A Photo Diary of Eli's First two days.

Here's Noah a few hours before he becomes a big brother. He's been helping remove the paint on the gate, in preparation for our painting it.

After mild contractions for a couple of days, I went into labour on Sunday evening. It was really good to just stay in our bedroom- this is where I ended up having Eli. My parents came and picked up Noah at around 2am, 1hr30mins before Eli was born. The midwife arrived around 2:30am, just in time to help guide the hardest part of the labour.

Eli made it out*, caught by the midwife, the placenta followed quickly,  and we could all get into bed and hang out together. Eug got to cuddle with Eli while I was checked over**.

Noah really likes his little brother, though it's hard for him that I'm not as available.

Our neighbors are lending us this beautiful cradle, which we keep in the living room- it makes it easy for us to eat downstairs in the kitchen while Eli is little and our downstairs is not clean enough for him to be on the floor. Last night, we had our first regular family meal- it's great to work on getting to "normal" life very gradually.

This is our attempt at a family photo where you can see Eli. It was chaos, as you can tell. We're just happy everyone is wearing clothes. Anna's rabbit features prominently in our family.

*By "made it out", I don't mean to imply I'm either superwoman or that labour is easy. Labour was great because of many things- many beyond my control, like physiology or the prayers of friends and family- as well as the environment and having Eug and the midwives helping.

 ** This is in case you are wondering why Eug lost his shirt. Skin to skin contact to bring Eli's temp up.