The Story Eli's Arrival

Let me start with background information. Eli's due date was January 10th. I had been measuring on schedule during each of my doctor's appointments. Because I had a C Section with Jonah, I scheduled another C Section for January 4th.

Now that the background information is out of the way, let's get to the story. Looking back now, Kris and I both agree it is a pretty good story. I hope I do it justice through this blog. I had a regularly scheduled doctor's appointment on Tuesday, December 28th. The appointment was with Dr. Groff who would be on call the day of my scheduled C Section. This was one full week prior to January 4th. During the examination she determined that I was 2.5 cm dilated. I never dilated with Jonah and had to wait 6 days past my due date before he decided to come into this world. To this point, Kris and I had the nursery finished. However, our bedroom is downstairs and the boys rooms are upstairs. We had not prepared our room for the baby. The cradle was still upstairs along with the changing pad that was needed for middle of the night diaper changes. I guess that I should also mention that we did not have a bag packed and in the car, just in case. You would have thought that following the doctor's appointment where we found out that I had started to dilate that we would have got our butt's in gear and finished our preparation for the baby. But we didn't. We continued with life following Christmas and banked on our "Planned C Section date" of January 4th.

Let's now fast forward to Thursday, December 30th. My mom had taken a couple of days off this week and decided to come to the house to watch Jonah. I needed to run errands all day. I had to get my hair cut and buy some things for the baby. I also had made a doctor's appointment for my cold that was still lingering after 12 days. She came into town and I headed out for a productive day. I got home just before Kris. Mom was staying over night so Kris and I could enjoy dinner. Dinner was planned at PF Changs. We love this restaurant in Durham at the Streets of Southpoint. Everything is new over there and just as far away from the house as Crabtree Mall in Raleigh. Before dinner, we went to Babies R Us and REI. While in REI I noticed that I was getting uncomfortable. I just figured this was because I had a very busy day. After REI, we headed over to PF Changs. We ordered our meal and I was squirming in my seat because I was not comfortable. We enjoyed our Hot and Sour soup and Lettuce Wraps first. I love loved the Lettuce Wraps. On my way to the restroom, Kris mentions "what are you going to go into labor in the rest room". I told him to hush and not jinx me. Well..........

My water started to break in the bathroom. Just like most expecting mothers, I did not know what was going on. I was also in denial. I thought to myself, this could not be happening now. My C Section was planned for January 4th. This was a good week before my due date. I went back to the table and told Kris what had happened. He didn't know what to say either. We tried to finish eating our dinner, but I was starting to freak out. The waitress boxed up our meal and got us our check. We paid for the meal, and when I stood up to leave there was no denying that my water had broke. When I say broke, I mean BROKE!!! It was so alarming. This did not happen with Jonah. I didn't know what to do. I told Kris that my water had broke and it would not stop. That is all I could keep saying as I rushed out of the restaurant "It won't stop". Kris made it out of the restaurant and we got to the car. I was not in pain. I was in panic. Kris put Babies R Us bags on the passenger seat of the car, one of his jackets and managed to find some of Jonah's diapers that I could stick down my pants. I was willing to try anything.

Once in the car, we called the doctor first. She preferred we made our way to the hospital. Let me take a minute to remind you that we do not have a bag packed. We had nothing. We had no cameras, clothes, nothing. It was such a blessing that my mom was at home. She was our second call and she was as stunned as we were. The trip to the hospital was quick. Kris dropped me off at the door, parked the car and ran to the me. We checked in and headed straight to triage. I was thankful to get out of my clothes and into bed. The doctor's first question on the phone was, when was the last time you ate. I let her know that I was at dinner. She said we would have to wait 5 to 6 hours before I could have my C Section. UGGGG what a night we were in for. One good thing, was that we could have time to get a bag to the hospital before the birth. Kris called Mom and she packed a bag. She needed to stay at the house with Jonah so we called our Neighbors, the Champions. WOW are they the best neighbors ever. They agreed to get the bag to us at Rex as soon as possible. This was a good thing, because Dr. Madison changed her mind. We were going to have this baby just after mid night. I was 4 cm dilated and contracting every four minutes.

I was wheeled to the Operating Room to be prepped and Kris was changing into scrubs before we knew it. I never made it out of triage to a labor room. I went from Triage to delivery. At this point the C Section had started and there was no word of our bag arriving with cameras. All Kris could say was, I had always heard that less pictures were taken of the second child, but this is ridiculous". Just before the baby was born, a nurse came in with our cameras. A HUGE Thank You goes to Josh Champion for driving and Sonya for delivering the bag, it came just in time.

Elijah was born at 12:15 in the morning on December 31st. He was healthy and weighed 7lb 15oz. He was just over 21inches long and perfect. All of the doctors and nurses referred to us as the couple that was eating at PF Changs and continued to remind us that we would be getting a tax break this year.

It is a story for the books and feels good to have it written down. We laughed during the time when it was happening, got a lot of "I told you so" and "you should have had your bag packed". Looking back, we acted like most second time parents, UNPREPARED. However, through it all everything turned out just fine.