Laith

Where to begin...this is the problem with letting a month go by un-blogged during a time of so much activity!

Well as you most likely already know, Najib Laith Rajeh was born May 17 at 1am. He weighed 8lbs and was 21.5in long. He will go by "Laith" but his technical first name is Najib, after his Lebanese grandfather who passed away in 2005. Ironically, he was born on his grandfather's birthday. Now we have 3 generations of Rajeh men born within 2 days of eachother. (Charlie is born on May15)

I had been having what I figured were contractions for over 24hrs that were about 5mins apart. Then my AC conveniently decided to die, requiring us to fix it for $3,000!! BAD timing! I was super sweaty and irritated and decided to go to the hospital. They have air conditioning. My parents and sister and Brooke had come in town hoping that they would be there for the birth...so I willed myself into labor! Not really..I willed the doctor into breaking my water.

I was so lucky that one of our close friends, Kelly Hamade, was the labor and delivery nurse on duty that night so I got all kinds of special treatment! It made a complete difference in my level of comfort. I don't think I would have made it so long without pain medication if it hadn't been for her. When the first super painful contractions began, I was so giddy with excitement that I was feeling substantial pain and things were moving along. Then...after several hours of what can only be described as torture, I was gone..in another world altogether. After about 8hrs of excrutiating pain, I didn't know who was in the room with me and had no sense of time or anything. I began having what I will call "hell-contractions" which are in the last stage of labor. I had 4 of them in a row and I literally thought I was going to lose my mind. The doctor ordered pitocin for me at around 10p or 10:30p insisting that he had to speed things up and at that point I broke down and got the epidural. I knew that it would increase the intensity of contractions and put them one after another and that I wouldn't have the ability to stay on top of the pain. Unfortunately I saved myself from only 1hr of pain. Betsy put on Simon and Garfunkel and I fell asleep for a little bit and woke up feeling incredibly uncomfortable but I couldn't move. I had so much pressure in my back and told Charlie to turn me over. The nurse wanted to check me again real quick and when she did, she said, "whoever is going to witness this birth needs to get in here now!". It was quite a sight because the epidural gave me the worst shakes ever and I looked like I was dying of hypothermia. I had to clench my jaws to keep from breaking my teeth! I had a sudden last minute bout of fear and burst into tears saying "I don't know what to do with a baby!! I can't have a baby!" But after a few pushes...I had a baby to "Scarborough Fair" and it all worked out :)

So many of you know that one of my fears was that no one would let me eat. You all assured me that I wouldn't be thinking about food. YOU WERE WRONG. I was begging for food the entire day and as soon as I delivered I was eating a sandwich. I actually think the doctor was still working on me when I started eating. Never underestimate the hunger of Emily!