Pictures

plan for the day

what a night! elias was born at 10:35 pm - he is amazing. the grandparents were able to join us in the recovery room around 11:45 pm. the rest of our family who were here last night were able to see him in the post-partum room around 12:30 am. everyone left around 1:30 am. we got to sleep around 2:30 am, and woke up to feed elias at 5 am. we are in the post-partum room with him right now. as far as the plan for today, we are going to try to rest and get used to having our awesome elias with us. i will post some pictures as soon as i can force myself to leave the room and go to the lobby where there is wi-fi for my computer. we are going to plan on keeping the visiting to just family today since we have so many family that live nearby. we are asking that they wait until after 3 pm if possible. we want to invite friends who want to visit us here to do so on thursday or friday after 3 pm if possible. with the c-section we will be here until friday or saturday.

baby born - welcome elias

for all of you who are still awake and checking...elias is here! born at 10:35 pm, 7 pounds 2 oz. 19 1/2 inches. healthy and happy and getting loved on like crazy. pics in the morning.

c-section

no progress over last two hours. c-section to begin soon.

6 centimeters

the doctor just checked natalie and she is 6 cm dialated. the baby has moved down some and it looks like there is a chance we may deliver rather than c-section. natalie is comfortable - epidural is a life saver. doctor will check again in an hour or two. if things take too long, elias will share a birthday with jaxon f. instead of christy g.

doctor was pleased

doctor came and was pleased with progress, will continue to monitor.

5 centimeters

natalie is measuring 5 cm right now, so it seems that things are still progressing. we think the water breaking and epidural have really helped move things along. with this progress we will continue to wait rather than jumping to the c-section at this point. with the dialation, we will still need elias to be small enough to fit and in the right position. so we will wait to see. hopefully all of you who are tuned in are ready for a long night.

4 centimeters

the nurse just checked natalie and said she was 4 cm dialated. so we will continue to wait. it may be a later night than we thought.

epidural in place

well the epidural is in place. it is offering much needed relief and hopefully will help with much needed rest. we will provide updates as we have them.

breaking of the water

the doctor was here about a half hour ago. she checked natalie and said there was some change to her cervix, although it didn't open much more. it did move down enough to break natalie's water. she said this should help contractions and dialation. she will be back at 5 or 5:30 to check natalie again. she said we should be able know at that point whether or not delivery is an option tonight. if it is, we will wait. if not...c-section. regardless, the doctor said we will have the baby tonight either way. natalie's pain is increasing, so an epidural may be coming soon.

still waiting on the doctor

we are still waiting for our doctor to come. natalie is continuing to have contractions. the baby's heartbeat is great. kara j. stopped by to visit natalie over her lunch break. now that i'm thinking about the visiting thing, just a quick thought about it - assuming we have a c-section tonight, we will probably try to keep visiting to a minimum after the baby is born, for tonight and probably tomorrow. i'm not sure what to expect. i will probably post some sort of visiting plan tonight when we have a better idea.

latest update

so here's the latest since our last update. after natalie got settled this morning, i went home to shower quickly. when i got back, natalie was really uncomfortable with heavier contractions. we walked the halls a bit to try to take advantage of gravity - it really helped to give natalie some relief. the nurse just checked natalie though and she has not dialated any further - bummer. she is trying to rest now, still being induced, still having contractions, but beginning to prep herself for the c-section. the doctor should be here soon. we will update then.

our doctor was in

our doctor just left. she checked natalie and said that there was no increase in dialation overnight. she is still around 2 cm. they have begun the inducing again this morning. natalie will be checked by the nurse in a couple hours. our doctor will be back to check her at lunch time.

discomfort - natalie's 1 am post

at about 1 am i started having stronger contractions. who knows how dialated i am right now but my back is giving me a run for the money. between contractions are a nice break but the intensity of the contractions are definitely increasing and more often/longer. let's hope it's paying off and progressing my dialation. i have a hot compress on right now because i am refusing the nubane option, it's helping relieve a little bit. i'm tired and tyler is sleeping but i can't sleep through this...thank goodness for design star on hgtv at 3 am. gotta go here comes another one ehhhh. i just keep thinking he'll be here by this time tomorrow.

lots and little

well it's 6:45 am and we are both up and awake (natalie has been for awhile). last night was a night with lots and a little. there were lots of bathroom visits for natalie, lots of contractions, lots of discomfort, and lots of informercials. there was little sleep, little relief, and little chance of me figuring out how to avoid falling off the couch bed. we got to bed around 11:15. natalie was up way more than i was due to the contractions, but it was fairly sporadic for both of us. we are excited about today though, because today we meet elias - awesome! the plan for now is that they will begin inducing again soon. our doctor will be in this morning, and if we don't have a baby by 4 pm today, we will have a c-section around 4:30 pm. natalie wrote a post at 1 am that i will upload shortly. have a great day and thanks again for your encouragement and prayers.

no baby yet...done for today

so the plan for tonight is that we are taking a break from the inducing so that natalie can eat and rest. the nurse will do a few things to try to help tonight. we are going to eat and relax and get ready for tomorrow. we should get started around 7 am. we will update then, and will also update if anything changes tonight. thanks to all of you who followed along with us today!

2-3 centimeters

the nurse checked natalie about ten minutes ago. not a lot of change. she is 2-3 cm dialated. we moved her to the rocking chair to see if that will help move things along. our next check may be with the doctor. i think natalie may be a little worn out from sitting in the bed all day. the contractions have been a little more uncomfortable.

no changes...just more contractions

no changes at this point. natalie has continued to have contractions. we do have a few visitors right now - holly, joel, my dad.

2 centimeters

the nurse just checked natalie and she is currently at 2 cm dialated. the baby has still not moved down much, so we are hoping that continued contractions will help with that. we just finished watching the movie, wild hogs. now natalie is watching a baby show on discovery. i told natalie this is like a date day together - easy for me to say :-)

contractions

so the inducing has resulted in some contractions. no report at this point as to how these have affected anything, but there have definitely been some contractions.

iphones and teddy grahams

so far the iphones have been our main time burner. natalie has been reading blogs with hers. i have been checking email with mine. we are now watching i love lucy. good heart rate still - up and down and up and down! no contractions yet. i just enjoyed some free teddy grahams. unfortunately natalie is limited to clear liquids only.

inducing has begun

we thought that we would probably be settled and begin inducing around 11 am. we were right on schedule. natalie's iv is in and the inducing has begun! elias' heart rate has been great. everything has been easy going and stress free so far. we will let you know how things progress. we are currently watching jon and kate plus 8.

getting settled in at the hospital

natalie is all dressed up in her fashionable hospital gown. we are getting settled in and will begin inducing soon. the room is great, i am hoping to watch sportscenter all day (not likely though :-)

waiting at the doctor's office

we are sitting in the doctor's office waiting room getting ready to meet with the doctor. the plan is to go to the hospital from here. we will keep you posted.

last night at our house without him...

well it is 12:06 am and we are going to bed for the last time at our house before we will have elias with us. we can't wait! we will have updates for you when we get rolling for the day - especially for v.t. :-)

planning to induce...

we are going to be updating this blog in order to let all of you know the latest related to elias' birth. I will be updating from the hospital on monday. we are planning to induce at this point, unless something changes. as I mentioned on our personal blog, according to the doctor we will try this for 1-2 days. then at that point, if elias has not been born, we will have a c-section. again, check back here for updates, and feel free to help us pass the information on to anyone who might be interested.