Elijah Benjamin Treder

Elijah was born at 11:40 a.m. Tuesday, February 27, 2007.
His vital statistics are:
Weight: 9 lbs 11.4 ounces,(no wonder I was so miserable)
Height: 20 inches
Head: 14.5 inches

Doug and I checked into Swedish Hospital in Ballard at 9:00 a.m. They prepped me for surgery and we were ready. Doug had his brand new Canon SD800 camera ready for the big event. I was ready, but a little scared.

There were so many things to consider; meet with the anesthesiologist, the OBGYN, the midwife, the OB nurses etc. Then they had to give me the spinal tap for anesthesia which took a little while because we had to discuss all the issues surrounding my herniated disks. Everything went really well.

Our OBGYN Dr. White was amazed at how big Elijah was, "He's huge. He'll be a football player!" All the staff was amazed at how big he was and also remarked that he was gorgeous. I was instantly relieved and could finally relax as the rest of the surgery progressed.

Doug was really great. As soon as Elijah was cleaned up he brought him over to me and I could finally see my little, or rather, big baby boy.

The OB said that all of my muscle tissue was is really great shape and that I didn't need a tummy tuck! So, there's hope of getting back down to my original size.

Things went pretty well after we got back to our room. Rachele took our first family photos with Eli and then some portraits of him alone. We were so happy to finally hold him in our arms.

My recovery for the next 30 hours was kind of rough. Recovering from abdominal surgery is not easy. I had a lot of pain, but I'm starting to feel better.

I'm pretty sure that I'll be going home on Friday the 2nd of March and Doug and I will spend the next couple of weeks getting to know our little boy.

Oh, Finnegan met Eli last night and he was a little shy at first. After some coaxing he held the baby in his arms and identifies all of his little parts, "nose, ears, mouth and eyes." He was very observant and very gentle with his little brother.