Welcome, Baby Boy (Elliot Isaac Hansen)

I FINALLY had our Baby Boy, Mr. Elliot Isaac Hansen! And the good news is I didn't have to be induced (well, not really). He came three days early, on Sunday January 13. I started having contractions last Sunday at 3:30 in the morning, although they were 20 minutes apart. So I took naps between contractions. As I got ready in the morning, they got progressively worse and closer together. We decided to walk around the mall to help things along (don't worry -- we weren't Sabbath breakers -- I just needed a warm place to walk). The contractions got to be 4-5 minutes apart. So I called the doctor, dropped Dottie off at Em's church, and got admitted. However, since I was sitting still for like an hour, my contractions slowed down considerably. I never was one to have consistent labor. The doctor had me walk around for an hour, and then he told me he'd give me petocin to help move things along. Bless the man.
So, I took the petocin, and then labor really started to kick in after about an hour or so. I got the epidural. At this point, I was at a 4. We started to watch "24" season 2, and I started to have real pain. After a few painful contractions, I called the nurse and told her the epidural wasn't working. She checked me, and I was at a 10! I went from a 4 to a 10 in a half hour. She rushed out of the room, and told me not to push. And boy, I was having the pushing sensation. I was having labor with all of the pain. So they located the doctor, and I pushed the baby out in 6 minutes and 5 contractions. It was such bad pain that I was strongly motivated to have it over with.
And there he was, our beautiful baby boy, born at 5:01 p.m. He is so beautiful! I think he's so well-formed because he came out so fast. His head is perfectly round. He was 7 pounds 8 oz. when he was born and 20 inches long. So I was enjoying life and our new baby boy, and then I started to have real pain, pain that turned into something worse than labor. I called the nurse, she gave me more drugs; it didn't even touch the pain. They moved me upstairs into my recovery room, and I then I tried to go to the bathroom. I was so swollen I couldn't go to the bathroom. The nurse who was helping me saw how swollen I was and said I had a hematoma. It's a deep internal bruise, basically. A blood vessel snapped and shut down several other blood vessels. I was so swollen, I had to lay on my side and clutch onto the bed for comfort. So, this nurse called the doctor to see if I could get some stronger drugs. They gave me a narcotic in an IV, and that helped a bit more. The doctor came in to see me and decided I needed surgery. So at 3:30 in the morning, I got a spinal block, the doctor located the vessel causing the problem, and drained the blood to stop the swelling.
I think this happened because I pushed the little guy out so fast, it just damaged my body. I wouldn't worry about this ever happening to you -- my doctor said he's only seen 4 hematomas in 14 years of delivering babies. I ended up staying in the hospital longer than normal, since I was still swollen, couldn't walk, and couldn't go to the bathroom. Finally, I went home on Wednesday evening. I still am sore, and the recovery will be a couple weeks longer than a normal labor recovery, but I'm feeling a lot better. I'm on four different drugs to help me out.
I was blessed with a very very good baby, however. He sleeps ALL THE TIME, morning, evening, and night. And he nurses well. Nursing and sleeping are his favorite things. He hardly ever cries. The only time he cries is when I change his diaper, because there were complications with his circumcision that required him to get stitches. So you can't blame him for crying. But I just love him. Little Elliot has the sweetest disposition. Dottie even likes him. At first she didn't know what to think -- I think she thought we had traded her in because she lived at Emily's house until Thursday morning. But now that she is home, she is very cute with him. My mom is here to help out, so there is always someone paying attention to her. We are so blessed. So blessed.

This is Elliot an hour after he was born. He and I are still in shock from the birthing process.

Me and my bebe.

Daddy and his boy.

These are pictures from today. Elliot looks like this most of the time -- sweetly asleep.

I think he has the Joe Hansen furrowed brow.

We had to make Dottie hold the baby -- she was watching "Hairspray" and cared more about that.

This is Elliot with his eyes slightly open.

My mom and the precious.

Me and my bebe. I lost my contacts somewhere in the hospital.

Emmy and baby.

Another one with eyes slightly open. The right eye opens better than the left.