Siena Gray

My labor pains began Monday as I rolled around on my exercise ball at home. I used one for my first baby and swore by its effectiveness right before AND during labor. It was hard to sleep through the night as my contractions progressed but I just knew that the next day would be the day. By 5 am I had to wake my husband and tell him it was time to go! We arrived at the hospital at 6 am and by 7 am I was dilated to a five and received an epidural. Unfortunately, unlike my first delivery, it only worked on the left side of my body, and I was struggling through the pain of the contractions. By 9 am I was dilated to an eight. For the next two hours, I wasn’t making any progress, and the baby’s heartbeat was dipping during contractions, and they weren’t quite sure why. Half way through pushing my doctor took pity on my whimpering cries I think and called back down the anesthesiologist to see if I could receive anything else for the pain. He seemed to arrive within minutes and as soon as he worked his magic, I was free from all the pain on my right side and continued pushing. FINALLY at 2:18 pm Siena was born. Our poor little peanut had the cord wrapped around her neck…TWICE! This explained why delivery took longer and why her heart rate would dip during contractions. Luckily, however, I had an excellent doctor and a room full of nurses, including the NICU team who was called down for standby just in case there was something more serious going on, who were swift and took action immediately.

Siena was placed on my chest, and her soft cry filled the room. The first thing out of her dad’s mouth was, “Wow, she looks just like Shaelyn!” Only, she had a head full of jet black hair, and our Shae Shae was a bald baby. The immediate sensation of love, protectiveness, and gratitude filled me as I watched Freddy cut her umbilical cord and she began nursing immediately not soon after with no reservations whatsoever. She was and is ABSOLUTELY perfect 🙂

I will not deny how nervous I was to share my love with another baby after my immediate attachment and bond for my first child. The worries of, “what if I can’t share my love the same way?” or, “my time with Shae is no longer just the two of us, and I’m not sure how I feel about that” ran through my mind countless times. Only a few days before Siena was born I was crying in my room as I watched Shae sleep and thinking, how much I will miss these one-on-one moments, how she will no longer be my only child, and it did tear at my heart. But, let me tell you, there is no love like a mothers love for her child, and it truly has multiplied to accommodate for both of my beautiful gifts, and I will be forever grateful!