Greetings to all from Atlanta, GA,
Well, if you haven’t heard by now, Elisha Abigail Mooney was born on December 17th, three hours past her due date.
On the 16th, her due date, a Sunday, Becca started having regular contractions around 1pm. We kept track of them, but they were only 10 minutes apart or so. We were supposed to wait until they were 4-5 minutes apart for an hour before we called to check if we should go to the hospital. I called Nana (my mom) and she came to get Micah after his nap around 4pm. Becca and I did not go to house church, although we really wanted to, and watched a movie waiting for the contractions to get closer together. They didn’t get much closer, but they did get more intense. About 7pm they got to about 4 minutes apart. We called an hour later, at 8. They said Becca sounded too comfortable, to just wait another hour or so.
Well, an hour and a half later, we called but had to leave a message again. About 10:30pm, after Eric and Heather had returned from house church, Becca was shaking during the contractions. They called back as I finished packing the car to go to the hospital.
We got to the hospital around 11pm. They admitted us quickly and the nurse was very sweet and got Becca all hooked up to monitor contractions and heart rate. The midwife eventually came in and said they were going to closely monitor the baby because her heart rate was dipping during the contractions from time to time. As the contractions got more intense, Becca was able to lay on her side and we made the room very dark.
The contractions were getting more and more painful, and when the nurse checked Becca around 1:30am, Becca was only at 7cm. Becca cried, “I don’t wanna be only 7,” and I prayed that God would speed this thing along. Becca’s water broke soon after that.
The contractions were again getting more intense and painful, and around 2:30 am Becca looked at me during a contraction and said, “I wanna push!”
I said, “Lemme get someone for that,” and went to the nurse’s station. The nurse came in and watched as Becca tried a push. Hair was visible, so the nurse called in the midwife and the whole circus act piled in the room. Becca was told to wait for only a minute or so while the other nurses and the midwife got everything set up.
Then Becca started pushing. Elisha crowned with the first push. Becca pushed a couple more times and Elisha was really close to popping out. The midwife was very concerned about Elisha’s heart rate, so she did a slight episiotomy (sp?) and Elisha came out on the very next push, perfectly beautiful and healthy, about 2:50am.
They placed Elisha on her mother’s chest first thing, and I got to cut the cord this time. Then they took Elisha to get cleaned up and started cleaning up Becca. Elisha was cleaned first, so I got to hold Elisha for a few minutes while they finished up with Becca. After Becca was clean, they let her try and nurse Elisha. Elisha eventually nursed and everyone was happy.
The nurses, while cleaning Elisha up, kept saying, “She’s a beautiful baby … she doesn’t even look like a newborn.” I said, “they probably say that about all the babies,” and the midwife shook her head, saying, “no, they usually just say, ‘what an interesting looking baby.’” Elisha was awake and alert for a while after birth.
We were so blessed with the birth. Not only was Elisha very healthy, she was only 8lbs and 1oz (although 21 1/2 inches)! Micah was almost 10, and we were concerned she would be as big (or bigger). The pushing took maybe twenty minutes total compared to two hours with Micah. Becca felt much better afterwards, as well. We also did not have an IV, no drugs except some novocaine while sewing the small episiotomy up, and did everything natural.
I started calling sleepy people around 3:30 and wasn’t done calling until about 4:30. Oma, Becca’s mom, came over about 4:30 and stayed for a while until she had an errand to do.
We got a couple hours of sleep (me more than Becca because they were constantly checking her and the baby for stuff) and Nana brought Micah over to see his baby sister. He was immediately in love. He wouldn’t let even Nana hold her until he got to hold her. He wouldn’t stop kissing and hugging her. We sang her songs. It was very cool. Nana then took him out to lunch and we were alone for just a little while until more visitors came.
We had all of our visitors in the hospital that first day. And we loved it. In Korea, no one came to the hospital to see us. They waited until we got home. But it was cool to have everybody over, even though we were dead tired by that evening.
Becca’s milk came in that night (which is supposed to be fast), and Elisha took to eating pretty well. No one came to see us on Tuesday morning, and we got to go home by early afternoon. A couple people came by on Tuesday and Wednesday to see little Elisha. She is very cool. She has monkey toes like her brother, and I think they will look fairly similar.
Here are a couple pictures for the faithful …
God bless you all!
Britt, Becca, Micah, and Elisha!
It’s good to hear the story. Congratulations and God bless!