The Silas Story

Silas James Gidley was born on Thursday October 25 at 7:43 p.m.

Weighing 10 pounds, 10 ounces

Measuring 22 inches long

Yes - he is a big, strong boy! But he also comes into this world with quite a story. So I thought I'd start at the beginning...

I went into early labor at home on Monday evening, around 9pm. It started out slowly (though I was up all night with the contractions) and continued throughout the day on Tuesday. We went to the hospital late Tuesday evening - but got sent home after 4 hours because I wasn't progressing fast enough.

After another 12 hours of labor at home, we went to my doctor's office - and were still only dilated to 2 cm. But they sent us on to the hospital (which I was very thankful for!). They gave me a little boost of pain reliever and I got to sit in the bubble jet bathtub for over an hour - which was amazing! And while I continued to labor on, Matt and my family kept waiting... And waiting...Finally, after 60 hours of laboring, I received an epidural on Thursday morning. They broke my bag of water and gave me a lot of pitocin (to speed up the labor), but nothing worked and I was stuck at 7 cm. I think the contractions actually starting getting weaker because I was so fatigued. By Thursday evening, the midwife and I decided that we'd tried everything and it was time to have a c-section. Just after making that decision, the baby's heart rated dropped suddenly and things started to get really scary. They immediately put an oxygen mask on me, unhooked everything, and wisked me into the operating room. Before leaving the room, the baby's heart rate was back up (and it had been perfect every other time he'd ever been checked throughout the pregnancy.)

Silas,our big, strong, beautiful baby boy was born Thursday evening at 7:43 via c-section:

Unfortunately, Silas inhaled a large amount of meconium (concentrated poop in amniotic fluid)sometime during the labor/delivery process. And after a few seconds of crying, he stopped breathing. They put in a breathing tube and made plans to air-vac him to St. Joseph's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

They brought Silas in to see me for a couple minutes:
and then he flew off in the helicopter to get better.

Silas is still in the NICU - but has been making very good progress. He started out on 100% supplemental oxygen - but is now only needs about 25%. They've been sucking the meconium and other secretions through the tube and are talking about the possibility of removing the breathing tube soon. He is on an antibioic drip to hopefully prevent infection (which is a high risk). The next challenge is for him to be able to eat and digest breast milk.

The nurses at Phoenix Baptist Hospital (where Silas was delivered) said there was a rumor on the floor that we named him 'Hercules" because of how big and strong he was. In the NICU, they had to sedate him a little to keep him from pulling the tubes out - something which most of the little premie babies there could never do! Yesterday, they had his arms swaddled up to keep them contained - but he still pulled an incredible hulk move to bust out of the swaddle.

Silas is certainly a fighter - and we have high hopes that he will be home with us soon. Thanks for all the love and support we've received from our families and friends. We'll work to keep posting photos and updates on the blog as they become available.

much love,
matt, julie and silas