The Hillian Collection

Yesterday marked 5 weeks since we brought our son home from the birth center.  It feels as though we’ve been together longer than just that—I can’t imagine our lives without him now.  It’s been so wonderful to watch his personality emerge as he becomes more and more aware of the world around him.  In particular, I love that he now recognizes his mommy and his daddy.  Each day we wake up he’s different than the day before.  Everything is happening so quickly.  As we blog about the goings on in the Hill household, we hope that others will be able to enjoy seeing him grow from afar.     

So what have the past 5 weeks been like? Well…

Week 1

Just Born

Samuel was born on Monday, June 6^th at 3:48pm at the Birth Center of Gainesville.  The delivery was such a beautiful experience to both of us as parents.  Sean lovingly stayed by my side the whole time; it’s nice now to look back on that as our last moment of just the two of us.  I couldn’t have asked for a better husband to lead and love me and now lead and love our child.

On Wednesday, June 8^th we took him to the pediatrician.  By her measurements, he had lost 6 oz from his birth weight; on Thursday, Samuel discovered that he loves milk!  Since we are paranoid first-time parents, we went back to the pediatrician on Friday and found that he had already regained his birth weight (gaining 6 oz in two days!).  The week culminated in Sean going to church, leaving me alone with Samuel for the first time.  It turned out just fine since we both napped. 

Ballin'

Week 2

During his second week, we were more confident in our parenting, so we ventured out on a walk to a park close by where Sean exercised by playing basketball while I sat and watched with Samuel.  I remember telling Sean how proud I was of our son.  He asked me why, and I couldn’t really say.  I was just very proud of everything about him (of course, Sean said he was too).

Week 3

On Monday, June 20^th, we went to the pediatrician for his two-week check-up.  He weighed in at 7 lbs, 8 oz, so he had gained over a pound and a half in just 10 days!  Our doc commented on how strong he was, saying, “This is the strongest 3-week-old I’ve seen in at least a month.”  Of course, we both beamed as we informed her that he was only 2 weeks old, and she was even more impressed, especially with his weight gain.  Sean and both agreed we had something more concrete than Samuel just being our son to be proud of. 

Week 4

Since, Sean is taking the GRE on July 13^th, he started laying down the law about me leaving him alone during the day to give him adequate working hours.  So I was forced into a more independent care of Samuel than I had known for the past three weeks.  I had just read a book Meme (Sean’s mom) had given us called Happiest Baby on the Block with soothing techniques for newborn babies.  Let me tell you: they work!  During week 4, the key to Samuel’s happiness was a tight swaddle.  When we combined swaddling with nursing him in a rocking chair, he would fall asleep almost instantaneously—amazing!  I finally felt ready to care for Samuel during a church service, so off to Redemption OPC we went on Sunday.  He couldn’t have behaved any better; he slept all during the service, and was quietly aware during the fellowship meal following.  Everybody got to enjoy his sweet personality and big, beautiful baby eyes.   

Interpretive Dance

Week 5

July 4^th was the day Samuel turned 4 weeks old.  We were able to weigh him using the baby scale our friend Loren lent to us; he weighed 9 lbs 6 oz (another two pounds in two weeks!).  Meme and Papa (Sean’s parents) came up from Orlando with a handful of baby-friendly fireworks (i.e. non-screeching) and Sean grilled a very American steak dinner for the four of us.  Grandpa Shack (Megan’s father) told us a fun idea would be to record Samuel’s first year in one frame, holding 12 photos, each of Samuel at a different month of age.  So, come July 6^th, I snapped about 30 photos of Samuel doing what Sean called an “interpretive dance.” Finally, on Sunday, July 10^th, Samuel was baptized at Redemption OPC.  Both our families came to Gainesville to witness the occasion.

Living in the Moby

During week five, Samuel and I discovered our love of the Moby Wrap.  We use it go walking in the morning (he falls asleep after about 10 minutes); we use it to do tasks around the house (he falls asleep in about 10 minutes), and we use it to soothe him (he falls asleep in about 10 minutes).  The only time it doesn’t work in 10 minutes is the end of the day when he’s completely wound up (then it takes a 2-hour dancing session to Led Zeppelin in, of course, the Moby Wrap).

Week 6…to be continued…

June 6, 2011

Samuel,

I am writing this as I enjoy the last of the bottle of Penderyn Welsh Whiskey that I've been saving to commemorate your birth.  It's 10:30pm and Mom and Grandma Shack have both gone to bed while you do your deep sleep.  You had a lot of people praying for you today and I want you to know about it, so I've written it here.

Mom's water broke around 1:00 this morning in her sleep and she had short contractions throughout the night about every half hour.  We had a preexisting appointment at the Birth Center at 9:00, so we called Grandma Shack to tell her we thought it was time for her to drive down from Tallahassee and then went to the appointment.  They tested Mom's fluid and found that it was amniotic, so the midwife told us that we should be seeing signs toward active labor by 1:00 pm, twelve hours after the water had broken.  If we went more than 24 hours without entering active labor, we would have had to take Mom to the hospital to induce her, so we went home to take a walk and asked our friends to pray that you would come.  We told Pastor Joel, who told our church family, and Meme Hill told some of her close friends at church and some of her relatives while the Shackelfords and the Hills prayed for you.  When we got home from the appointment, Mom was hardly dilated at all, but by about 1:30 pm when we went back to the birth center to deliver you, she had already gone to 9 cm.  When the midwife examined Mom and found she was already 9 cm, she said, "After today, I don't know anything about giving birth," patting Mom's leg with a laugh to reassure us she was exaggerating.  We had already named you "Heard by God," and your delivery was another testament to God's faithfulness to you.  It was unusual in how quickly Mom began active labor.  When everyone prayed for you, God answered by bringing Mom's labor to the point it needed to be. 

At the Birth Center, they had this New Age relaxing background music playing.  I couldn't stand it, but Mom didn't mind, so we let it play. Thankfully, we couldn't really hear it when we got to the tub where Mom labored for about two hours with you.  We kept giving Mom water, flavored coconut water, and fruit and nut mix between contractions.  After she'd been laboring for a while with the help of a coach, she was having trouble progressing with you in the tub.  The midwives decided we should move Mom to the bed where she could be on her hands and knees and push you out from a different position.  Halfway to the bed, Mom had another contraction and couldn't walk, so I carried her to the bed, which the head midwife said she'd never seen before, surprisingly.  The word "knight" may have been used in a postpartum description of me.  The midwife said that she was hoping to get you to crown by having Mom walk to the bed, but when I carried Mom in, the midwife saw a beautiful head starting to come out already.  Once we got to the bed, the labor was very advanced and painful.  I could tell that Mom was running out of energy and we had to deliver you in the next few pushes because your heart rate was too low.  Mom told me later that she imagined herself speaking to you then, saying, "I'm not going to hurt you, Samuel, just because I'm not giving it everything I have."  We had seen your little head poking out and Mom had felt it with her hand in the tub.  It was already covered with hair to ensure that you were good-looking when you came out.  I didn't watch you come out because I was standing next to Mom since that's what she wanted.  I'm glad that I was because after a few exceptionally painful pushes, we both saw you at the same time.  Grandma Shack and all the midwives kept telling Mom what a good job she was doing and how close you were.  After your head came out, I think it was extremely quick.  Nothing could have prepared me for seeing you for the first time.  I look at everything differently now.  On our drive home, I looked at Gainesville differently, because it was not just the city where we went to school, but the city where you were born.  You were a very handsome and loud baby.  While all babies are at least somewhat loud, the midwives commented on your extraordinary volume levels when you were interrupted from trying to suckle.  You scored a perfect 10 on your just-having-been-born test.  Already a high achiever, as Grandma Shack noted. 

Of course, we had Chopstix takeout as our first meal after you were born.  Mom had planned to eat a vegetable stew that Grandma Shack had made this morning, but our plans changed when the scheduled home birth had to be moved to the Birth Center since another mother was laboring with only one midwife on call.  Everything that happened today brought us a beautiful baby boy in just the way God wanted.

                                                                                   

Love, Dad

I woke up at 1am on Monday, June 6^th initially thinking I had wet myself, but the near immediate onslaught of moderate contractions every half hour awakened me to the fact that we had entered into labor.  Sure enough, I continued to get 30 second contractions throughout the rest of the night. 

After having only moderate success at sleeping for the rest of the night, we decided to get up at 7am and head to Publix in order to get some chicken breasts to grill for breakfast.  That’s right.  I had grilled chicken for breakfast on the day Samuel was born.  We wanted to make sure I was eating foods that would sustain my energy levels throughout the labor. 

On this Monday, I was 38 weeks, 1 day pregnant, so my 38-week appointment at the Birth Center of Gainesville was already scheduled for 9am that morning.  We decided to keep it, although we had planned a home birth and were near certain we were in labor, so that our midwife, Sarah, could confirm that my water had indeed broken.  

Once at our appointment, we informed our midwife that we believed ourselves to be in labor.  She checked my fluid (I had an incomplete water break with continual leaking throughout the morning), and confirmed that it was amniotic fluid but that I wasn’t dilated very much, if at all. 

Florida law requires laboring mothers to be in active labor (contractions coming every 5 minutes, lasting 1 minute each, for at least 1 hour) by 24 hours after their water breaks, and by the time we went to the appointment it had already been 8 hours since my water broke with no dilation at all.  This, of course, worried both myself and my midwife.  She assumed we would have to assist the labor by various methods, advising us to go on a walk, stay hydrated, think positively about the birth, and try various homeopathic treatments, specifically black and blue cohosh. 

The instant we got home, we started to prepare for the birth.  We had planned a home birth, so we had some industrial strength plastic covering for the carpet to lie down as well as an inflatable birthing tub to set up.  After ensuring the house was in order, we went for a walk.  We were gone a little over 30 minutes.  Contractions were intermittent and moderate at first, but by the end of the walk, I was getting contractions lasting nearly a minute every 5 to 10 minutes. 

The rest of the time at home passed in a blur.  I found that laboring on the bed, lying on my side, was very comforting, so I stayed there for around an hour, with Sean by my side to press into my back or allow me to squeeze his hand during the contractions.  My mom had graciously traveled down from Tallahassee early that morning and was recording my contractions faithfully until she decided to give us some privacy and allow Sean to record them while she prepared the post-partum stew we were planning to have that evening. 

By the time she came back, she realized it was time to call the midwife and inform her that we were ready for her to come over—I had entered active labor.  This was about 1pm.  At this point, the midwife informed us that there was another mother attempting to enter active labor and could, at any time, call and need a midwife to assist in her labor as well.  So instead of the home-birth we had planned, we headed over to the birth center (in the pouring rain) so that the midwife, Sarah, could be available to both me and this other mother if it came to it. 

The car ride was as unenjoyable as I’ve heard car rides during labor can be.  I had four contractions in the 10-15 minutes it took us to drive there.  Being caught behind a city bus on a single-lane road did not help our frustration with the transition from our home to birth center. 

As soon as we arrived at the birth center, we entered into the birthing suite, with dimmed lights and gentle music (which drove Sean crazy) and the sound of the tub filling in the other room.  It was wonderful.  Sarah checked my progress, and was shocked to discover that I was 9 cm dilated.  She joked that she didn’t know anything about labor anymore since I was a first-time mom flying through labor. 

I was so comfortable once I got into the warm tub.  My labor actually slowed down at that point, which was fine with me.  I needed a bit of a break.  Sean stayed by my side the whole time, making sure I didn’t breathe too quickly during contractions or waste my energy by tensing my body or squeezing his hand.  He was very encouraging, telling me that I was doing a great job.  I had read about laboring women relaxing when their husbands complimented them during labor and thought that it was silly, but I absolutely loved hearing sweet compliments from Sean and found my mind no longer focusing on the discomfort from the contractions.   

Even though the warm water felt like bliss because it took the weight and sensations of labor away from me, it also caused me to miss my transition.  Although many women would probably love to not feel transition, it made me miss my cue to push.  Sarah told me after one contraction to try pushing with the power of the contraction.  I did what she said, but I couldn’t feel myself pushing Samuel.  I had to keep getting confirmation from my mom and the midwives that I was indeed making progress with my pushes (Sean was still by my side).

Sarah decided that a transition to the bed would help me to push Samuel down.  She was ready to tell me exactly how to walk and swing my hips to push him down when she turned around to see Sean carrying me to the bed with Samuel’s sweet head crowning.  As soon as I had stood up in the tub, I felt this overwhelming sensation to push him out, and Sean picked me up realizing that I needed to push instead of walk.  Sean was very pleased with himself afterward because Sarah told him that he was my knight and that she had never seen that before. 

Once we were on the bed, the pushing only took a few more minutes before we were finally able to see our son.  Still, Sean was constantly by my side, reminding me to push with my stomach, not my throat (I was forgetting not to waste my energy by yelling).  Once his head was out, they realized that the cord was wrapped around his neck.  They told me to slow down at this point so they could untangle it before I pushed him out completely, but I wasn’t able to keep myself from pushing.  I remember their surprise as one said, “Oh, well here he comes.”

And then we met him.  While he lay on the bed, with the midwives wiping him off and checking him, all I could do was stare at him.  I hovered my hand over him, wanting to touch him, but not sure that it was okay—how could I now have a son?  Sean told me he was glad to have waited until that moment as well to see him because it was so meaningful to meet him entirely in one moment, together.  It was 3:48pm.

Immediately we started breastfeeding.  It’s amazing how God has provided them with a suckling instinct so perfect that Samuel knew exactly what to do.  Sean was allowed to cut the cord, although it was very difficult.  The midwives commented on how they needed a different pair of scissors.  The placenta was delivered very shortly afterward.  They allowed it to detach by itself, so I was surprised by how quickly it was all over. 

When they examined me to determine the “damage,” Sarah immediately said, “Oh my gosh,” which of course made my heart stop until she laughed and said, “Thanks for being so healthy.”  For some reason, tearing/episiotomies were my biggest labor fear, not the pain, and I’m very thankful to not have experienced either of those.  It made the recovery so much easier.  In fact, I was surprised that the sensations of labor were more uncomfortable than painful.  Everyone always talks about how much pain labor is, but to me it was more work than I expected—that was the hard thing about it.

Then for perhaps an hour, we were left simply to bond.  Every 15 minutes, they checked our vitals, but they saved the newborn exam for later.   I was glad for that.  It was really wonderful to just be with our new favorite person in the world for a while.  He weighed 5 lbs, 15 oz.