Many of you are probably wondering how things went with Elliott's birth since Caleb's was sort of...well, difficult! I thought I'd share some of the details just to brag on God's kindness. Wow! He sure did amaze us.
Since Caleb was so big and stuck for 4 hours before I finally pushed him out, the doctor was
adamant that we not have a repeat scenario. An ultrasound done at 34 weeks indicated another big baby so we went ahead and scheduled the induction 9 days before my due date. I was hoping that the baby would decide to enter the world on its own accord and we not even make it to the induction date. At 36 weeks when I was already dilated and effaced I was very hopeful that baby would come on its own. Since we wanted to wait until after the 1st of September to have the baby (insurance switched that day) Ben insisted I not do anything to help that baby come before then. So I laid low (well, as low as you can with a BUSY toddler boy!) Anyhow, September 1st came and went and so did the 2nd, 3rd & 4th. No baby. Bummer! I was very disappointed! Poor Ben had to put up with all of my emotions. He's a good sport!
We went to the hospital on the morning of the 5th and were right on time for our 7:30 appointment. Needless to say we were the only ones on time. We got everything checked in, they hooked me up the the IV, blood pressure monitor, and baby heart monitor. Then we waited...and waited...and waited. I started to get antsy knowing how long it took with Caleb--we started at 7:30am with him and it was 9:45pm before he was born. My doctor had been on call the night before and had quite a few deliveries so she went home to sleep. She asked another doctor to come break my water but that doctor was a no show. After 2 hours of waiting I started to cry. The nurse, feeling badly, decided to call the doctor again. She then proceeded to call another doctor to come break my water. And we waited some more. Finally, at 11:10, my doctor came in herself and did it. I was having a blubber fest when she arrived but I tried to pull it back together. She apologized a zillion times and then broke my water. As quickly as she came she was gone.
So here we were with my broken water and the directions to wait for an hour to see if any contractions start on their own. After 30 minutes of nothing, the nurse encouraged us to start the pitocin. We agreed. I was more than ready to get this show on the road! It took about an hour before the contractions got really intense. Then it took me about 20 minutes to convince the nurse to let me out of bed. (She was wanting me to get the epidural immediately--I wanted to wait since it stalled me out when I got it with Caleb.) Ben and I worked through the really intense contractions for about an hour and a half. The bad part about being induced is that you go from nothing to full born labor in a matter of minutes. So you have no contractions and then you have the strongest contractions possible every 1.5 to 2 minutes for the duration of your labor. There is no build up--just immediate intensity! So after an hour and a half of that I decided to get the epidural. After I got it I think my exact words were, "Why did I ever consider not getting this? Don't ever let me do that again, Ben!" Since I was more comfortable, we both took a nap. Hilarious, I know! Oh yeah, forgot to mention that this entire time I never dilated anymore than I was when I got there...I was stuck at 4. My doctor told me to expect a baby about 9:00. So the epidural came at 2:30, the nurses switched at 3, and everything from then on was AWESOME! The epidural didn't cause me to stall out this time but instead pushed me full stream ahead. Yeah hoo! The doctor was WRONG!
I started to feel some pressure around 4 but it felt like my catheder was coming out or something. The new nurse (who was fabulous) checked and made sure it was in there correctly. It was. When she left I decided to start watching--everytime I felt the pain was at the height of a contraction. Interesting. I called her in and told her that I thought it was the baby. She checked--I was almost complete. By the way, my epidural with Caleb was so strong that I never ever felt any pressure. I couldn't feel how to push with him. And so this was a new experience. They quickly prepared the room and called the doctor to let her know. Well, the doctor informed us that she had to step out for a class or something and that I had some choices. I could either a) start pushing now and I had an hour to get him out before she'd have to leave; b) wait and labor down and push when I felt like I needed to push and hopefully she'd be back by then; or c) wait and push and there would be another doctor there to deliver me. Well, I was not about ready to start pushing. I remembered far to well the 4 hours of pushing with Caleb and I wasn't going to start pushing early just so my doctor could make it to her appointment or whatever. At this point I didn't care if she delivered me or not...p.s. Why would you schedule a class on the same day you scheduled an induction? I don't get it! Anyway, I said no way. But the nurse was equally adamant that I try to push 2 times and she would monitor to see if the baby was coming down. If it was, then she'd call the doctor. If I wasn't, we'd quit and wait until I was ready. I reluctantly agreed.
So it was 5:10. She had me push once and screamed..."Cross your legs. Promise me you won't push. I have to get the doctor." Then she ran out of the room. Ben and I looked at each other and busted out laughing. Are you serious? So the nurse, the tech, and the doctor all come running in. They get the mirror ready so I could watch. Everyone was giddy and dumbfounded. They told me to start pushing. I pushed twice and they announced, "It's a boy!" I just kept laughing and saying, "Are you serious? I pushed him out in two pushes? That was crazy!" We were so joyful! Wow! What a beautiful memory.
So we got to enjoy Elliott for a couple of hours before they weighed or measured or bathed or tested him. It was sweet. He breastfed like a little champ. We called people to let them know that he arrived but we didn't know any of the stats yet. All we could say was, "We think he's smaller than Caleb was." He was much smaller. 7lbs 15 oz. and 21 1/2 inches long. That compared to our 10 lb .1 oz, 22 1/2 inch first child. No wonder it only took two pushes.
So the entire pregnancy we didn't agree on boy names. Neither of us could find one we really liked. We brought a couple of names to the hospital with us in hopes that we'd figure it out while we were laboring. We decided on Elliott at about 4:45! However, it was supposed to be Elliott Lucas Krueger but when he was born Ben decided it would be Elliott Paul. We liked Elliott because it means "My God is Lord" and Paul is my dad's middle name. We also hadn't even thought of the spelling until about 4:45. We wrote it in cursive and print a few times and Ben decided on 2 L's and 2 T's at the same time he decided on Paul. In the hospital that night I remembered that Paul means small. I think that is humorous since Elliott seems so tiny to us. He is just so small! Newborn diapers fit him, newborn clothes fit him, you have to support his head, he has a tiny baby cry, etc.
That's the story! Elliott's pregnancy was much more difficult than Caleb's but his birth doesn't even register on the same chart! We were overwhelmed by God's kindness to us. We only stayed in the hospital for 25 hours and then came home. I felt awesome, Elliott was doing great, and Ben would sleep much better in our bed then on the pull out chair thing in our hospital room. My recovery wasn't much of a recovery--I didn't even really feel like I'd given birth. The only thing that was sort of hard was the shrinking of the uterus. Apparently it hurts more after every birth. OUCH! It hurt this time. But that only lasted 2 days.
More posts later on how we've been doing since we've come home! Hope you got all the juicy details you wanted! Here are two pictures showing our family growing--one was taken on Labor Day, a few days before Elliott was born. The other was taken the day after we came home from the hospital.
The gang's all here (just none of them are looking)
Caleb & Lulu--being cheesy
Caleb picking out his pumpkin. He could have gotten a big one but insisted on a little guy!
They look guilty don't they? They loved running through this maze.
My little pumpkins! 
Caleb was worried because the tractor was leaving and he wanted to watch its every move.
Goofy kids!
Huge tree. Big tractor. Little boy.
