Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Elijah's Birth

Elijah, our little Slovak boy, our meatest little-big-mite. Affectionately referred to as "Bubba" and "Boaz". The largest Anderson on record. My darling firstborn son 'bout did his Mother in.

The pregnancy was rough. I was deranged in the head the entire time. I felt like a different person the whole pregnancy. My belly was ginormous. I will never forget looking down and barely seeing my toes after we arrived at the hospital on his birth-day. Quite a few pregnancy discomforts were experienced with the pregnancy.

I was hopeful that he was going to be early, like I was for my Mom, and like my sister's little man who was 10 days early the year before. I was induced with Soph, so I didn't know if I was an early-bird or not.

October 10th, 2004 was his due date. October 10th was also a Sunday...a church day...not a good combination for an over-anxious, deranged pregnant Mama. Our loving church family (300 strong)was so excited for us, it seemed as if all 300 people asked my why I hadn't had the baby yet. I too, was wondering why I hadn't had the baby, so it wasn't a really joyous combination. For the record, the words "still here" can get old when you are pregnant. I have said and I'm sure, will say them again, but I was especially sensitive this Sunday as it was my due date. One man said to me, "aren't you going to have the baby" or something like that, and I just about lost it. He was being kind, but I wanted to say, "you have know idea just how much I want to have this baby!!!"

In came the due date, out went the due date, and I was beginning to realize that I was not following my Mom and sister's early-bird birthing schedule, and I was not happy about that. :) Like Sophia's pregnancy, I had been 3 cm for several days or a week, I can't remember. On Friday night after having pizza with my sister and brother in law - we used to live down the street from each other, sniff, sniff - I was having some contractions, but they weren't very strong, so we went to bed. After a few hours, I would wake with each contraction, then go back to sleep.

At about 4 or 5 am, I couldn't sleep anymore, so Graeme and I got up and starting timing the contractions. We called Scott and Abbi and arranged to send Sophia over to Scott for the day. I remember Graeme leaving to walk her down the street to their house. She had her little pink ruffle coat on, and I was teary eyed to leave my baby. She wasn't going to be our only little baby anymore, and a big change was coming and it made me sad...see I was a nutcase the whole nine months. :)

I don't remember when we left for the hospital, maybe 8 am or so. I can't remember how far I was when we got to the hospital, but I remember my contractions being very manageable and not very painful. By 1p.m.-ish I was 8cm, but my labor had been lagging all day. Finally, they broke my water, which made my contraction pick up in intensity quite a bit. They reeeeelllly started to hurt. However, I wasn't making any progress. After 2 or 3 hours of stalling at 8 cm, my Dr. helped me get into a position to hopefully help Eli's head move, he was posterior, and his noggin was large. He also started pitocin in there somewhere. I remember the nurse coming in and turning it up a few times. I didn't appreciate that. I was laying in bed, in total agony. I was sooo tired, and I remember thinking, if the next time he checks me I haven't made any progress, I'm going to beg him to cut me open and take the baby out. It was so awful. Finally, on one of his visits, I asked my sweet Dr., can you hold my hand. So, he sat there and held my hand for an hour or more and talked to us and said comforting things, etc. He was really nice to do that.

Finally, I was complete and when pushin' time came I wanted this baby out! I don't know how long I pushed, but it wasn't too long before our burly 9 pound 7 ounce brown-eyed boy with the large noggin' was born. 6:01 p.m., October 16, 2004, our handsome Elijah Graeme was born. My longest and most miserable labor. I was so exhausted after his birth. And then, the ravenous large child wanted to nurse constantly! They brought him to me all day and night long.

I remember getting an hour of sleep the second night and the nurses bringing him to me saying that he had been crying for 45 minutes and they tried everything, even sugar water, but he wouldn't be calmed. As you can imagine, I was afraid to bring the ravenous little booger home for I feared I would never sleep. However, big isn't all bad, as he slept through the night by 4 weeks because he had a nice big tummy.


He was such a fat and happy little baby, and I remember my arms hurting from holding his chub-licious body. :)

3 comments:

Dear Abbi said...

This is hysterical, Katina! I'm dying, because I remember it oh, so well!! Too funny!! I love his chublicious, hungry little self!

joy said...

love it!

ok, i just can't believe that you were a large pregnant woman. these posts MUST be accompanied by pregnant mommy pics.

Dear Abbi said...

I agree with Joy, you HAVE to post the most-recent ones, they look great!!