Sylvie's Birth Story

Just a warning - if you don't like birth stories, this post won't interest you much!  I'm including lots of details (nothing too graphic!) just because I love to hear about other people's birth stories and so I don't forget all of the events from that night.

This was my second pregnancy with gestational diabetes and one "perk" of having this is that it is not recommended for mothers to go past their due dates before having their babies.  So, as I got closer to my due date, I knew that my doctor would be making a plan for me to be induced if I hadn't gone into labor on my own.

We went to the hospital on April 1, the day before my due date.  Drew and I left Judah at my parent's house and tucked him into bed for his very first overnight sleepover.  We came home to shower and finish packing then left for the for our appointment at 10:00 PM.

One last belly shot

By the time we got all checked in, went over my medical history, etc. we were a little late starting the induction.  We were waiting for a few hours for the pharmacy to bring up my cervidil and I was supposed to be on that medication for 12 hours.  We didn't get started until 1:00 AM.  Nurses, residents, and doctors were coming in to check in on me all through the night so I didn't get more than a couple hours of sleep.  I was also having contractions, some mild and some stronger about every 6-7 minutes, so I really wasn't able to get any rest.  Even though I was tired, there was a lot of nervous excitement to meet Sylvie so I was feeling OK.

The next morning (April 2) I was having lots of contractions, lots of them pretty strong and most were about every 2 minutes.  The plan was to wait 12 hours for my dose of cervidil to be complete, then start pitocin around an hour later.  Even though I was having lots of contractions, my labor wasn't really progressing very fast.  Before starting pitocin, I got to take another shower and eat some cheese, crackers, and grapes to keep my energy up.  

I was in that bed for hours...it was a lot of waiting around...

Things started to pick up after starting the pitocin.  But even though I was having lots of contractions and they were becoming very intense, I still wasn't progressing very much in my labor.  I held off as long as I could, but after hours and hours of contractions I was ready for my epidural.  I was hoping that if my body relaxed, I might be able to get some rest and hopefully start progressing in my labor.  The epidural was great...I'm a big fan :)

Around 7:00 at night, there was a another shift change with the nurses.  I had been through two nurses already.  My first nurse was OK; she had burst a vein trying to put in my IV and left a nasty bruise but I only had her for a few hours.  My next nurse, Megan, was wonderful and was a big help getting through the contractions and answering lots of questions.  But the nurses that came for the last shift (Lorrie and April) were amazing.  Both had lots of labor & delivery experience and were determined to be the ones to watch Sylvie being born.  They could tell that I was very tired and becoming discouraged from my body not really progressing so they were a big encouragement to me that Sylvie was on her way and we wouldn't have to wait too much longer.

Every hour or so the nurses turned up my pitocin, which made the contractions pretty intense at times but Sylvie was handling it really well so we kept waiting for more progress to be made.  It was just slow and steady.

Middle of the night and I couldn't sleep...

Around midnight, the nurses decided to check with my doctor to see if breaking my water might help move things along.  They had been waiting for Sylvie to be in the right position to do this and it looked like the time was right.  They had a resident come and break my water and we all hoped that we would be meeting our baby in the next few hours.

Almost immediately after my water broke, things started to progress really fast.  My epidural was wearing off at this point, but this ended up being a good thing because I could really feel Sylvie coming down and knew when it would be time to push.  The nurses called my doctor and he made his way there within about 15 minutes.  After he arrived, it took about 20 more minutes of pushing and she was here!

 Our daughter is beautiful and perfect.  We couldn't be more grateful for her.  She was a surprise blessing in the middle of a tough year with our adoption and has brought a lot of joy to our family.

We chose the name Sylvie pretty early in the pregnancy.  I had always loved the name and had wanted something girly but also not a name you hear every day.  Sylvie means "from the forest" and is the French version of Sylvia.  Her name actually fits perfectly with my interests these days...many of my sewing items have a woodland theme and the name Sylvie is French, which is the language our Congolese child will speak when they come home.  Once we were told by the doctor that we were having a girl, Drew and I agreed that Sylvie was our favorite name for our daughter.

Sylvie's middle name is Faith, which we chose for a couple of reasons.  We did not decide on a middle name until the end of my pregnancy but once Drew suggested "Faith" we both knew it was the right name.  Our family will raise her to be a woman of faith, and faith in the Lord has been what has gotten us through the last several years of trying to add to our family through adoption.  Faith is also the name of Drew's cousin who was the flower girl in our wedding and is one of our favorite people...so we couldn't think of a better person to share Sylvie's name.