Introducing Silas Cameron Smith

Short version: 22 hour labor beginning on Thurs. Oct 7th at 4am. Silas Cameron entered this world on Oct 8th at 1:53am. 8lbs 3ozs. 19.75" long. Not much hair. 2 dimples! Healthy and doing well.

Long version:

On October 8, 2010 at 1:53am Silas made his entrance into this world and joined our family full of boys! So here's the story... I had a great pregnancy overall. My biggest challenge was "making" it to the end mentally and physically. Throughout my two pregnancies, I have learned that I am one who begins having contractions around 30 weeks that are quite frequent. Generally, the doctor doesn't want you having more than 4-5 contractions per hour until you are past 36 weeks. I am an unusual one who contracts anywhere from 5-15+ per hour from 30 weeks on but never dialates! I had hoped this was just something I did when carrying twins but this pregnancy proved that this is what I do no matter how many babies I'm carrying. At 37.5 weeks I had a 24 hour period where I had painful contractions 3-5 mins apart but that didn't carry me into labor. Then 3 days before I had Silas I thought I was leaking amniotic fluid and spent a few hours in labor & delivery to be sent home to wait a bit longer. On Thursday, Oct 7th things got started about 4am when things started coming out of me (I'll spare you the details!). I tried to go back to sleep but the contractions were strong enough to keep me up. I mentioned to Cameron that things were happening but he didn't hear me until 6am when he got up to get ready for school. I told him I couldn't take the boys to school and I thought this was it. So I got up and tried to help prep the boys' lunches but had to flee to deal with what was coming out of me and endure the contractions. Cameron left for school with the boys a bit apprehensive about leaving me. I told him to go on and I'll be calling him. After all of my contracting history I needed to get up and go on a walk and PROVE that this was it. It took only a few minutes of being upright to know this was the real deal. My contractions quickly got more painful and intense. I went on a walk and had to stop for every contraction. 2 grandmas and a car stopped to ask me if I needed help. I told them that I was okay. However, after they left I called Cameron in tears and headed home. When I got home I called the nurse who told me to go to labor & delivery and I called Cameron to tell him to come home and drive me to the hospital. Then I decided to take a quick shower since I wanted to be clean for giving birth! It was not the smartest move! I barely made it through that. By the time I got in the car my contractions were quite painful. Then they took it to the next level when I got checked in at the hospital. I really thought I was going to die for about 3 hours at the hospital until I got my epidural. The crazy part was that I wasn't dialating. I felt like I had to prove the nurses how much pain I was in because I was a zero and felt like I was in transition labor. Seriously, it must feel like that! I really thought I was about to pass out and I consider myself to have a fairly high pain tolerance. Getting my epidural was one of the hardest things I've ever done because my contractions were insane, one minute apart ,and I had to be perfectly still and push back on the doctor at the same time. It was terrible but I made it. Once that kicked in I became a new person and actually started asking Cameron if I was having contractions! Nuts! I got my epidural at about 3:30pm and was a 0. At 7 something I was finally thinned out and dialated to a 1. At about 10:30pm I was a 3.5 and Dr. Doke guessed the baby would be born about 4 or 5am. At 11:45pm I was experiencing so much pressure with every contraction that there was no way I could "rest" through them or make it 7 more hours. I explained all I was feeling to the nurse and she decided to go ahead and check me again. Then she said "well, you're a 10!" HALLELUJAH!! Cam jumped up from the bed and said, "She's a what?!" Finally, it was showtime! So I pushed for 30 mins and then took a 30 min break with me upright to let gravity pull Silas down more. Then I pushed or 30 more mins and the nurse said she would call Dr. Doke to try some things to get the baby out. He arrived quickly and I pushed about 4 contractions for him and he said we needed to use foreceps because the baby was stuck on my bone. I agreed knowing he might have marks on his head but at least he will come out! So the next push produced his head and one more push for his body. It was the most amazing thing I've ever experienced! Cameron cut the cord and we held and looked at our new son with amazement! Praise the Lord for the gift of Silas Cameron Smith! 8lbs 3ozs. 19.75" long. Cam won the bet on Silas' weight. he guessed 8.2 and I guessed 8.5 . Dr. Doke guessed big 7. We were close! Si has almost no hair that is light brown, dark blue eyes, and dimples! :) I'm happy to have one of my kids have dimples! He is precious!

Since the birth... We stayed in the hospital 5 days instead of 2 because Silas had elevated white blood cell counts at birth and 12 hours after birth. After the 2nd high count, his pediatrician decided to put him on antibiotics via an iv in his head to treat a possible bacterial infection he might have contracted during the birth. The thought was that Silas could have gotten the infection because I was ruptured for 22 hours. In the end it seems that the treatment was just a precaution because Silas never showed any other signs of illness. He never even had a fever. It is also possible that they started treated it so early that the infection (if there was one) never had a chance to develop and cause other symptoms. All of the tests that were run on him came back negative. It was frustrating to wait daily to find out if Silas could be discharged and we could go home. But we are thankful that our doctor was cautious. We would rather have obeyed the doctor and stayed in the hospital than taken home a newborn with a bacterial infection. Since we've been home we have enjoyed being a family of 5! We are trying to figure out how we do life with twins in kindergarten and a newborn. I am super thankful for the chance to do a vbac. My recovery this time around has been so much better! Of course there is no comparison for me between my c-section and vbac, regardless of twins or singleton. Of course having one baby has been much easier than 2. The time it takes to feed has been cut in half, so we are getting much more sleep. All of that said, I'm SO very thankful for Carter and Mason and would do it all over again to have them in our lives. I love all of my boys with all of my heart. We have tried many methods to have babies and are so thankful for God's plan for us to have 3 boys. I'm praising Him daily for these gifts!