Please Welcome Elijah Yaakov

We are proud to introduce Elijah Yaakov Arav to the world.  He was born on February 6th, 2011 at 10:55pm after 44hrs of all labor.  At birth, he weighed 9lb 9oz, was 22" tall, and had a head circumference of 14.5".  Yaakov was Nahum's paternal grandfather and we just like the name Elijah.  To me, it has always had a strong yet peaceful feel and that was how he felt.

Labor began around 2am Saturday but it was just a long first stage so I was able to sleep most of the nights.  The birthing waves would wake me but not enough to keep me from getting back to sleep most of the time.    On Saturday, Shayna and I visited the VT duck pond to feed the ducks then to Aba's office to visit him.  On Sunday, things started to get a little more intense but Becca was there to help with Shayna.  I made Nahum come home at 3pm and our doula Cindy came at 3:30.  Things seemed to gear down for a little bit as the company made me feel more relaxed.  I was able to make everyone pizza for dinner but by the time it went into the oven I knew I wouldn't be eating it.  We went for one last walk while the pizza cooled.  During birthing waves, we would all stop while I sang through them with Shayna and sometimes Nahum's accompaniment as well.  We told Shayna we were singing the baby out and she was eager to help.  When the singing wasn't enough, I hopped in our wonderful bathtub about 6pm maybe for a couple hours.  That's when things got started to get amazing as I allowed my body to move into whatever position seemed natural as the waves stepped up in intensity.  This is also when I lost total track of time.  I'd guess it was a 2hr bath before the back labor really kicked in and needed both Cindy and Nahum's support to get through each wave.  At 8:30, I knew we needed to go to the hospital but was so terrified of the car ride that it took another 1/2hr to get out the door.  Cindy sat in back with me to help me through as pushiness was now added to the list of sensations.  We arrived about 9:20pm to be greeted by Kris the midwife on call.  Cindy and Kris walk/danced me to my room where I was pronounced to be about 7-8cm.  That news really helped me make myself relax through the waves on hand and knees at first then assume positions that proved increased intensity, like squatting.  At some point, my body just started pushing on it's own during some wakes.  Nahum climbed behind me so I could lean into him during rest periods.  In the end, I had to lean back into him to widen my base to open my pelvis for my fat baby.  At 10:55pm, Kris had me reach down and pull him onto my belly.  He cried as soon as he was out.  He was he a slippery guy with wrinkled, peely elephant skin and he was beautiful.  It was a wonderful, natural, normal birth followed by 5 minutes of normal post-birth bonding.

As he was a bit grunty, the nurses asked for him to try to help him clear his lungs a little better.  5-10 minutes of this didn't help, so the pediatrician took him to the nursery where he was hooked up to a heart rate monitor.  A newborns hr should be around 150 (as it was throughout deliver).  Elijah's was over 300 and not coming down.  They did manage to bring it to normal after 20-30 minutes with specific physical stimulations but the order for transfer to the NICU in Roanoke had already come down from the neonatologist.  The hospital we were at doesn't have the machines for the tests that needed to be done (EKG and Echo) so he needed to be transferred to make sure there were no abnormalities that caused the excessive heart rate.

As he was stable, they were not planning to do the tests until Monday morning so Nahum made it down to see both of those.  I was discharged from my hospital at 10am.  Becca and Shayna picked me up. (It's the same place we do Shayna's labs so we did those before we left.  She was an angel as usual and didn't shed a tear or fuss.  We've got her trained labs are "little poke" and shots are "big poke" so she says to Erin, "big poke, no. shots big poke.  little poke."  Then she gives her cheerful, "all done labs."  She even knows where they keep the stickers so walked over to the drawer, opened it herself, and picked out a sticker to help her through the draw.)  I got to Elijah about 11am when Nahum told me all had tests had been preliminarily declared good.  He especially enjoyed seeing the Echo as the technician did took "beautiful" ultrasound images of a working heart.

We finally got approval to pull his stomach tube and nurse at 2pm.  He latched like a pro and nursed for almost an hour then slept for 3&1/2hrs.  Nahum was with me when he nursed and that was the time we needed to name him.  Peaceful, normal family time.

Later on, all results were officially declared "beautiful" by the cardiologist and there have been no other episodes.  The most common reason is just for something like this is just the baby adjusting to the sudden change in his condition (inside vs. outside) and so far that's what it looks like in our case.  We are expecting to be discharged late this afternoon and hope to be home by 6pm.  We will have to monitor his heart rate 3x a day for the next 3 months just to make sure it doesn't take off again and make a follow up appointment with the cardiologist in 3 weeks so she can check him also.

Feb 6 about 5pm.  Playing on our last walk before Elijah's arrival.

Our last picture of a family of 3.

Shayna LOVES pizza!

Hello baby! 

Just before the NICU nurses take him down to Roanoke they let me hold him.

Feb 8: Elijah with his proud Aba.