Uncle Petey

On Saturday night Uncle Pete drove home from Bradley and came straight over to meet his first nephew.  Pete was happy to hear how many people said that little Eli looked like his handsome Uncle  - according to Pete he is a lucky little dude.

We were happy to have lots of help from Oma, Opa, Erika and Todd those first few days - and they were happy to get to spend some time with the new addition!

Heading Home!

We were supposed to be discharged at 11am on Friday, April 6th, but we ended up having to wait until about 8pm because the doctors were waiting on some test results.  All the tests came back fine and we were officially on our own - a very scary, exciting thought! We headed home with definite mixed emotions!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Long met us at home that night because Grandma Long couldn't wait to meet Eli (she came straight from the airport from her trip to CO).

In the car on the way home

The first night at home was definitely a rough one! Little Eli earned a lot of nicknames that night - Mr. Fussy Pants, Mr. Fuss Buckets, Crabby Patty, and El Diablo just to name a few.  Mommy and Daddy did not sleep a wink! Fortunately Opa arrived about 8am the next morning with a quiet knock on the door and breakfast in hand! Emily was never so happy to see him!!! Opa gave Eli his binkey and he was good as gold - and Mommy and Daddy got to go back to sleep! 

Eli's first few days of life

Our time in the hospital is a bit of a blur! Majority of our time was spent staring at this new creature in amazement.  Daddy became a pro at the diaper change and the swaddle, while Mommy worked on figuring out how to feed the new babe.  

  

The first night

Our baby burrito

Checking each other out - we couldn't believe how alert he was already!

Happy after a full tummy

Uncle DD came to visit!

The BIRTH Day!!!

On Tuesday, April 3rd, around 7:30pm, Mommy and Daddy were just about to sit down to eat dinner (a homemade mac and cheese!) when Mommy realized her water was leaking. After a call to the doctor, (and quickly gulping down some mac and cheese) we were off to the hospital!

We were admitted and in the labor/delivery room by about 11:30pm, when the doctors started the pitocin to get the contractions going.  Mommy laid awake most of the night - not because the contractions were too bad - more so because she was nervous/excited about what was to come. Meanwhile, Daddy snored the night away!

Wednesday, April 4th, was a long day of painful contractions, followed by an epidural, followed by lots of Law & Order reruns and lifetime movies and a few short naps.  At about 4:30pm we got the good news that we reached 10cm! Yay! The bad news was the baby had not dropped much.  We did a brief trial run of pushing and realized the contractions were too strong and another bag of the epidural was needed.  After waiting a bit for that to kick in the pushing continued.  After about an hour or more of straight pushing, the doctor threatened  that she'd need to use the forceps if progress wasn't made in the next half hour. Mommy kicked it into high gear and after about 2 hours and 45 minutes of straight, hard-core pushing, our baby boy finally arrived!!!

Elijah Jackson Long

Born April 4, 2012

7:45pm

7 pounds, 7 ounces, 21 inches

Daddy had never been happier!


Eli had lots of people waiting for his arrival, besides just Mommy and Daddy.  Grandpa Long and Uncle Matty had been at the hospital since 11am!  Oma, Opa, Auntie Erika and Uncle Todd were also all waiting (not so patiently!) to see the new addition to the family. Everyone agreed - he was worth the wait! 

The Prep Work

We decided that too much exciting stuff is happening in this little dude's life to not keep a record of it all. Thus, a baby blog! Mostly started to force Mommy to take pics and document everything so we will never forget!

We will first backtrack a bit in time...

We found out we were expecting way back in August - August 5th to be exact.  After telling only a few people our good news, we decided to keep it a secret until the pregnancy was further along.

 

But once we saw our little peanut for the first time, we couldn't keep it a secret much longer.

9 week ultrasound

 Everyone was SO excited! :)  Overall the pregnancy flew by.  And fortunately, Mommy felt great majority of the time.  Besides the occasional heartburn, the only pregnancy symptoms I had were my cravings for mac and cheese and pancakes. But wait, that's not too different than before!

At the 20 week appointment we got to see our peanut again and we couldn't believe how clear the images were! Although it was very tempting, we chose to wait for the surprise and not find out the gender just yet.  

Doesn't that look like a smile already?!

We loved the little hand...

and feet!

20 weeks

Mommy and Daddy couldn't wait for our "surprise" to arrive!  While Mommy was counting down the days left to work, Daddy was busy decorating the room for our little one's arrival.

37 weeks