May 21st 2012: our lives were forever changed. Elias Clark Dalton, our little miracle, was born at 11:45 am on this day. He is our miracle because every life is, but he was also our promised son, and an answer to many prayers we had prayed leading up to this day.
I should explain myself a little further because many people don't realize the longing and desire I had for becoming a mother. Aside from the fact that I have always wanted to have children, my body decided to start telling my biological clock to start ticking a little earlier than I expected...in my 2nd, but final, year of graduate school. My husband and I had always had a plan: graduate, get a job, then start trying to get pregnant, but for whatever reason, that didn't seem soon enough for me. However, through much prayer, conversation and encouragement we waited the four excrutiatingly long months until after I graduated to begin the "trying" phase. Looking back on it now, it seems so trivial, and not that long to wait, but it was the most important thing to me in that moment and it felt like an eternity!
Fortunately, we were blessed that the "trying phase" was only a few months before we got pregnant, and my pregnancy was very healthy and uneventful, medically speaking. The time flew by and before we realized it, it was time for our lil guy to join the world.
I woke up on Monday, May 21st, 2012 like any other work day, but I felt different. I thought I was coming down with an upper respiratory infection and decided to call out of work, but didn't suspect it was pregnancy related because I wasn't "due" for another 3 weeks almost! However, when I started having cramps in a timely/rhythmic pattern, I called my mom, and then my doctor. They both suggested going to the hospital to get checked out. My husband was at work, and by the time he got home to drive me to the hospital (I couldn't take myself) the contractions were about 5 minutes apart. It was all a blur after that...
The birth plan had originally been all natural... but oh how Elias had other plans. We will continue to see this pattern over the next few months, little to our knowledge at the time.
I was progressing well, but my water still hadn't broken. There were suspicions that he might be breech, and once we got out of triage and into a room, my doctor confirmed that suspicion upon breaking my water and looking via ultrasound. Things continued to progress faster now, since they didn't want Elias to possibly inhale somewhat of a bowel movement he had in the birthing canal, so I was rushed to anesthesiology for the epidural and then to the OR for a c-section. We originally arrived at the hospital around 8:30 that morning, and we were holding our son by 11:45 AM!!
He was perfect. He looked exactly like I did when I was first born, with a few subtle features of his daddy. I fell in love over and over, as did my husband. I couldn't believe he was finally here!
Our hospital stay was a little more eventful than one hopes, with us staying four nights and 5 days, rather than the typical three days for c-section delivery. Elias had a couple of episodes of rapid breathing and high temperature on days one and two of life, and then an episode of lethargy on day four, which we thought was just a reaction from the circumcision from day three. Tests were done and baby was monitored with no significant results noted. He gained back the bit of weight he had lost while awaiting my milk to "come in" and we got to go home Friday morning of that same week.
Coming home was the best feeling, and we were blessed to have a lot of help those first couple of days. I was especially blessed to have my husband off work for the first 3 weeks because my recovery from the c-section was a bit more difficult that I had imagined it would be. The pain medicine they had given me made me feel terrible, and I got a bit of the "baby blues" those first few weeks as well. Once all that kinda cleared up, things began to fall into place, and we were really finding out grove as parents.
The first three to four months were bliss, if you consider waking up every 2 hours to nurse and diaper and getting peed/pooped/spit up on at least once a day, bliss! Despite the typical parenting challenges, we were having a blast, enjoying our little guy!
By three to four months he was on track with most all of his development and milestones. He was eating well, cooing, smiling and laughing. He had even started rolling from side to side a little bit! Unfortunately, we didn't know that was all about to change.
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