a okay!

its hard to believe that elias has been here for over two weeks! we took him to his pediatrician and everything checks out a okay! in fact, he is already one pound up from his birth weight (the pediatrician said he always hopes babies are back to their birth weight by the time they are two weeks old, so eli is definitely getting the food he needs).

aaron has been working hard at EHS design and been contributing some great ideas to the current projects. they love his work ethic and his work...so much so that they offered him a permanent position officially starting on august 29th. we are so thankful for this provision and are content with where God has us in the moment.

and me, eli, and bandit soak up every moment aaron is home. we have had some great weekend time enjoying the sunshine that has come. eli has already rested in the shade beside lake washington and joined us on our walk picking blackberries.

so darn cute

just had to share some cute pictures. it is going to be very difficult not posting daily when we have a baby this darn cute!

elias had his first bath at home...at 12:45am! aaron and i were changing him in the bedroom and did not implement the very handy 'pee-pee tee-pee' and let's just say that we couldn't leave elias' hair smelling of urine! so bath time we had and it went really well. even more important was the lesson learned regarding the usefulness of the tee-pee :)

it has been nice being on maternity leave but i do love to get visitors :) our neighbor dorothy stopped by to give a home made crocheted blanket. it is beautiful and will be perfect for elias' first pacific northwest winter. the clarks have also stopped by. jeanne gave me a nice break and eli was quite comfortable in her arms. and bandit has been pretty good overall. he was a bit anxious in the beginning when the baby would cry but has pretty much become used to it.
i just had to share this last picture. without going into too much detail, breastfeeding has been going well. we got this free shirt from the hospital for it being breastfeeding awareness week.

welcome elias william garrett!

the contractions were averaging about 4 minutes apart and aaron and i decide to call the hospital. the clinic nurse said that we could come in and get checked out to see how far along i was in my labor. once we arrived i was, to my sirprise, only 3cm and 100% effaced. the MD decided to do a non stress test to see how the baby was handling the contractions. the test showed that the baby was fine but not optimally handling the contractions so the MD on call decided to admit us and break my water to get this show on the road.

this is me all gowned up and hooked up to the monitor before my water broke (still smiling)! once my water broke, there was no turning back. the contractions were way more intense and coming about 2 minutes apart. after a couple of hours of some good labor i finally opted for the epidural.
and now i am smiling again :) i was checked soon after the epidural was in place and was 5cm! we were headed in the right direction. pitocin was started to help my contractions and i was periodically checked throughout the night. all the while, my family was on the road from california! my dad, mom, and sister arrived at the hospital around 10pm and i was about 7cm dilated, then 9cm, then 9.5cm, and then i just stayed there. 9.5cm for 4 hours. one last check to see if i was complete at 10cm or else we were heading into a c-section. but alas, 10cm i was and we were going to begin pushing. the plan was to push for up to 2 hours. the labor class we took did a great job preparing us how to breath through the pain and gave us info on pain management options. but the actual pushing is a whole different ball game. after that first push i turned to aaron out of breath and said, "this is really hard! it is going to be a long 2 hours." and it was because 2 hours turned into 4 hours! at this point, the on-call MD went home and my primary OB arrived on shift. she was great and we really worked hard to push this baby out. but finally, she made the call to go ahead with the c-section because my pelvis wasn't big enough to let this baby through.
here i am being wheeled to the OR and i dont know if you can tell in this picture but i was feeling nothing at this point. its amazing what some concentrated lidocaine and morphine can do! i literally couldn't even lift my head and could barely keep my eyes open. but i was still fully aware of what was going on and the excitement was overflowing. aaron was able to be in the OR with me and brought his camera along to capture one of the best moments in our lives. here are some shots.

through the sterile field window you can see them pulling the baby out and bulb suctioning him. his cry was such a glorious sound :)


elias william garrett
8 lbs. 7 oz. <-- this was a shocker to everyone in that operating room. no wonder he couldn't fit! 21 inches long
the c-section went without complication and we settled back into the labor suite. grandma, grandpa, and auntie were waiting anxiously to meet the newest member of our family.

it was a big day for everyone, especially elias. he was such a champ and tolerated the 28 hours of labor, surgery, and even his first bath! i wrote in my previous blog that we were so excited to meet the feet to fill this pair of cute green socks. well here they are!

we stayed in the hospital for two days and were blessed to have visitors come by.


my aunt and uncle and 2 kids were vacationing in WA and were able to stop by!

aaron, elias, and i had a great experience at evergreen hospital. we loved all of the staff and couldn't say enough good things about our OB doc. all that to say...we were ready to go home!

going into 39 weeks!

we spent the afternoon at carkeek park at the EHS company picnic. it was a beautiful day and a beautiful park and with delicious catered food.


we couldn't resist!

and we have a praise! aaron had a 90 review at his work and it went great! of course i knew they would love him, but it is truly a praise to God that he has found favor there and has been working during a time when the architecture field is still fragile.

and lastly... i am heading into 39 weeks. i cant believe it has already been practically 9 months in waiting and counting. and it really can be any day now. my OB appointment today revealed that i am 2cm dilated, 90% effaced, and our baby is at -1 station. station refers to where the baby's head is in relation to the pelvis. it typically goes from -3 (baby's head floating above the pelvis) to +3 (head out of pelvis).

all to say...we are heading in the right direction! aaron and i are so excited and still amazed that we will have this little miracle in our lives very soon :)