Our first week - part I - the hospital

Its our first full week of being a family of three.

Silas was born on Friday the 14th. My water had broken the night before at around 10:30 and I was in labor until around 2pm the following day when I spiked a fever. My temp was over 100 degrees and Silas' heart rate went from 120 bpm to over 180 bpm. I felt so cold that I had them turn off my a/c and bundle me with heated blankets, but none of those things seemed to help. The midwife on call said that the best route would be an immediate c-section.

Josh of course had just ran home to get a shower, eat some food and check on our animals and they wanted to take me in right away. Fortunately we only live about 10 minutes away and he was able to get to the hospital as they were prepping me for surgery.

I was in a lot of pain from the epidural and still very cold. Josh held my hand the entire time and talked to me as they performed the c-section. Before I knew it Josh said they were pulling Silas out and they held him up and I could see is angry red face. My poor little guy didn't want to come out! As they were stitching me back up Josh went with Silas to be taken care of. Since I had a fever they wanted to put him on antibiotics as a precaution so that if I did have an infection I didn't pass it on to him so they had to put an I.V. in his hand after they cleaned him up.

I was wheeled to recovery while Josh went with Silas to the nursery. Everyone got a chance to see him except for me. I wanted nothing more than to hold my son. Once Silas was situated Josh came down to recovery to see me. He showed me pictures of Silas being cleaned up and a few videos he had taken of our little guy. I cried with joy for our little one. He looked so precious and wonderful. I sent Josh back to be with him and slowly the rest of my family came back to see me.

At around 6 they finally started the process of transporting me to my post partum care room. My nurse DeAnna said that she could take me down to the nursery if I felt up to it, but I wouldn't be able to stay long because of shift change. I started to get up and she was amazed because she had never seen a mom so quick to their feet after surgery. All I wanted to do was to see Silas.

It was amazing to see him the first time and touch his little hands and feet. His arm was wrapped up tight with tape and such with an I.V. and I wanted to cry because I had caused him to have to have it in. They said he'd have to spend 48 hours in the nursery.

I spent all the time I could in the nursery and probably over did it the first day. We had a steady stream of visitors and in between sharing Silas with them down in the nursery I was trying to breast feed, but with little success. Having a breast reduction 7 1/2 years ago has limited my ability greatly, but we went forward and he would latch on each time. He has a strong latch and suck, but isn't able to get a lot out.

The Pediatrician came in on Saturday and said that he looked good and gave the o.k. for the nurses to let Silas be wheeled into my room for feedings during the night. He said that he'd have to have the I.V. in until Sunday evening though and then he could room with us until we were discharged.

Sunday was much like Saturday with lots of visitors. I worked on walking around and breast feeding. My incision hurt and I had to take it easy on Sunday as I did too much on Saturday. By 10 pm Sunday night Silas had his I.V. out and was wheeled in our room. We had our first night together and it went very well. He woke up several times to be fed and hardly fussed in between at all.

Monday we worked on getting ready for home. I had a lactation consultant come in to talk to me about breast feeding and had my staples removed. We finally got to leave for home around 3 pm with strict orders for me to take a nap in my own bed, which I did.

Welcome Silas

Silas Alexander was born on Friday May 14th at 3:42 pm.

He was 8 lbs and 7 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.

We unfortunatly were not able to have the natural vaginal delivery that was planned due to a spiked fever on my half and an increased heart rate on his.

I'll post more about his birth when we are at home. We are currently still at the hospital and hope to be released tomorrow afternoon.

Happy Birthday

To me at least...

Today I am 27 years old.

I'm also 40 weeks and 6 days pregnant.

At my midwife appointment everything was great, oh expect I had no changes in the cervix department.

My child just doesn't want to be born. My uterus is still contracting, but my cervix won't change.

They sent me over to L&D to have the prostaglandin gels inserted. And they didn't do anything.

Donna, the midwife on call suggested using cervidil. That required being admitted to the hospital for observation. So they admitted me and inserted the cervidil at around 3:30 in the afternoon. The cervidil stays inserted for 12 hours so Josh and I hung out, had my family come entertain us at different intervals and got no sleep all night. Josh was on fold out which was probably more comfortable than my bed. I had a hard time sleeping because I was on the fetal heart monitor all night and had to page a nurse everytime I needed to go to the bathroom. The removed the cervidil at 3:30 in the morning and they checked me.

Around 6 am Donna came in and checked my cervix and she said that I was finally making some progress. My cervix is soft and I'm effaced 50% and dilated 1cm. She said Silas' head feels much lower in my pelvis, but still not at low as he should be. They gave me the option of staying and trying another method, or going home to relax and try to labor at home. Josh and I decided to come home. We went out for breakfast before hand and now we are resting.

So here I am... on my birthday still waiting for my son to arrive. At this point I'm done guessing when he'll come. He'll be here when he gets here.

Follow up appointment

I went in for the follow up appointment today.

As I thought, no changes.

His heart tones sound good, my blood pressure was normal and there were no proteins in my urine. He was squirming around as she was trying to locate his heart beat. I did put on a few pounds from the last appointment, but she said right off the bat that I was retaining water. She could tell in my belly, feet, and face and she said not to worry about it.

So what we are going to do is hold out until my next appointment on Tuesday. If I haven't gone into labor and there are no visible changes she wants to have me go to L&D and have prostaglandin gel administered to help ripen my cervix. They will administer it and monitor me and then send me home to hopefully labor on my own time. All the midwives there know how I feel about induction and pitocin and my fear of Cesarean. And in my birth plan I did state that I would be open to the prostaglandin, which is why they suggested it.

In other news...

I've been sleeping well, I got the house tidy, and I'm looking forward to mother's day. Even though I may not hold my child on mother's day, I'm still a mom and we are going to celebrate that. On top of it, my brother-in-law is in town for the weekend and we are going to see him too.

Tonight we are going to have dinner with my sister and brother-in-law at my favorite Mexican restaurant, which also happens to be my BIL's favorite restaurant too. Tomorrow I may or may not go to the zoo and then Sunday we'll be with family. We have church and then lunch with my FIL and SMIL and then in the evening we are going to go to my parents house for dinner and we'll play tripoly. I'm hoping at some point we'll see my MIL too. I'm looking forward to it.

Like I said... I'm just going to take it easy and try to wait patiently for Silas to come. (seriously hoping he'll come on his own though!)

Still pregnant

Tomorrow is our due date and I am still pregnant.

I thought for sure Silas would have arrived this weekend, but we were wrong. He is still holding on strong!

We had an appointment on Tuesday and there had been no changes from when we went to L&D on Saturday.

My blood pressure was 120/75, had no proteins in my urine, and had even lost a pound!

Silas's heart rate started off really low, but jumped back up to normal so they wanted me to have a non-stress test done and L&D, so after my appoint I headed over there.

I was a little keyed up given I haven't had much sleep since Friday night and I thought for sure our little guy would be here by now. I also managed to show up over an hour early for my appointment and was disappointed that I had not changed at all.

I spoke to the midwife on call and she went over the monitoring tape. She said Silas looked textbook perfect and that everything with me was normal besides being worked up. We talked about the importance of breathing and taking in enough liquids and trying to relax.

She prescribed an anti-anxiety med to help me rest and get some sleep at night. I'm only taking a small amount and only at night. I took it last night and it was amazing. I slept so well. I had to get up a few times for the bathroom, but was able to get back to bed with no problems. I got up around 10:45 this morning and felt wonderful after having so much sleep. I feel very well rested.

Once I got up and going my sister came over and she took me out. We went to the mall out in Scottsdale and walked around for a few hours. She bought Silas a build-a-bear bear. We just picked out a bear and a t-shirt that says "it's a boy". We named it Mr. Bearington and gave him Silas' due date as his birthday.

I was so tuckered out that I fell asleep in the car on the way home. I'm still really tired, but don't want to nap anymore otherwise I may not sleep tonight. Silas is currently moving around and causing a lot of back pressure and sharp pains, but at least he is moving around... maybe he'll realize that he is running out of room and will try to make an appearance soon!

Pictures are both 39 weeks and 4 days

Laboring

I'm officially in labor, but the early stages. I'm having contractions and all day yesterday they were very regular. They got to be about 4.5 minutes apart and I was having extreamly bad back pain so we went to L&D at the hospital.

Once I got there they hooked me up to the fetal monitor and confirmed I was having contractions, but when they did an internal exam I was only 1cm dilated. Because I wasn't dilated enough they sent me home.

I continued to have contractions but managed to get some sleep. When I woke up today the contractions were back to being irregular. I've been having them off and on all day, but the closest they've been together today is 7 minutes.

To be honest, I'm very discouraged. I was hoping yesterday was it and I'd have a little boy to hold in my arms today, but he has other plans.

Also, it makes it hard on our family because they are just as anxious as Josh and I are. We are getting lots of texts and phone calls and its hard to tell them that there is no baby yet.

I know he'll come when he is ready and apparently his is just not ready today!