCH faster....

Well, it really didn't feel long after the epidural was in effect they had me pushing. The baby was so far up in the birth canal that at one point the nurse warned me that a c-section would have to happen if he didn't move down further. But really, after a very small number of pushes he was down far enough to deliver.

I think I pushed for about 1/2 hour-45 minutes. Honestly it felt great to push. The dr, nurse, and my dear sweet hubby were all such great support that I felt like a champ - they really cheered me on, and helped me with the energy I needed.

After he was born he didn't start crying very soon - in fact, he never really did cry. But he was gorgeous from the minute he arrived, and is completely healthy. I know I'm biased - but honestly I think he's the most gorgeous baby ever born!

So this is how our baby Gabriel Cory Ellis was brought into the world at 10:18 am on August 7th, 2005. He weighed 7 lb 14 oz, and is 19 1/2 inches long - the perfect size! He is such a sweetheart, and truly the answer to our (and many other people's) prayers.

I will post more pictures when we get more settled.