The Adventures of Blake and Erin: November 2010

Early August 21, 2010 we had a little (8lbs 11oz) baby boy and named him Elisha Joel. Elisha is pronounced E...L(eye) sha. It's a Hebrew (Biblical) name from the Old Testament and means God is Salvation. I've grown up being familiar with the Old Testament stories of the prophet Elisha, but apparently most people are finding it EXTREMELY unusual and are calling him Aleesha when they see it in writing. We totally didn't see that one coming! Sorry Buddy! I guess he'll have to pave the way on this one!

His middle name Joel was chosen for three reasons. (1) We loved the sound of Joel after Elisha. (2) The meaning is Jehovah is God and loved that combo with God is salvation (Elisha). (3) We also have some pretty special people in our life that have this name and as a tribute have named our little guy in honour of all three of them.
My 'little' brother Joel. A pretty special guy with a big heart for God. He's a gifted leader, a talented athlete, sensitive heart and a great sense of humour. We're excited for Elisha to play soccer with Uncle Joel soon :) We also desire our Elisha to be like his Uncle Joel who is a great role model.
Jordan Joel. I've grown up with Jordie my whole life and Blake and I have become best couple friends with him and his wife Jenny. We loved these guys so much we dragged them over to Korea with us for a year and bonded so much deeper during that time. They are such an encouragement to us in so many ways. God has allowed us to step into the role of parenthood right alongside these guys and are bonded even further as we seek wisdom in how to bring up Naomi and Elisha as God would have us. These guys are our BFF's ;)
Timothy Joel. The 'big brother' I never had who lived in the basement of our house for 8(?) years while I grew up. Tim is an extremely diligent individual who seriously digs deep into the Word of God. I had so many spiritual/theological questions for Tim while growing up and he would faithfully help me struggle through them writing pages of notes in explanations- always directing me to Scripture verses. We would love our little guy to have this same diligent heart for God.

We are so thankful for the many more Godly and wonderful role models we are surrounded by and the wonderful influences Elisha will have in his life. Choosing the name Joel meant we hit 3 all at once! :)

Well I guess I need to update here...I've been a little preoccupied as of late. :) So here's the birth story of our little guy. Just a warning that some may consider this TMI! Please read at own risk!

The last few weeks of pregnancy were pretty difficult. It was so uncomfortable to do anything! I couldn't move without hurting, I couldn't sleep, I was taking tums to deal with the constant heartburn and I was swollen like crazy! The anticipation of meeting our little 'Peanut' and how our story was going to unfold was almost unbearable!

Thursday morning (August 19- 6 days after the due date) Jenny and Jord came over for breakfast. We had a really great conversation, prayed for each other and just had an honest time sharing what we appreciated about one another. I was starting to feel a little crampy, but nothing too major and I didn't really think anything of it. Dawn came over a little later that day and she was so good to just keep me company- despite the fact that I was probably the most boring host at that point. She was content to just sit with me and knit and go back and forth with discussion as to whether we were having a boy or girl and even have a few naps throughout the day. I had finished all my knitting projects at that point- tried to save some for early labout, but I was going stir crazy waiting for the baby to come! I started to have a growing tightening feeling in my stomach throughout the day, but still wasn't anything major. Dawn would sit and time them and it really didn't seem like too big of a deal. Blake came home from work that night and Dawn went home. From 11pm-1am I started have consistent contractions (1minute, 5 minutes apart) and decided to call the midwife at that point. She came to the house a little while later and said progress was going well, but to take some tylenol and gravol and just try to sleep. (haha) Blake passed out immediately. The contractions seemed to intensify when I was horizontal so I sat on the couch and tried to sleep sitting up (quite difficult!) between the contractions. They came all night long, but started to stagger in length and grow in intensity. Blake was so encouraging and helpful throughout this time. I had a hard time relaxing my shoulders (I'm an upperbody tenser apparently) and would forget how to breathe. Blake was so good about talking me through it and I had this strange fixation on his mouth during this time- like I couldn't hear what he was saying, but copying his mouth was how I remembered how to breathe properly. The midwife came again in the morning and again there had been no change in progress. She suggested walking to get things moving and she'd go do some paperwork nearby and to call if anything changed. By 1pm on August 20 there was still no change. I was started to feel extremely tired and began to have back labour. Our midwife (hereafter referred to as Sushma) suggested going to the hospital to check things out. She gave me some water droplets in the muscle of my back which were supposed to help with the back labour. It was extremely painful and I don't think it helped at all! After that we grabbed our bags and headed to Markham Stouffville Hospital. Things were all ready for us when we arrived and it was such a surreal feeling walking into that room, knowing we were going to meet our little baby soon. I was check again and still no progress- stuck at 3cm! I was given a shot of morphine and laughing gas so that I could rest a little bit before they broke my water. I slept for a little while and then awoke to Jenny standing there with a muffin and chocolate milk. So good to see her!

Sushma broke the water at this point to try to get things going and there was meconium in the water-basically means the baby pooped in utero. There would be concern at delivery of meconium getting into the baby's lungs so they would need to clear the lungs right after birth. After the water was broken, labour stopped entirely and they decided to issue oxytocin to get the contractions going again. I was given some gas to breathe when the contractions happened. Sushma check me again and things were progressing. I laboured for quite a few hours, but started to fade in exhaustion from lack of sleep. The oxytocin levels needed to be increased, but I could hardly cope with the level it was at. Sushma checked me again and I was started to digress and go backwards! The baby's head was coming too fast and was bruising my cervix and things were closing off. At that point they said the only thing that would help would be an epidural so I would be entirely relaxed. The epidural was pretty incredible! From that point it only took about 30 minutes for my body dilate and be ready for delivery. Again, Sushma said for me to rest for awhile before we delivered the baby. I slept for awhile and then my sister and brother-in-law came to the hospital (quite the trek at that time of night!). The baby was born at 1:40am Saturday August 21st. Blake was such a support throughout that whole process. What an incredible feeling to have him say, 'it's a boy!' Blake cut the umbilical cord and the rushed the baby to the back of the room where they pumped his lungs (to make sure there wasn't any meconium in them). Those few moments felt like hours! The baby wasn't crying at that point and they were working on making sure he was ok. All I wanted to do was see and hold my baby! Sushma was focused on me and making sure everything was ok, but I could hardly sit still for her! Blake finally brought the baby over so I could see him. It felt so unreal- I just couldn't stop looking at all his little features...counting his fingers and toes, looking at his lips and eyes. Blake called Amy and Chris to come up from the waiting room and they were the first to meet him- so special! The hospital was extremely busy with people in labour that night so they rushed us to a ward room where there were a bunch of other women, babies and some men as well. The room was so loud with babies screaming that there was not a chance that we were going to be able to sleep! Our baby was starting to cry and all we wanted to do was go home! Sushma hurried through all the tests and paperwork and we were happy to be out of there around 6am. Sushma would come to our house the next day to check on how everything was going. So thankful to God for a healthy little boy!