Introducing...

Elias Christian
Sunday, December 18th @  9:04 PM
7 lbs, 4.7oz
20 inches

Let the TMI, gooey birth story ensue:
(You can read Annie's birth story here.)
Tuesday, December 6th, I had my 36 week appointment. Baby was head-down and low and guesstimated to weigh about 6 lbs 4 oz. I was also dilated to 3 cm and 50% effaced.
A week later, on December 15th, I was 3.5 cm and 100%. By this point, Braxton Hicks contractions were common and becoming stronger.
Late Friday afternoon (December 16th), I was laying on my bed and felt a small gush of fluid. It was only about 2 Tbs and clear and odorless so I wondered if maybe my water started leaking. Within the hour, I started getting really crampy and uncomfortable. I took a hot shower that night and had a hard time falling asleep from cramps and heartburn.
Saturday morning (December 17th), I woke up at 4:30 AM with a little more fluid and strong, regular contractions. They were between 5-10 minutes apart and hurting enough to make me stop whatever I was doing to breathe through them. Around 6:30 AM, I had my bloody show and kept losing parts of the mucus plug throughout the day. When contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and didn't let up for a few hours, we decided to head in to the hospital to get checked. Plus, if I really was leaking amniotic fluid, they'd need to see me within 24 hours anyway. By this point, I was in enough pain that I was hoping they'd admit me and it would all be over soon. Unfortunately, the amniotic fluid tests came back clear (I'm still not sure I wasn't leaking), and I wasn't dilating fast enough to stay. As the nurse said, "37 weeks is far enough along that we won't stop labor, but early enough that we won't help it either." So I got sent home with mixed feelings. I'd much rather labor at home than in the hospital, but I was really hoping things had progressed enough to stay. I spent the evening in a hot bath, and contractions slowed to every 10-15 minutes for a couple hours, though they remained strong. I went to bed ready for another night of no sleep.
Sure enough, on Sunday (December 18th), I was up again at 3 AM with the same contractions, still 5-10 minutes apart. Something also felt different at my cervix and when I used my fingers to check, I could feel my amniotic sac bulging out (I warned you this would be TMI and gooey). A hot shower offered little relief so we sent Annie to church with the family while Tucker and I stayed home, and I labored. I tried some walking and swinging and even some very gentle jumping on the trampoline, but mostly just bounced on my exercise ball and squatted and breathed through contractions. Tucker offered more than once to break my water, but with how quickly Annie came, I was too scared of having him on my living room floor. I just really, really hoped I was making progress and felt so lost about when to go back to the hospital, seeing as my contractions had stayed the same strength and were still anywhere from 2.5 - 12 minutes apart. Around 4 PM, I told Tucker that even though my contractions weren't changing, we'd check to see if I'd made any more progress, and if I had, we'd head to the hospital. A self-check guesstimated I was between 5 and 7 cm (don't worry, we were clean and careful about it) so we gathered our stuff, left instructions with my brother watching Annie, and headed back to the hospital.
A friend tipped that the loudest people are more likely to be admitted so I was sure to add some moaning through contractions as we checked in, even though I'm the type that gets really still and silent when I'm in pain. Luckily, I was able to talk enough to check in, and Tucker could answer whenever I couldn't. A quick check in triage showed I was at 6 cm, and with bulging waters that could break at any moment, they suddenly seemed to hurry things a little faster, which I was grateful for. Unfortunately, it took them 3 different tries to get my IV lock in and start me on fluids so that was annoying, but I was mostly just focused on each contraction. I almost broke Tucker's fingers a couple times so he had to adjust my grip so only his thumb was turning purple.
With Annie's lightning delivery, the doctor warned me that I very likely wouldn't have time for pain meds this time around so I was prepared for that. But this time, after 2 days of early labor and no sleep, I was ready to rest and enjoy my delivery. So I signed those epidural papers gladly. The anesthesiologist was waiting for us as they wheeled me into the delivery room and got to work right away. She was a nice old lady and chatted with Tucker about all the dads who faint and the resulting hospital rule of "Dads must be sitting during the epidural." It wasn't long before the tingly warmth started to spread, and a few contractions later, I was nice and numb. My one thing with epidurals is that I already have a tendency towards low blood pressure, so when you combine that with spinal anesthesia, I get a little droopy. I was prepared for that this time though, so I was able to warn the nurses and ask for oxygen. It's especially bad laying on my back (I'd get dizzy on my back all through pregnancy anyway) so I had to keep flipping from side to side every 20 minutes to make sure the epidural worked evenly. I still ended up with a deader left side, but I loved that I could still move and feel pressure and function enough. Last epidural, I was 100% dead from the abdomen down and couldn't move or feel anything.

After an hour of chilling and watching Heavy Weights and deliberating over names some more, they checked me at 7:30, and I was at 8 cm, but my waters still hadn't broken. Then around 8:30, Tucker asked when they'd check me again. The nurse said probably not for another hour, but I let her know that I have a history of progressing quickly. She said that my dr would come in and check me as soon as he finished a delivery so we'd see then. Around 8:50, he came in, and I was at 9cm. He broke my water and walked out to let me finish progressing. Except I immediately felt pressure like I had to poop so I told the nurse, and she speed-walked right out after the doctor to get him to come back while the other nurse got my legs into the stirrups. The doctor quickly got his apron on, and sure enough, there was baby, (Tucker: "Karli, he has hair!!!") and 6ish pushes later, he was out!
I remember looking down and seeing that scrawny, grey, goopy baby as they passed him up at immediately put him on my chest and suddenly feeling that overwhelming high of hormones. My heart beat faster, and I just felt so much love and gratitude and amazement at that tiny little human. I loved being able to recognize that moment and really remember it because for some reason, I didn't experience that with Annie. Of course I still loved her, but that rush of hormones was overshadowed by shock, I think, so bonding happened more over time with her.

As we rubbed him down and patted his back to help him clear his throat, the doctor clamped off the cord and instructed Tucker where to cut. Remembering the trauma from my first delivery, I suddenly thought to ask the doctor if I tore at all and was so surprised and grateful to hear a "Nope! Doesn't look like it!" A few minutes later, I delivered the placenta, which the doctor also held up and showed me - So cool! I passed the baby off to a nurse to get weighed and measured while the other nurses pattered around turning off monitors and cleaning up and such. Tucker and I both bet that this boy was smaller than Annie (6lbs 13oz, 18.5in) because she was 10 days early, and he was 19! But we were wrong! Little Boy surprised us at a healthy 7lbs 4.7oz and 20 inches! And then we got some time to ourselves to sit and look at our tiny boy.

Pretty quickly, Tucker said, "I think he's Daniel." Before going to the hospital, Daniel Reed had been our top name choice, but I could never fully commit to it. We also knew we liked Christian and Levi. But as soon as Tucker said the name out loud, I knew for sure it wasn't right. And the more he said it, the more he also knew it wasn't right. So we tried out our other name ideas and nothing was fitting! It's a bit of a scary feeling to be holding a human you made and have no idea what his name is supposed to be! So then we started tossing around other random names. Names that we'd probably brought up at one point or another but quickly dismissed or never thought about seriously. Tucker started going through biblical names: "Matthew? John...? No." Then I randomly had "Ephraim?" pop into my head, but that definitely wasn't right. But then Tucker stuck with the "E" train and suggested "Elijah? ...or Elias?" Definitely not Elijah.... And then we both kinda went "Huh...interesting." Elias just seemed to fit so well, but it also felt weird to just know that was his name so quickly when we had no inkling a second before. So I told Tucker we'd wait until morning to make a real decision.

Meanwhile, my mom had left pretty quickly after we let our parents know I was being admitted, and she pulled into town right after I had him. While we tried nursing, she was nice enough to go get Tucker and I big, juicy hamburgers and fries and shakes. Never has a hamburger and shake tasted so good, lemme tell ya!

After two hours of bonding (around 11PM), they moved me to a bigger recovery room with a comfier bed. I was a little sad to say goodbye to my delivery nurses Christy and Rachel because they were so awesome, but the recovery nurses were great too. I guess they were pretty busy because they said the wouldn't have time to take him away for a bath until morning, which I was just fine with. It wasn't long before the epidural completely wore off, and I was able to get up to use the bathroom and become a little more mobile. Of course, that first night is always a little rough because the nurses are coming in every hour to check on either you or the baby so we didn't get a ton of sleep, but we did get in lots and lots of snuggles.

First thing the next morning, Tucker and I confirmed that our little boy was officially Elias (Eli) Christian Denton, and every time we say it, we just marvel at how right it is for his little self. It was a bit surreal writing it on the birth certificate paperwork and realizing that this is his name for the rest of his life.

After breakfast, my mom brought Annie to meet Baby Brother. Up until that point, she'd been convinced his name was Daniel Tiger, but the moment she saw him, she sang "Baby Eli!!!" and ran to him with kisses and loves. Seeing Tucker sitting there with both our kids on his lap just about killed me with cuteness and love. I have a whole different post waiting to brag about the amazing dad and husband he's been during this transition. I've loved every minute of watching our growing little family together.

We stayed in the hospital until early Tuesday afternoon, and the transition to home has been fairly smooth. Annie is a good helper though is definitely a little more needy, which we're trying to be patient with. And with it being the holidays, there's plenty of family around to snuggle and help.

Mostly, I'm just so glad our little Elias was here for Christmas and that our family feels so much bigger and more whole with him in our lives.