Baby Silas' Birth

I probably should be taking a nap, but I figured it'd be good to get out my thoughts on baby Silas' birth before my parents leave and I don't have any free time! So for those of you who like this kind of thing, enjoy. Excuse the choppiness, gramatical errors, and misspellings, as I'll be glad just to get this story out of my head and onto this blog!

I'm still feeling like it's a bit surreal that there was a 10 pound baby inside of me last week, and now I'm feeling pretty much back to normal. I can bend over and tie my shoes, and I'm not peeing 6 times a night! I don't know how anyone can have a baby and not feel the power of God in the experience. It really is the biggest miracle!

Ian was induced 2.5 weeks early, so for some reason I was thinking baby #2 might come a bit early as well. Alas, he waited until his due date (actually he missed his due date by 56 minutes), and I must say those last 2 and a half weeks were getting fairly miserable. After a relatively easy pregnancy, I can't complain, but everything in life was getting more difficult and was I ready to get baby OUT!

On my due date I went to my OB appt. and I was about 3 cm dilated. Since we have a history of large babies in our family, we sheduled an induction for three days later. The doctor stripped my membranes (I'm not exactly sure what that does, and it sounds way more painful than it actually was), which is supposed to get things moving. Well move they did because about half an hour after I got home from the doc while I was getting ready for Zumba, my water broke! Such a weird feeling. I stood in the kitchen not knowing what to do for a minute, but then decided I should probably call Troy who was on his way home from work. I wasn't feeling any contractions, so I decided I should probably straighten up the house a bit, which was the messiest it had been in days, and finish packing my bags.

We got to the hospital around 5:30 p.m. and I was about 5 cm dilated, but still not feeling any contractions. They gave me pitocin to get things rolling, and we basically waited for awhile. After a couple of hours I still wasn't really feeling any contractions, and I was dilated about the same. When the nurse checked my cervix, my water broke again! Apparently only part of it broke before, so that was probably what was holding things up a bit. After that, the doctor encouraged me to get an epidural sooner than later, since things could progress quickly. I was just barely starting to feel contractions when I got the epidural. We were very blessed to have the best anesthesiologist (according to my doctor and the nurse) that evening. Because of my scoliosis, that was one thing I was a bit nervous about, but she did an amazing job. Troy left the room, so we had no near-fainting episodes this time around. The epidural was perfect! I could still feel and move my legs from the knee down, and felt like I had control, but couldn't feel the contractions. Whoever invented these is a genius!

After another hour or so things continued to progress. I had been alternating between laying on my sides when the nurse asked me to lay on my back. Suddenly two other nurses and my doctor came quickly into the room because the baby's heart rate started to drop. It went from 140 to 90 in a short amount of time. They gave me some sort of shot to stop my contractions, and stopped the pitocin. I wasn't super nervous at the time, but looking back it was a bit scary. Thankfully after 30-45 minutes or so baby's heart rate was stabilized, and they put me back onto pitocin. They don't know why the heartrate dropped, but it was more than likely because he descended quickly or didn't like the position I was in.

That ordeal slowed the process down a bit. I was fully dilated and ready to push around 12:30 am. At 12:56, Silas Allan was born! Of course all of the initial comments were about how big he was. My doctor said she thought he was at least nine pounds. I was slightly shocked when they weighed him and he was 10 lbs. 2.2 ounces. What? I knew we wouldn't have a little peanut, but over 10 lbs is a bit ridiculous! His head was extra large too, so I had to have an episiotomy and I had a third degree tear (sorry, but it happens!), but overall I was so thankful he was able to come out naturally.

Silas was slightly jaundiced and had to go under the bili bassinet for about 18 hours. I was really worried we'd have to be readmitted like we did for Ian, but thankfully we didn't!

We're at home adjusting to life. My mom has been a huge help, and has done a million loads of laundry and cooked all of our meals while my dad has been playing with Ian. Troy had surgery on his meniscus yesterday, and honestly it's a bit annoying to have to care for your husband right after having a baby, but chalk that up to bad timing.

I'm slightly terrified of what life will look like once my parents are gone and Troy is back to work, but I know the majority of people in the world do life with more than one kid. I can too! I just don't do well with lack of sleep, and I start to get paranoid that everything I do will ruin Silas' schedule for life, but I'm trying to be a bit more laid back. This too shall pass. It's a hard balance between enjoying the precious few moments of having a newborn, and wishing for the first few months to pass quickly because they are so exhausting and mentally draining. And even though we're praying for a baby who sleeps a lot at night quickly, I'm trying to be truly thankful for a perfectly healthy baby who has no complications or conditions.

Oh, and Silas is a nursing champ. At his one week appt. he was 10 lbs 8 oz. He's nursing A LOT, but hey, I guess a 10 pounder needs a bit more milk than the average baby!