The birthday

The day before.....

Chelsea was awakened with uncomfortable contractions at 4:30a. She woke me (Tara) up at five. Most of her pain was in her back. We timed the contractions to be between 3 and 10 minutes apart with only some pain. I encouraged her to go to school knowing it would be many hours if not days and a distraction would be nice. Chelsea wanted to see friends one more time so she went to school. At school her contractions did not change much at all. She had plans to spend time with Abril Baker at her house. At 4:15p Chelsea called me wanted to get Michael and go home because her pain level was getting worse. I picked her up and on the way to get Michael her water began to leak. At our house she cleaned up and contractions seemed to get farther apart and less intense but since the bag of waters was broken we called the Doctor (Huffman since our's was on vacation) and she said we should go in by 1am to be checked. So after watching some Fellowship of the Rings we headed into the hospital. I was trembling I was so nervous.

At the Hospital.....

Chelsea was admitted because her water had broken at 5p and the doctor wanted to start pitocin at 4am if her labor did not progress on its own. Unfortunately it did not progress and Pitocin was started. She did a great job with Michael and me and Jennifer there as support and encouragement. Chelsea was in significant pain at 6 am and asked for Nuban to help (She was dialated to 5 cm). It seems to relieved her for about 45 minutes. She says it only helped for three contractions and she was just too dizzy to complain. Chelsea was a little humorous after she was given the Nuban. She was mumbling on and on about how the pain wasn't any better it they just did not want her making noise and it was to quiet her. She told Eve she should not have eaten the apple. Chelsea apologized to me and Michael for yelling at us and to Eli for having to take the drugs. She did her best to labor as long as she could and was exhausted. At 8 cm (around 10:30 am) she could do it now longer and it was decided to get an epidural. Chelsea did amazing. She was able to rest with the epidural and then push for 3 contractions and Eli was born at 12:36 pm.

Pictures of Labor and the first hour .....



Grandpa Rick, Great Grandma Judy, and Aunt Melody were supportive as well waiting patiently in the hospital for Eli to arrive. They arrived at 2 am. Grandpa Rick was the first to get Elijah's pictures out (through facebook) to family and friends that were eagerly awaiting them.