Thursday, October 3, 2013

Amos's Birth Story


It's time for another birth story! :) It's been four weeks now since his birth (say what?!?), so I want to get all the details down in print before I forget them! For a look back at the others, you can find Ethan's story here, and Noah's here. This will be pretty detailed, so read on at your own risk!! ;)

As I posted in my last bump update, at my 37-week appointment, I was still at 2-3 cm. At my 38-week appointment, I was dilated a solid 3 cm, and at my 39-week appointment, on the 4th, I was dilated 3-4 cm, and starting to thin out some. I was also measuring at 40 weeks. They offered to induce me anytime I wanted to, but I was still hoping to go into labor on my own. That night, I started having more contractions and they stuck around through the night, instead of going away like they normally did when I laid down. When I woke up that morning to get ready to take the boys to preschool, the contractions still weren't stopping, and I had a feeling that these were different, though they still weren't painful. I had Josh stay home from work and my mom took the boys to school (fortunately, I had her come back down a couple days before that day). I went ahead and finished packing my hospital bag while Josh tied up loose ends with work. The contractions were getting closer and more uncomfortable. We finally loaded up the 4-Runner and made our way towards the hospital. Not long after we were on the road, the contractions started getting really painful, and were lasting around a minute, mostly under 5 minutes apart. At this point, I knew I was in labor, no doubts about it!

One last pic with the boys before heading to the hospital!

We arrived at the hospital and Josh dropped me off at the front while he parked. A nice employee must have noticed my pain and offered me a wheelchair to get me upstairs to Labor & Delivery. We made our way up, checked in, and were in an L&D suite in minutes. They started through the usual checklist of questions while I got ready to be checked. At that point, the nurse found that I was already dilated 6 cm, 70% effaced, and baby was at station 0!

I continued to contract regularly, with increasing pain. I hadn't decided whether or not I wanted to get an epidural, but as time went on, with little progression, I decided to go ahead and get one. The epidural was done by 11:30 am. It took pretty well, with no feeling on the left side, but enough feeling on the right side to experience a little bit of the pain of the contractions. By 12:30 pm, I was dilated 8 cm. My doctor came and broke my water around 1:30 pm, to help speed things up. By 3:15 pm, I was finally dilated to 9 cm. Things started to get a little scary for a bit, as baby's heart rate started dropping every time I had a contraction. My doctor was worried about the position of his cord. They tried to have me keep changing positions so that his heart rate would stabilize. As I neared full dilation, I think the epidural prevented me from knowing when I felt like I needed to start pushing. By the time I told the nurse that I thought I was ready, I was really ready, but my doctor had not arrived yet. When she finally came in the room and started gowning up, she took a look and had to tell me to hold on! Apparently, the little guy wasn't waiting, as he was crowning already! She quickly got some gloves on and had me start trying to push. I pushed once and he continued to make his way out. By the 2nd push, his head was out and she was able to guide the rest of him on out! Craziness! It's amazing the difference between birthing the 1st and the 3rd! I pushed with Ethan for four very long hours. With Noah, it was much, much shorter, around 10 minutes, but I was quite surprised when this baby came out after just 2 pushes! Yahoo!

Amos James made his arrival at 4:51 pm on September 5th, weighing in at 7 pounds, 7.3 ounces...

Our smallest baby, weighing in at 7 lbs, 7.3 oz!
...and measuring 20.5 inches long. His head was 13.5 inches...much smaller than his big brothers, who had 14+ inch heads!

Tied for longest baby, with Noah, at 20.5 inches!
He was perfect!!

Opening his eyes to meet Mommy for the first time! :)


We decided to name him after two of his Great Grandfathers. Amos was Josh's father's father and James was my mother's father. Amos is a family name that has been in the Seeley family for a very long time. The name has been used as a first or middle name in nearly every generation dating back to the early 19th century. So, we thought it might be neat to carry on the tradition! :) Here's a look at the history of the name...


After the delivery, we were able to stay in the L&D suite for a bit, as it was time for a shift change.

Happy he had finally arrived! His first feeding, in the L&D suite.

They brought dinner in and once the night staff was on, they took me to my room. My mom brought the boys up to the hospital so they could meet the little guy!

The boys meeting their little brother for the first time!

I was unsure how Noah would react to having a little brother. Ethan wasn't super excited when Noah was born, and didn't want to hold him for weeks. Noah, however, is in love! He couldn't stop touching, or patting him, and pointing out/naming all of his tiny body parts. It was absolutely adorable. He is still really fascinated by him and loves giving him hugs and kisses. :)

Noah was absolutely smitten with Amos! :)

After their visit, the boys headed home and we settled in for the night. We had the nursery keep him that night, so I would be able to rest up a bit easier. They brought him in several times to eat that night. He caught on very quickly to that, and is still a super eater now! Haha!



The next day, he was checked out by the on-call pediatrician, as our regular pediatrician doesn't make rounds at the hospital we had to deliver at. He looked great and was given the go ahead to head home after his bloodwork was checked at 24 hours. We ended up having to wait around awhile to get those results, and were finally able to head home around 9 pm that night.

One day old and ready to leave the hospital! :)

The boys wanted to wait up to see the little guy again. They were so excited!


I love all my guys! :)

The morning after coming home, we were scheduled to visit our regular pediatrician's office to be sure that he still looked good, with no signs of jaundice. He looked great (his levels were excellent, so no threat of him becoming jaundiced), but they wanted to see him again in a couple days to be sure he was gaining enough weight. At that 2nd visit, at just 4 days old, he was back up to his birth weight, so they were happy with that.

We're now adjusting to life as a family of six (yep, Daisy still counts!). It is definitely an adjustment! Now that they outnumber us, it's a bit harder at times, but Ethan and Noah have been great helpers so far.

Ethan is ready to help take care of littlest brother!

Welcome to the family, Amos!


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