Silas Adrian Bloch hit the nail on the head...

Silas was born exactly on his due date Tuesday the 27th. He was even kind enough to give us time to get to the hospital and to be born during the day-- a rarity indeed. Although i had about 10 days of pre-labor contractions, including a full-day Monday of what we thought was the early part of the real thing-- once my labor started for real around 10:30 am Tuesday-- things moved fairly quickly.

I had sent JT to work on Tuesday morning after nothing came of being home with me Monday. I kept him updated on my status and after finding an acupuncturist to squeeze me in later that day to try to induce labor, i called our doula Pam and JT around noon and told them to head over. It was an ideal Henry-care situation because he was already at Brenda's and Tiffany was primed and ready to pick him up that evening. JT, Pam and i all went to the hospital where OB triage was absolutely crazy. They bumped another woman so that i could get a labor and delivery room. I wasn't able to use the birthing center because it was soo nutty but the midwife i had seen the most was on-call and with me for most of the labor and birth.

It was so strange to be at the hospital when things weren't crucial and i kept fully expecting to be sent home until just about the time i was ready to push. The whole thing was a little longer and probably a bit harder than last time just because Silas was quite a bit bigger. Needless to say we were very happy when he was born and now we can get on with recovery and re-entering the tired world of newborn care.

We were able to come home last night around 7-- we left after 24 hours. Silas definitely sleeps more in the day than at night which we'll have to work on, but at least no one is mopping my floors when he IS asleep.

My parents come in tonight so we'll have lots of extra hands and love for Henry. So far he's seemed bemused by the baby and interested in a sweet way but not overly concerned. JT took him to daycare today, but he'll be home with us and Gran and Nonna for the next week.

Handling Uncertainty

My mom said yesterday that they always tell you not to compare you're children and this was Silas' way of letting us know not to compare him to Henry from the get-go. I seemed to be in "early labor" all day yesterday. I had contractions basically until about 10 or 11 pm and at times they got steadily more intense and regular (every 2-3 minutes apart when we were walking). Then phhtt. Nothing. The upside is i went to sleep around 11:30 and slept pretty much all night.

The plan is for me to call the midwife today and see if i can go into the birthing center and have them try their "natural inducers." If anything seems to take, i'll have JT come up and join me. I really thought we were going to have a baby (or at least be in the hospital by now) so this is just a little bit frustrating.

I had a dream that after Henry's labor they installed a "time-release valve" and once the Doctors remembered that they told me it could be adjusted and i'd have the baby in no time. Boy was i sad when i woke up and that was just a dream!

Quick Update

It seems pretty clear that Silas is taking a very different approach to being born than Henry did. Henry's labor started and moved like a lightening bolt straight to birth in 4 hours. This one has been teasing me with regular but not-strong contractions all week. This morning i had a non-stress test and was having strong contractions every 4-5 minutes. They sent me to OB triage where they determined that i had dilated more (thank heavens) but by the time i got there my contractions had all but stopped. They sent me home.

We got Henry off to daycare and JT didn't go to work so now we're off to do a lot of walking and see if we can get this labor moving. Hopefully we'll have a little one that decides to make his entrance today-- perhaps even during daytime hours-- but that may be too much to ask for.

We'll keep you updated!

23 Months, 5 Days

Although i just posted the 21 and 22 month pictures-- i might have to break down and feature some of them in my posts. I'm doing my best to leave the photocard in the camera so we don't wind up heading off to the hospital with the camera and no card! Speaking of which, i'm about ready for all this "false labor" to be done with. Each night since Sunday i've had at least a couple hours of contractions and other labor signs that get regular and have even been getting slightly stronger and then they just fizzle out. After nothing all day yesterday, i had 2 hours of pretty regular 7 minute-apart contractions. I had just told my mom that last night would probably be the most inconvenient time to actually have Silas, so i figured this meant we had a pretty good chance of actually having a baby. No such luck, or unluck. I'm still here plugging along and planning on wrapping up my official work schedule tomorrow.

I had a midwife appointment and NST today and everything seems well with the baby. Plenty of fluid and he's very active. Supposedly he's a bit lower and i'm a tiny bit more dilated so maybe i'll actually have this baby by his due date next week.

We are having beautiful weather today and it's supposed to stay warm but be very rainy for the next week or so. Last night we had thunderstorms move in and Henry was NOT happy about it. We were playing in his playroom and i kept talking about the thunderstorm and what it was and telling him how cool it was to watch the rain. He was skeptical but kind of okay until the thunder arrived and then he lept into my arms and didn't want to leave my lap. I just kept talking to him about the thunder and it was so cute because he would kind of look at me like "okay i'm trying to be brave" and would say "hiiii" and wave. This is what he does with the dogs when he knows he's scared of them but trying to get a grip. It was cute and sad all at once. After a few more minutes we went to the living room and snuggled on the couch while we watched his signing video.

23 Months, 3 Days

Henry has been exploring more and more lately. He's definitely getting more interested in playing and running around on his own terms and less interested in sitting still to say eat dinner. We're not having major battles about this (yet) but you can definitely see his general activity level increasing.

One thing he's been really interested in lately is light and shadows. We recently stashed flashlights in a few places around the house in case of emergencies and Henry loves to tote them around and turn them on. The only problem is that once he starts flailing the light beam around the cats go nuts and start jumping up the walls after the light. We've tried to explain that they're excited and want to play but it scares the bejesus out of him and then he can't figure out how to turn the flashlight off.

A similar thing happened this morning in our kitchen. Sunlight comes streaming into the kitchen from the sunroom in the morning. Henry had his back to the sunlight and was waving two books around. This deflected the light onto the cabinets. The first thing was his face in a perfect "OH" expression while he watched the shadows dancing on the cabinets and then a freak-out when the cat came bounding in to catch the light.

I've put up new pictures on yahoo from Henry's 21 and 22nd months.

23 Months, 2 Days

Henry is wending his way closer to his 2 year birthday, and i'm just about to the birth of his baby brother Silas. Tomorrow i'm 39 weeks which means that next Tuesday is my estimated due date. I was hopeful that perhaps we were going to have a baby early this morning. I had contractions every 10 minutes for 2 hours last night but they weren't particularly strong and they died out.

This morning i had one of my twice-weekly NSTs and although Silas was doing great it recorded tons of contractions on my part. So who knows-- maybe this baby will come a little early. I feel ready enough, although i think i'm resigned to finishing out my week of work.

Henry has been obsessed with blueberries for a long time. Actually he's just obsessed with "blue" one of the two colors he names and his favorite ingredient of all food. We've played it up by working BLUEberry into the title of most things he eats, "BLUEberry yogurt"-- no matter what flavor, BLUEberry sandwich of PB&J and of course BLUEberries which he will gobble up but leave quite a mess!

One day shy of 23 months

Henry has taken quite a shine to his piggy bank lately. We've been trying to rustle up change for him when we can and he knows exactly where it goes and will tell you not to eat it (while pointing at his mouth he'll say "no no" with his pointer finger extended). He insists the bank be put on the floor while he puts the change in the slot. I think it's probably a bit early to start introducing lots of money management concepts, but i do try to talk up "saving" every time he puts change in his bank.

Our good friend Corey appears to be in labor. She's 3 days overdue and we were hoping she'd have the baby soon for her sake, but also for ours-- we have the same doula! I had Dr. appointments today and everything looks good-- i'm making some progress and the midwife thought that it was likely i would have this baby by the due date. It's a bit like a crystal ball though-- of course no one really knows. In the past week we've decided that we're ready to have this baby now so the thought of even having to wait another week and a half to my due date feels like forever.

I ordered two big brother shirts for Henry and he was excited to go ahead and wear his today. It's a little early but we're trying to talk up the baby a lot now that the time is getting closer. I'm pretty sure he still has no idea, but hopefully once we bring home this baby Silas that we've been talking and talking about he'll put 2 and 2 together.