Labor + Delivery: Silas Kade

by Unknown - 9:02 AM

The Birth Of Our Second Boy: Silas Kade Hankes

February 15, 2013 (16 days before my due date):

My husband and I went over to my sister-in-law's house to make the famous Egg Plant Parmesan from Scalinis Family Italian Restaurant located in Atlanta Georgia. It's known to induce labor after eating it. (My SIL water broke the night she ate it.) After an hour of eating it I lost my mucus plug with some "bloody show", but had no other signs besides some small usual cramping.

February 16, 2013:

This day we walked the bridge, as we did 2-3 times a week for about 2 weeks or so, over our towns river. Something just felt off all day, the cramps never subsided and I continued to lose mucus the same as the previous night. Although the cramps never got worse and weren't painful at all, I still felt as though something was going on. I spent almost the whole day at my parents with my sisters and brother. That night I literally got no sleep whatsoever. I actually woke my husband up around 3am to go make me a sandwich because I felt like I was starving to death. Like the good husband he is he did so without a complaint, and went back to sleep shortly after. All night I was uncomfortable and couldn't shake that feeling like something wasn't the same. About 6:30am I decided to get up and take a warm bath to see if that would help.

February 17, 2013:

At the time, I was a worship leader at my church. I had to be there early for practice around 9:45/10am, church to start at 11. Throughout practice I just couldn't get comfortable and between all the songs I had to stop singing to catch my breath. So, I decided I would sit this Sunday out and pray I got more comfortable. Let me rewind just a bit and say this; I wouldn't call my doctor because prior to this I had early labor and was in the hospital at least 3-4 times and I didn't want to be sent home again. During the service Matt could tell I was extremely uncomfortable and looked at me and said, "we are going to call the doctor, now". So I did as he told. My doctor calmly said he didn't think I was in labor because the "cramping" was only every 6-7 minutes, but to come in and get checked anyway. This was discouraging to me because I did NOT want to go for no reason for the 5th time! About 1pm we got up to labor and delivery and the nurse checked me. Sure enough I was 4cm dilated! But because my contractions were far enough apart they didn't want to keep me just yet. The nurse had me walk the halls for an hour to see if anything would change.

An hour went by and finally my doctor came to see me and check on me. Just in the hour I went from a 4 to a 5, but my cervix was still very high up. He wanted to break my water anyways to speed things along, so he pulled my cervix down (mind you it is not the most painless thing in the world) and broke my waters. Thinking since it was my second I would be used to the feeling, I was completely wrong. Still so weird!

My husband making me laugh through the contractions.

Finally they moved me to my delivery room. We thought we would be there all night, not delivering until late night, early morning, so my family was in and out and we all got comfortable. Around 5:30p the contractions were super close and I was ready for an epidural.

My sisters getting me decent.Suddenly I was in excruciating pain. I felt more pressure than I ever have in my life before. I didn't even feel this much pain with my first and I was induced and in labor for more than a day with him. I kept pushing the button to up my epidural and nothing was working. Within minutes I was in tears and making everyone aside from my husband, leave the room. I kept pushing the button to get my nurse to come in and after about 15-20 minutes she finally showed up asking me what was wrong as my face was flooded with tears. I told her my epidural wasn't working and I was in the worst pain of my life. As she calmed me down she told me she was going to check me and see how it was going. Wide eyed she looks at me and says, "that's whats wrong, your baby is coming out! Don't push we have to wait for your doctor to get here." If you have had a baby, you know that you are going to push whether you want to or not. Finally he came, I pushed for about 5 or 10 minutes and he was here. All 6lbs, 12oz, and 19 inches of pure perfection.