Birth Day

Well, I rushed the pictures to press quickly so that eager grandparents, aunties and uncles (both the biological ones and the honorary ones), and Elijah lovers in general could get a look, but now I finally have a little bit of time to tell the story of his journey into our world and into our hearts.

It all began at around 2:30 A.M. on Sunday morning, August 31, 2008. Babs and I had turned in early the night before--I had just returned from our annual REAL Christian Theater retreat ande Babs had enjoyed a restful Sabbath at home. We'd gone to bed expecting to have a productive holiday weekend getting the house cleaned up and making final preparations for Elijah's arrival. Well it turned out that the weekend would indeed be extraordinarily productive--far more than we were ready for. The power had just come back on about ten minutes earlier, when suddenly Babs let out a yelp of shock. I thought maybe a roach had dropped on her or something, but instead she uttered those fateful words: "My water just broke."

We couldn't have been less prepared. The bag for the hospital wasn't even packed. Still, within an hour we'd managed to get some things together and were on our way to the hospital. Before we left, Babs insisted we pause to take the following--Bab's last photo of her pregnancy:


Last Preganant Photo: In the wee hours of Sunday, August 31, 2008

We arrived at the hospital around 4:00 A.M. and about a half hour later I started recording her contractions.

The morning passed quietly. The contractions were mild, not much more than a little twinge, and Babs wasn't in any pain. The decision was made, however, to induce labor and around 11 in the morning they gave her the medicine that would soon

Babs chats on the phone with her mom. Morning, August 31.

If only labor was this easy the whole time: Babs chills out with her coloring book to stay relaxed.


About an hour later the meds kicked in and things got serious. Babs was remarkably strong through it all. I was so proud of her and so awed by her ability to endure through it. Our dear friend Carol was by her side through the entire process, and we were both so gratful. She knew just what to do and say to help Babs.

Everything happened much more quickly than we anticipated--from the start of the painful contractions until the final push, it was only about four hours!

I'll never forget the feeling of seeing my son come into the world. It was so surreal, it was almost as if he were being created right then and there before my eyes. The rush of emotions--joy, excitement, awe, gratitude, and even fear was overwhelming.

Elijah's first minutes


More video of Elijah just after birth.


No photos please: Elijah fends off the paparazzi!

After the initial clean up that you saw in the videos they took our little fellow away from us for awhile. I missed him so much and it seemed like forever before they finally brought him back to Barbara's room to spend the night with us. I slept on a mat on the floor next to Barbara's bed and Elijah slept in his little hosptial bassinet on the other side of the bed. We felt like a little family.

We could have been discharged the next day but we decided to stay an extra night. Saipan was enduring some of the worst power outages to date, and we figured it would be easier to stay in the hospital rather than have to go home and deal with a darkened, stuffy house for twelve or more hours all together.


Babs and Elijah with one of my former students and her son, who is about a year older than Elijah.

In Daddy's Arms

On Tuesday, September 2, we checked out of the hospital and returned home, taking Elijah with us of course. The adventure of a lifetime was only just beginning!

Welcome home litle one: Elijah meets his "older sister", Kimo.

It's now closing in on two weeks since Elijah was born and we love him more and more with each passing day. The first few days at home were hectic to say the least. We slept little and every waking hour was focused on our baby. Fortunately, I had a week of paternity leave so I was able to be home with Babs and Elijah all through last week, and so I was able to be there to help. It took awhile for Elijah to learn to feed properly--those early sessions were tough. But eventually he caught on. He developed a case of jaundice but that is beginning to fade away now. Since birth he's learned to eat and he's learned to cry (boy has he learned how to cry!) Right now life pretty much revolves around his sleeping, feeding, burping and pooping, and crying. It's getting easier now than it was last week, but it's still pretty tiring work being a parent. I know we couldn't have done it without the help of dear friends like Carol, Amy, Andrea Stafford, and Jaimie and Rhonda who come over on a rotating basis to help us in the evenings so Babs can rest and I can get other non-baby things done (like this blog). We're deeply appreciative and touched by the help they've given us these past two weeks.

It's been an adventure so far and we can't wait for each new day with our precious son.

Here's an interesting fun fact about the Maycock family. All three of us have birthdays in August and all of us have the number 3 in our birthdates. My birthday is August 3, Barbara's is August 13 and now Elijah is August 31. Pretty cool, huh!