Our Second Blessing

    It was Monday, March 11, and James was working from home. I started getting contractions around lunch time, they weren't too strong, but they kept coming. We wondered if Silas would come early, because he was not due until March 18th. By dinner time, the contractions were stronger and longer and I had to focus more and breathe differently to get through them. I probably sat bouncing on my balance ball for a couple hours. James would ask me every once and a while if we should go to the hospital. I kept saying that I didn't know if they were strong or close enough to go. I didn't want to rush to the hospital only to be sent home. But then he asked again, and I couldn't answer during a contraction, so we decided to call my friend who would be keeping Jacob, and head to the hospital.
    We dropped Jacob off at our friends house and arrived at the hospital about 11pm. Once I was connected to monitors, the nurses said I may actually not be in labor. WHAT?!?! This was frustrating, I knew I was in labor. So we started walking laps around the department. The nurses said they were surprised how fast I was walking. I was definitely taking this seriously and did not want to be sent home! James kept walking with me. I could tell he wanted to walk slower, but wouldn't dare ask! My labor progressed, so I was admitted. We decided to try to get some sleep.
    By mid-morning the next day, my labor slowed down. My doctor suggested breaking my water to see if that would help things progress more. I think it was around 10am when she broke my water. That. Was. Intense. I'm pretty sure I went from being 1cm to 7cm dilated in about 15 minutes. It was then I decided to get an epidural. I wanted to be able to enjoy labor more, and boy did it make a difference!

This is me a few minutes after getting the epidural.

    I continued laboring, but since I had the epidural, I was able to sleep a little. About 2pm I was at 9cm. I wanted to be ready for pictures when Silas came, so I put on some make-up :)
    2:30 rolled around and a nurse came in to go through some practice pushes with me. We didn't get very far when she told me to stop because she could see his head! My doctor was in another procedure and couldn't come right away, so we had to wait! (Looking back on it, I would have done things differently and pushed him right out. I was ready. He was ready.) She came in shortly before 3pm. I pushed though a couple contractions, and out he came! It really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Even though I went through most of labor when I had Jacob, I ended up having a c-section, so I wasn't sure what the actual delivery part would be like. It was exhausting, yet energizing. James was great. And I loved it.
    Silas Jonathan Lord was born March 12, 2014 weighing 7lbs 4oz.

Just minutes after Silas was born!

Silas Jonathan

We were still in the delivery room here, with our healthy new son :)

    Silas caught on to breast-feeding without too much trouble. We were able to rest a bit, eat dinner, then James went to pick Jacob up to come meet his new brother. Jacob was so sweet. One of the first thing he said was, "Silas cam out of your tummy! I want to hold him."

Our first picture as a family of four. Even Silas is smiling :)

We were laughing because Jacob starting counting Silas' toes!

Jacob kissing Silas. I love this.

    The next afternoon, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law, with his girlfriend, came to visit us in the hospital.

Ethan & Paige meeting Silas

James with his mom (Bev) and brother Ethan.

     The last thing we did before leaving the hospital was put Silas' footprint on the wall! I'm not going to lie, Silas hated it and screamed the whole time until he was wrapped up in his blanket again.

James holding Silas while the nurse put blue paint on his foot.

    Then we went home to begin our new life as a family of four. It wasn't as scary as when we took Jacob home. We felt like we knew what we were doing a little bit more ;-)