Christmas Letter 2012

Dear Friends and Family,                                              December 2012

     We have had a crazy year for sure! Sean and Christy have been adjusting to parenthood and other life changes that have happened.

     Sean has enjoyed his second year being a public safety officer for the city of Kalamazoo. He already has received the life saving award from the department, which was one of his career goals. He’s also been going to school and should be graduating Spring 2013!

     Christy has been enjoying being a full time mom. She spends a lot of one-on-one time with Eli and enjoys watching him learn about the world and grow. She also has been spending time doing enrichment activities with the 8-12 year old girls at church and is a Sunday school teacher for the 11 year olds.

    We have been able to travel quite a bit even though Sean has been very busy. We were able to go to California to visit Christy’s family this spring. Eli enjoyed his first time at the beach. Then we were able to make two family trips up to Traverse City this summer to hang out with our dear Uncle Don and Aunt Judy. Then, Christy and Eli were able to visit California once more in October.

     We have also had Grammy and Doppa (the Davis grandparents) visit several different times throughout the year. They love visiting with their first grandbaby. And even had a visit from Aunt Jeaninne!

     Another highlight of the year was when Sean’s sister Leilani visited for a week from Arizona. Eli got to see his aunt and cousins every day as we did fun things like Boo Zoo, going to the pumpkin patch, and getting to play with his very own soccer ball (as you can see in one of the pictures, Elijah loves soccer)!

     This Thanksgiving we were able to have Christy’s family come to Kalamazoo and join us for a wonderful dinner.

     We hope all is well with our loved ones and that you have a blessed new year!

                                                Love,

                        Sean, Christy, and Elijah Szekely

The Arrival of our Sweet Son

I had Elijah Scott Szekely on Thursday, December 15th, 2011. He was born at 4:55pm and he was 19 inches long and 6 lbs 10.5 oz.

I had had a few nights where I thought for sure I was going into labor. My body went crazy with Braxton-Hicks contractions. What can I say, my wanting to be overly prepared for everything is a biological response more than a part of my personality. And my body was preparing for labor when I was 36 weeks along. At my appointment I was 70% effaced and dialed to 1 cm! So when I called my mom and told her that they thought I could go into labor at any time, she flew out two days later so she could be here to help me out getting everything ready.

I had an appointment on the Monday before I delivered. At that appointment I was 80% effaced and 1-2 cm dialated. While Brandi was checking me, she stripped my membranes. From that point on I had Braxton-Hicks contractions until real labor started at 5:30 am on the 15th. And of course, Sean was at work and it was the day that the department did vacation bid.

I was so grateful my mom was here in Michigan with me. I would have freaked out with going into labor with no one around. I had started to lose my mucous plug the night before, and my BH contractions were every 3 mins but not painful so I did not sleep much.

When labor started, my contractions were 5 minutes apart lasting for about a minute. Brandi had told me that when I was in labor and once my contractions were 5 mins apart lasting for a minute for an hour, then I needed to call and touch base. So around 6:45 am, I called up the on call midwife (who happened to be Brandi), and we decided that I should labor another hour and see how I felt. In that hour, I took a shower - which was AMAZING for the back pain I was already experiencing - did my hair, and ate breakfast. In the future, I will know to NOT eat once you're in labor. It leads to throwing up while in labor. Then my mom and I started to get everything into the car to head to the hospital. Sean wanted to finish up his shift and then do his vacation bid before coming to the hospital.. Yes, he is that dedicated to his job.

I ended up laboring with my mom helping me while Sean slept. As I entered into transition, my back labor wasn't letting up and I decided to get an epidural. It was amazing because I could rest, but when it came time to start pushing around 4 pm, I could feel some sensations without experiencing too much pain. My contractions spaced out to every 5 mins, and around 4:56 Eli was born!