Silas Matthew Rhoads

We welcomed our son into the world on July 9, 2013 at 2:14am. It was a wild series of events leading up to his birth. I found out at 36.5 weeks pregnant that I had high blood pressure. After additional tests my doc called on Friday July 5th to inform me I needed to be induced. I was 37 weeks on the 5th and the risks of having high BP outweighed the risks of having Silas early. We checked into the hospital on July 7th at 5pm to start cervadil. The morning of the 8th we started Pitocin. After almost 12 hours on Pitocin I was still at a 2. I was almost at the max dosage (34 units/hr) when I decided to get an epidural. That is when things started moving in the right direction. I felt good and my body was finally responding to the meds. At 1:30 my BP alarm went off because the printer was out of paper. The RN checked me while she was in there and surprisingly I was ready to push. I started pushing at 1:40 and Silas was delivered at 2:14am on 7/9/13. It was the coolest experience. I always thought I would be terrified to actually birth a baby. However, when the time came I was so excited and ready to meet him. He was a little guy weighing it at 6lbs 6oz. He had some breathing issues at first, but rebounded quickly. We spent some time with him and then let family in to meet him. They had all just gone home to go to bed only to get a call to come back up to the hospital. We really didn't think he would arrive until the next day. :) We were able to get a few hours of sleep before going to see him in the nursery the next morning. The day was filled with lots of cuddles and lots of visitors.

We had to stay in the hospital a few days. My blood pressure was high and Silas had low blood sugar because he was feeding great. We ended up going home on Thursday and then checking back in on Friday. Silas was jaundice and had to do light therapy. We were finally home for good on Saturday. We were so thankful to be home and healthy.