Skyler's Birth (My Side of the Story)

Skyler's birth is definitely a story I want to remember well. I figure I started my pregnancy with a bang so it was only appropriate to end with a bang. I ended up going through false labor 6 times. That's right. 6 times I had contractions at 3 minutes apart for hours at a time. Thank goodness I only went to the hospital the first time. Whenever they got regular I didn't think anything of it because I figured my body was just lying to me again. So I did have to wait until the 30th to be induced. I was admitted into the hospital at 7:30 AM, had my doctor break my water at 8:30, and then started Petosin at 9. I was already 4 cm when I got to the hospital so my nurse told me I could have an epidural whenever I wanted but I chose to tough it out for a little bit so I could progress faster. At noon I started shaking during each contraction from the pain so I decided that it would probably be a good idea to get my epidural. I had the wonderful anesthesiologist come in and told him about my last labor (I pushed for 2 hours with Lily and the epidural wore off halfway through so I felt the entire delivery) and let him know I DID NOT want to do that again. So he gave me a button to push to give myself another dose when the time was right. So epidurals just put me to sleep so of course I just went off into La La Land. Shortly after I woke up the nurse came in to check up on me and told me I was at an 8 and to let her know once I started feeling the urge to push. Yeeeaahhhh....... so I told her I was feeling it. She checked me again and started setting up a table with all of the delivery instruments and so my mom knew what that meant. I will never forget this. She said she was going to use the bathroom in my room and about a minute later when she came out I had already started pushing because I was at a 10. What. The. Heck. So they had a nurse run out and call my doctor really fast and he got to the hospital just in time to deliver Skyler. What an awesome delivery (and my epidural lasted the whole time!!!!). My only problem is that each labor gets faster and with a 10 hour labor and a not-quite-6-hour labor under my belt I'm going to have to be close to a hospital for now on. I'm so grateful everything went well and that I have a healthy and happy (he rarely cries at all) baby boy. Now our family is just going through an adjustment...... and when I say family I really mean Lily.

Here is our first family picture of the four of us. It describes our lives pretty well right now.

Although our family is definitely in a time of adjustment we're enjoying life. Ben and I are sooo grateful for our two babies and we wouldn't change a thing about them. Yes, Lily has been struggling quite a bit with her sleeping (which makes EVERYTHING go downhill) and seeing Skyler with me all the time but she's doing better all the time. One of the things that has been miraculous to me is that she's now walking. She started walking really well while I was in the hospital (Murphy's Law, of course) and is now walking just about everywhere. It has been amazing timing because with all of the attention Skyler needs Lily now gets quite a bit of praise. Here's a movie of her as our little walker. We sure are proud of her!