Elliot Haddon

We happily announce the healthy arrival of Elliot Haddon. On Sunday-Father's Day, he was born at 4:58pm weighing in at 8lbs. 10oz and 21 inches long. He came one day short of his due date. Many of you were praying for a much better labor/delivery experience since Emma's was so difficult. The Lord was so good. We couldn't have asked for a better experience. So here's our little guy's story:

I was having prelabor symptoms for the last week and a half or so, and, being oh so ready to be done with being pregnant was trying all the old wives' tales you can think of to get things going. Friday at my weekly appointment I was dilated 4 cm and my doctor felt confident that she would be seeing me this weekend. I went home very excited, but tried to supress my anticipation since I was feeling so normal. Early Saturday morning I was feeling a little crampy, but nothing to be alarmed over and it soon passed. The day went on as normal- we went swimming, I walked Emma in her wagon all over town, did a few loads of laundry, cleaned up the house...

Michael and I were just about to go to bed when the contractions began. After waiting a little bit I told him that I thought I was going into labor. That was fun watching him speed into action! Although the contractions weren't painful at all, they were increasing in intensity and only 5-7 minutes apart. Our dr. told us to go to the hospital if they were steady like that since we would have to drive an hour to get there. But I called her just to make sure. By the time we headed out, the contractions were 3-4 minutes steady. We arrived at the hospital around 1am and by then they were only 2-3 minutes apart- but still not painful. I was monitered to make sure I was in real labor for a couple hours and walked around some more. After a bit they checked me in- 5 cm dilated. We were able to rest a little bit and the contractions actually became less regular. When my doctor came in that morning, I was 6 cm dilated and she broke my water. A few minutes later the contractions started to become more painful. About an hour an a half later-7 cm, I received the epidural (I almost felt guilty getting it after only laboring for 1 1/2 hours in pain compared to hours and hours of pain with Emma)! A couple hours later the dr. checked on me and surprisingly I hadn't made any progress. So they gave me the lowest dose of pictocin hoping to speed things up since my water had been broke several hours earlier. An hour later, I was fully dilated and he was ready to go! After about 30 minutes of pushing, I had our screaming baby boy in my arms. It was wonderful. Words just can't describe the miracle of life. We are doing so well- I can't believe how great I feel ( I didn't tear at all, which makes a HUGE difference in recovery)! Just to give you an idea of how good I felt- we were able to leave the hospital 24 hours following Elliot's birth and we went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse on the way home (Michael's parents were with us-we probably wouldn't have done that by ourselves).

We are very thankful to the Lord for a sweet healthy baby and such a pleasant birthing experience.