One year ago (from yesterday actually) I looked like this.
I woke up around 5:30am on Sunday March 14, 2010. I just wasn’t feeling quite right. I went into the bathroom & saw the first indication that Eli may be making his appearance early. Feeling kind of crampy and overwhelmed I crawled back into beds & started to cry to Dave. He was half asleep & no help consoling my mood swing and so I decided to get up. That morning my niece was to be baptized at church. I felt this strong urgency to clean my house (it was a disaster!). In my head I kept thinking to myself, “if I don’t get it done now I won’t have chance”. So there I was scrubbing my tub, floors & kitchen at 6am. I continued to get increasingly more uncomfortable and tried not to let on that I may be going into labor because I was determined to make it through the baptism. We got to church around 9am and I fidgeted awkwardly in the pew trying to find a comfortable position. I held Breena as we stood up to sing a hymn & started to feel something leaking. Dave must have seen the look on my face because he asked me what was wrong. I told him & he demanded I go to the bathroom. I got into the bathroom, sat down & heard a rush of liquid. Uh. Oh. At this point I was not thinking clearly. From the back of the church I gave Dave the signal that all was fine & waited until an appropriate moment to walk back to my seat. I still thought I could sit through the rest of the service even though my water had broken! By the time I reached Dave I knew there was no way I’d make it through & so we quickly left. That was a wise move- once we had gotten to the car I was completely soaked just like you see in the movies! Dave scrambled to find something I could sit on so I wouldn’t damage the car seats. He found me a sweatshirt & an atlas. And we sped home to pack our bags & clean our house. I called the hospital & explained I was suppose to have a repeat C-section but I didn’t want to come in until I had too. The nurse said it was okay for me to stay home for a little bit. I got some laundry done, vacuumed, finished cleaning the floors & packed Breena’s bag, At this point I was pretty uncomfortable. We dropped Bree & the dog off with my parents & headed to the hospital. Once we were admitted (around 11 or so I think) things moved pretty fast. The doctor came in to meet us & they prepped me for surgery. It seemed like it took forever for the anesthesiologist to administer the spinal block. But finally I was numb & happy I didn’t feel anymore contractions. They brought Dave in to sit next to me. At 1:15 pm Elijah David Luiken was born red faced & screaming! He was 6 pounds 15 ounces and was 19 inches long. Tiny & perfect. Up until Eli was born I had anxiety over how I could possibly love another child as much as I loved Breena. I couldn’t understand how my heart had any more room. The minute Dave placed Eli in my arms for the first time, my anxiety was gone. My heart had simply doubled. I was instantly in love with my little baby boy. I could not wait to introduce him to his big sister & the rest of our family.
