Our Bundle of Joy

We’ve had some big changes in the Leek household! Not only did we buy a house and move recently (was it three weeks ago? Four? What day is it?), but we also welcomed our sweet, sweet baby boy a little early on December 10.

I thought some of you might be interested to know how that happened. Don’t worry, I won’t go too far back in the history 🙂

On Saturday the 6th, I started having really bad lower back pain. Like I thought I had a kidney stone/was dying. Haha. Derek thinks that might have been the beginning of labor. That was happening off and on for a few days.

Then on Tuesday night, we had a college group Christmas party, where I fell. Let me set the scene: I’m dressed as a snowman (because pregnant bellies work really well for that), I have oven mitts on my hands, and I’m trying to run to the other side of the room to unwrap a Hershey’s kiss and run back to let the next person on my team do the relay. Deciding to try running at 36 weeks pregnant was apparently a bad idea. I was completely off balance and fell, on my stomach, hard. Cue instant embarrassment and a trip to labor and delivery triage. I was monitored for 4 hours that night, but everything looked good. I’m not sure the fall actually triggered labor, but it definitely could have helped move things along.

I woke up early the next morning with bad cramps, but since they were pretty much constant, I didn’t think they were contractions. After a few hours, we called my doctor and they said to come in. I had an ultrasound done and saw that baby was doing fine and was very low. I was having pains with about 30 seconds in between. They hooked me up to a monitor for a while, but then a nurse came in to tell me that I wasn’t having contractions. I told Derek that if those weren’t real contractions, I didn’t think I was going to be able to handle the real thing. When a doctor checked, though, she saw that my water had broken and I was dilated to 3-4 cm. Aaaand off we went to labor and delivery!

The next few hours were kind of a blur. I was 4 cm dilated when I got to L & D at 1:30, and we had Elias at 6:32. At 6 cm, or the puking stage of labor for me, I got an epidural. Before I was actually in labor, I had mixed feelings about getting an epidural, but I thought it was the best thing everrrrrrr. I felt the best that I had felt since becoming pregnant 🙂 I still felt a lot of pressure, but the pain (and vomiting) was gone and I could relax a little. I got to 10 cm and started pushing around 5:15-5:30, and then our little guy was here!

Elias Henry was 7 lbs, 2 oz and 21 inches long when he was born. He was pretty big for a preemie!

We came home from the hospital 2 days later, and apart from some issues with jaundice, everything has been going pretty well. Now we’re just hoping for some weight gain and a little more catch-up to where he would have been if he weren’t born a little early.

Even though it was kind of a surprise, we’re so happy our little man is here! He’s a pretty happy baby, and we just love him. And some day we might sleep again 🙂

One thing we’re once again reminded of through this experience is what great people we have in our lives. You all are the best. The messages of congratulations and encouragement, meals, cleaning, sweet gifts, and support from our family and friends mean so much to us. I don’t know how people are able to survive becoming first time parents without people like you all in their lives! Thank you all so, so much!