Post-Elliot post

first of all, thanks for all the well wishes and prayers. dan posted last and did not give any real detail, so i'll fill you in. i won't be too graphic!

i went into labor straight up midnight friday night. at around 1:30 i told dan it was for real, so please call our friend kiki to come over and watch the kids. emily had already been up that night and saw me in a lot of pain, so she figured out something was going on. and strangely enough, ethan woke up in the night crying for me. he almost never does that. i think he must have sensed something going on!

so anyway, we went in and, yep, i was in labor. the night nurses, while nice, were complete buffoons. it took forever for them to get my iv in. one nurse tried to give me one while i was contracting and blew a vain. she left after the 3rd try to get one in. finally around 3 i had my epidural and things were much better. we rested until around 6:30 when my water broke, and after that things went real fast. he was born shortly after at 7:20 saturday morning. it was by far the easiest and the most painless delivery i've experienced. i'd been praying, as had many others, for an easy delivery; God answers prayer! (aub, i guess it was God's will for me to have an easy delivery? :) he looks nothing like his brother or sister. he has black hair and has a much darker complexion.

he is just perfect, and we are all adjusting well. he's a fabulous nurser; the only one of my kids to learn to breastfeed before leaving the hospital; again, another answer to prayer. he's sleeping as well as a 5 day old can - and i've begun channeling hannah rogers' newborn sleeping habits (she slept through the night at 6 weeks.) i'm feeling better every day.

emily and ethan are absolutely happy with him. every now and then emily will remark how small and cute he is, and how he finally got out of mommy's tummy! they fight over who gets to hold him when we take the camera out, emily has promised (on video even) how she'll share her toys with him and ethan just plain loves being around him. when elliot leaves the room he cries for him to come back. they are both very sweet and tell him not to cry when he's upset. also, they call him by his first and middle name. it's a little weird to hear them say christopher. my mom was here for a few days and i know it sorta tugged at her heart to hear my brother's name being mentioned so often. but hey, one life ends, another begins.

i do have to share one more thing about emily. elly made a comment about how she loved emily's eyes in one of the pictures dan posted. emily had the happiest and proudest look on her face and in her eyes when she first came in the hospital room that first day. i'm sure it was the drugs, but her expression made me tear up. i know siblings are generally happy to have another brother or sister, but my kids are truly happy he's a part of the family, and that makes me happy. elliot is loved.

we've had a website for the kids since emily was born. dan updated it to add elliot. we have not updated it in a very long time, but at least elliot has a page now! please continue to pray for us. we sold our house today and will close on our new house tomorrow. let the madness begin!

http://home.houston.rr.com/dmcneal/baby.html