Tuesday, March 11, 2008

He has his Opa's hands, his Grandpa's chin and his father's personality

Well needless to say we have been very busy with a little toddler and an infant. Getting pictures up on the blog just didn't seem to happen each night when we thought it might. He sure took his time in the womb but when he was ready, he was really ready. Eli's birth was very smooth. Our midwife was amazing. My labour progressed much more quickly this time and when it seemed like I should be getting into active labour, I was actually in transition. I thought it seemed pretty tough!! Once our Doula realized this, she had to call the midwife to come right away. Then she had to call again to tell her to hurry when I suddenly decided I was ready to push!
Eli was born in a birthing pool and our midwife (Louise) almost had to get inside the pool to turn him in the birth canal when he got his shoulders stuck. It was a bit tense for those who knew but they kept calm and I just kept pushing. He would have been born 'in the caul' except that Louise had to break my water and then the sac around him just to get to him out

Either way we were so happy to have him safely arrive. He does have a fractured collar bone due to the strain of the birth. When he was born, because he was so big they were a bit concerned about high sugars (gestational diabetes) and a high respiratory rate. They both went down and our midwife was amazing checking on him every 4 hours for 12 hours so that we didn't have to go into the hospital.
His collar bone seems to be healing really well and he already has good use of his arm. His breathing is a bit stuffy which seems to make it hard for him to sleep. We have been proping him up to sleep which has helped. Maetia is doing amazing with Eli. She loves him already and gives him kisses and hugs all the time. She is definitely having a hard time dealing with sharing our time and being patient while we attending to the baby's immediate needs. We have been trying to make sure she feels very special and I think it is harder on me than her as I struggle to be fair and have two babies with different needs.
We are feeling so blessed by God that Eli was born so safely at home with no intervention. This experience was so positive and it wouldn't have been without the people involved. My mother and my sister were both able to attend, we had a doula and a midwife (the other midwife didn't make it in time!). Thanks to them, and to my wonderful and supportive husband we had a 11 pound, 24 inch long baby with a very nice size head-not too big!!
Thankyou to everyone for your blessings and encouraging emails. We will try to get some more pictures up soon. They will be pictures with Grandma and Grandpa who we can't wait to see in 4 days!!





We think he's gorgeous





We welcome Eli Michael Contant !!

Here are some much awaited pictures of Eli. We have to load them 5 pictures per post so there may be a few posts. Enjoy!!