Introducing Elliott Charles Locke!

After 24 hours to rest and recover from the events of yesterday, we are now ready to introduce our baby boy, Elliott Charles Locke, to the world.

Susan was scheduled to be induced at 7:30am, but we didn't get transferred down to labor and delivery until a little after 8am. Before starting the petocin, Susan got another round of penicilin. Sometime after 9am the started the pitocin at a slow rate. We spent the morning watching DVDs as the contractions slowly intensified. Elliott was posterior, which means he facing forward instead of backwards. Our doula, Deb, gave us some instructions over the phone on ways to work on turning him. Once Deb arrived she did some additional things that got Elliott turned very quickly. That was the point that Susan's labor really intensified. By mid-afternoon Susan was dilated to 5 cm and 75% effaced. It was at this point that Susan felt like she wouldn't be able to get through the rest of labor on her own and asked for an epidural. However, Deb and the midwife, Liz, continued to suggest a variety of positions to help alleviate the pain. Fortunately, Susan's labor decreased in intensity for about a half-hour. By the time the anesthesiologist arrived, Susan had dilated to 7cm and 100% effaced. We were able to convince her that she could do it without an epidural and that she was almost done. Liz significantly increased the pitocin, which resulted in some extremely painful contractions, but sped things along quickly, so that within a short time Susan was dilated to 9+cm. Liz said to go ahead and push. After only about 20 minutes of pushing Elliott entered the world at a healthy 7 lbs. 14oz. Within 2 hours we were transferred back down to our room in post-partum.
Thanks so much for all of you who have been praying, visiting and calling. Elliott is at risk for jaundice and his levels have been rising, due to his being born pre-term and being a different blood type than Susan. As a result he is being kept in the nursery under the biliruben lights most of the time. We are hoping that after they check his blood levels tomorrow that he will be able to be discharged.
Here are some more photos: