Elijah Thomas Atkin - Day 1

We're so happy to announce the safe arrival of our newest little boy.  It took us a day to decide on a name for him but we settled on Elijah Thomas Atkin.  Here's his birth story...

We arrived at the hospital at 11:30am for the c-section which was scheduled for 1:30pm.  I had gotten up to eat at 4:30am and had been fasting after that.  When we got there, they let us know that they were behind schedule so we might be waiting awhile.  I got pretty hungry but we killed time by talking and watching some Law & Order until they finally sent me back into surgery a little after 4pm.  Everything went really well after that.  The surgery prep part is never fun, when you're basically naked in the cold operating room while people are buzzing around doing things to your body to get you ready.  At one point after they gave me the epidural I felt like my chest was so heavy and was having a hard time breathing.  That is normal, I guess, and I soon felt better.  Then, they let Joe come in and that helped me relax more. 

Joe had a goal of filming the whole surgery and he basically did.  He obediently stopped when I told him to make sure and get still pictures of when Eli was coming out.  I loved the ones we had from when Nate was born.  I will spare you the ones of Eli getting pulled out since they are pretty bloody but they are really cool. 

 Here's our handsome little guy

 

My first thought was that he looked so small--smaller than I was expecting.  He did end up being smaller than Nate at 6 lb 5 oz and 19 inches long.

 

 Joe got to cut the cord for the first time:

 

I can't describe how excited and relived I was to see that he was healthy.  For some reason I had had all these fears that something was going to go wrong with the baby but he was healthy and super-alert.  He just laid there for quite awhile with his eyes open taking everything in.  

I couldn't stop watching him and silently praying "thank you" over and over again that he was healthy.

Getting to kiss my baby finally:

  

Later on, in the recovery room:

After a late surgery, Joe and I were both exhausted by the time we got into our room.  We couldn't decided on a name yet.  That first night was long for me.  Elijah was awake a lot and I was so exhausted.  At the same time, it was a really wonderful night, too.  I loved just getting to know my little baby.  Here are some pictures I took in the middle of the night: