Silas Gabriel Brink's Birthday

Well, I'm finally sitting down to write down the story of how Silas came into the world. Reader discretion is advised (I'm a nurse you see, and realize that some people want ALL the details).

Here goes:

So the week before Silas was born I had a lot of braxton hicks contractions. I had had them for weeks and weeks but they seemed to be coming on more. The tuesday before I lost part of my mucus plug and continued losing it until about Friday so I was wondering if things were happening. The midwife tried to check me on Wednesday to see how far along I was, but it wasn't particularly enlightening so it was still ambiguous when labor would officially begin. That night I had a lot of regular braxton hicks so went to bed thinking "maybe tonight!" Nope. Ambiguity continued. Then on Friday I had braxton hicks contractions all throughout the day- and was thinking it MUST be starting today!!! Well, I slept terribly that night and ended up napping all morning (my official due date January 16th) but the contractions had stopped. ARG. That day my family made bets on when baby was to be born and everything thought not until the next week or two...

Well that night I thought my water was breaking at about 10 pm. We called the midwife and she came by to check and said it was 'ambiguous' if it was amniotic fluid so.....??? She said I might go into labour that night. So I showered, went to bed and as soon as I went to bed the contractions started hard and fast. They started at 5 min apart and already fairly strong and painful in my back. After a couple of hours of coping, sitting on the ball, 'attempting' to watch a movie, we called the midwife back. She came and checked me and I was at 3 cm or so. She said to call her when they intensified in a number of hours.

HA! A number of hours? Like 2 hours later we called because they were strong and getting closer and closer together, already at like 2.5 minutes or so apart. She checked me again and found me to be 3-4 cm apart so started calling to the hospital.

Bit of drama at this point. I was getting such intense contractions and back pain...and she called Surrey hospital and they couldn't take me! Something about not enough nursing staff??? The other hospital within close distance is Langley and they couldn't take me either! I was already starting to sense that I would need some pain meds soon because they were getting to be so painful. Another midwife arrived too to help with the coping and starting putting a lot of pressure on my back because the labor was so intense in my back.

Well Surrey finally decided to take me but said I'd have to wait at home for 2 hours until the next nursing shift arrived. I tell you- those two hours were very, very hard. I wanted to get to the hospital so badly and was in so much pain. The contractions were already right on top of each other. We tried the bath tub, the ball, anything but I was crying and having a really hard time coping.

Finally, after two hours of this, we were going to the hospital at about 7 am. The ride to the hospital was super hard for J and I. I clutched that uh-oh handle like nobody's business! When we got there they rushed me into the room and right away threw some gas on me. yay! delirium! Was a nice break from the pain a bit. They checked me and already I was 5 cm dilated, and fully effaced, and baby Silas' head had engaged quite far in the pelvis and was quite low.

So I took the epidural. I was in such heavy back pain that it seemed the right time to use it- the best time to use it actually because we thought maybe it could relax me enough to take me to 10 cm. Oh how I loved that anesthesiologist! The epidural was delightful and SO necessary.

So they did the whole IV, foley and epidural. And I was supposed to sleep at this point but I was too relieved that most of the pain was gone (save the serious pressure in my back and pelvis).

Two hours later the midwife checked me and no change...so she popped my bag of waters.

Two more hours later they were monitoring baby's heart and it started to appear that baby was not coping with the stress of labor. It was a bit panicky so the midwife called the OB in. He wasn't as concerned about the heart although the rest of the staff seemed to be gearing up towards a c-section already and prepping me for surgery already. The OB checked me then and found that not only was I not any further dilated (still at 5 cm) but the baby's had had actually gone back UP the pelvis and was not engaged anymore, was posterior facing (hence the back labor) and his head was now de-flexed when it should be flexed.

SO he determined this baby was truly not going to come out the pelvis and he needed to do an emergency c-section. It was pretty emotional and tough because I really did want to have the baby naturally and things had been going along so well up until that point. Plus, it felt scary and rushed because there were so many people in the room getting me prepped for surgery.

However, as soon as we saw his little face peak over the curtain in the operating room, I was so relieved and happy to know that he was healthy and perfect, and was sooo cute- that a c-section really wasn't going to get me down enough to ruin our first moments with him.

Jason was there in the whole surgery and then met me in the recovery room with baby silas where we cuddled and tried breast feeding for the first time. SO many tears were shed- it was just very special. Then we were wheeled back to my room where my parents were waiting and I cried lots and lots more. Phew. What an emotional day!

So the next three days at the hospital got increasingly better. It was hard at first not being to eat or move, trying to breastfeed and not sleeping at all (just had a really hard time sleeping those first few days). But slowly I was able to get up more and do more.

By day three were able to go home- yay! It's been great being home too- feeling more comfortable in my rocking chair to breast feed. And Silas has been eating and gaining weight super well. He's already surpassed his birthweight at only 5 days old when they usually expect that to happen after 2/3 weeks! The nights can be tough for me- just feeling like you never get to sleep and are always awake. But we're loving all the special moments with him...giggling over his sounds and facial expressions, laughing when he pees and poops and spits up simultaneously, and just enjoying cuddling and kissing him.

So that's the story of Silas' birth. He weighed 6 lbs 12 oz at birth and was born on january 17 at 12:54 pm. =)