Eli Matthew Gray arrived nice and punctual on his due date, Sunday, December 14, 2014, at 7:44 am. This is my third baby to come on their due date so I shouldn't have been too surprised. However, every day for a week and a half before I had very hard false labor and was convinced I couldn't go another day more. The days continued to pass and at my doctor appointment on Monday I was only dilated to 1 cm with no other progression. By Saturday evening I was beginning to think I'd have to be induced because despite the hard contractions labor didn't seem to be coming. I woke up about midnight that night and realized I was wrong and that I was actually in real labor. By 1:00 I couldn't sleep anymore and by 3:00 I woke up Mike and told him we needed to get to the hospital. Luckily, my mom had been staying the nights with us in case he came in the middle of the night. We checked into the hospital about 4:00am and by the time they checked me I was 7 cm dilated. All that labor had done something! The contractions were very strong but still a little spread out. I felt in control and relieved, yet worried that I was so far along. I really wanted to get an epidural this time around so I decided to stick with my plan. After getting me all set and running a few tests (I have low platelets during pregnancy) I was at an 8 when the anesthesiologist came in and I was able to get my epidural after all.
Eli was a little purple and choking a bit when he came out so I only got to hold him for a minute before the nurse took him and suctioned him out. Then I was able to hold and nurse him and meet my sweet baby.
Right away everyone was commenting on how big he was. When the nurse weighed him the scale said 9.2 lbs and she wrote down 9lbs. 2oz. Mike tried to correct her but she was confident she was right. Later after the nurse shift change, I asked the nurse about his weight and she double checked and realized he was 9lbs 3oz. My biggest baby by a whole pound!
Here are few facts about his birth that I don't want to forget:
- We were surprised he had hair! He has a little superman curl at the top of his forehead that I love.
- His blood type is B positive.
- Because he was a big baby he had to get his blood tested 4 times to check his glucose levels. (It's always sad to watch your new baby get pricked.)
- My sister Lori was able to join us for the delivery.
