We are thrilled to announce the addition of Elijah Wesley Howe into our family.

Stats:

• Escaped the womb: Tuesday, November 17th, 2009, 1:41 am
• Topped the scale: 6 lbs 11 oz, 19.5 inches
• Labor Team: Mom, Mother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, husband, nurse and doc [my father-in-law was at the hospital, but I kicked him out during the particularly gooey moments.] 
• Slip-and-Slide: it took 4 pushes. seriously.

DISCLAIMER FROM NATE: Some of the aforementioned “gooey parts” are described below.  Proceed with caution.

I don’t know about you- but I consider labor and delivery the most exciting sporting event. I feel like I am the MVP with amazing fans rooting for me. I love reading labor stories, so I must share mine to contribute.

I had a suspicion that my water was leaking the same day I had a routine appointment scheduled. My ob did a super cool pH test and determined that it was indeed “the great waters.” She asked if I had a bag packed with me. Are you serious? Of course I didn’t bring my hospital bag to my appointment. The real truth was that I didn’t have anything packed. Not even a tooth brush. Eli wasn’t due for another 12 days so I figured I had ages to pack.

Nate and I went home and began to pack. Phin played like normal, Nate quietly panicked, and I spent 15 minutes deciding what outfit to bring the baby home in. Team Efficiency! We finally called a friend (Thanks, Tammy!) to watch Phin and scooted off to the hospital. The hospital in Fort Morgan is a great asset to the community. However, it is extremely different from any other hospital I have experienced. I am using the word “different” to be polite. 

Okay, on to the exciting parts. I really wanted to be free from an IV and other crazy gadgets for as long as possible. The nurse had different plans. Happily, she didn’t freak out when I unhooked everything to get in the shower or bounce on the birthing ball. She inserted a small strip next to my cervix that was full of prostaglandin. It got things moving right away. Unfortunatly, my uterus was on the varsity team and my cervix was still second string JV. My uterus was contracting every minute against a nearly closed cervix. (Picture a tube of toothpaste being  squeezed with the cap on.)  My doc said that this caused my placenta to start to bail ship early, known as placental abruption.

To avoid c-section, they gave me a shot that was supposed to stop contractions.  Instead, it slowed them down to 3 minutes apart.  After that, my cervix put on its game face and got dialatin’.  (Nate says that this post definitely contains too much information.)  I got to a 7 pretty fast, then threw up, which got me to a 10 in seconds.

The nurse encouraged me to hang out and wait a while once I was at a 10.  “Alright, Allison.  Just try to breathe through the contractions – that way you won’t have to push as long.”  I thought she was joking.  I told her I was going to push.  It took what seemed like ages to find my doctor and put together the baby-catching cart.  Four pushes later, we met Elijah.  Once he was cleaned up, we toasted with dollar-store sparkling cider and Phin’s plastic cups.