Birth, Birth Stories Morgan Petroski Birth, Birth Stories Morgan Petroski

Birth of Silas - Evergreen Hospital, Kirkland, Wa

When it comes to birth, babies are most often in charge. This one was no exception. When it was discovered that he was breech his mother did everything she possibly could to try to get him to turn, including a painful ECV (External Cephalic Version). Even after two providers attempted to turn him, he just would not budge an inch. Amy’s birth plan turned into a planned cesarean. However, even though a time and date were set, baby had his own plans. Amy woke up early Wednesday morning to some cramping which turned into steady and stronger contractions as time went by. What was suppose to be one last calm quiet morning turned into labor that was building quickly. When they pulled up to hospital around 8:30 am and I saw Amy get out of the car and then stop to focus through a contraction it was obvious we were going to be meeting baby pretty soon. Her cesarean was scheduled for 12:30 pm the same day but he wasn’t going to wait for that. She was already 4 cm in triage so after some labs were drawn and a quick ultrasound to just confirm baby hadn’t done an overnight backflip and was in fact still breech, we were off to the OR.

Baby Silas was born at 10:05 am. He was certainly wedged in his mother pretty well. When we asked how exactly he’d been in there (back in the recovery room) the OB did some fun bending positions to describe how he was fully in pike position and had his head turned in such a funky way it really didn’t want to move and was harder than usual to get it released. Immediately after birth Silas was working a little too hard to catch his breath so he went for a ride to the NICU for few hours for observation. Amy sent up colostrum for him and Jeff got to do skin to skin with him while they observed Silas. He was released from NICU in the early afternoon and they were all reunited. Amy finally got to hold him and breastfeed. Silas was so content. Oddly enough Silas’s first few hours were a pretty similar repeat to his older brother’s first few hours even though their births were vastly different.

Welcome to the party little ball of unpredictability!

Silas Cassian Paine
Born on Feb. 4th at 10:05 am
Weight: 6lb 6oz

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Birth, Birth Stories Morgan Petroski Birth, Birth Stories Morgan Petroski

Birth of Remi - Swedish First Hill, Seattle, Wa

Inductions can always surprise us. After a few rounds of misoprostol, some laughs, lots of positioning, bubble blowing, and a bit of pitocin Jehman still wasn’t feeling much. She decided to have her water broken by her midwife and ordered some dinner because she expected a lot more time. Instead… her labor took off. By the time dinner arrived she was in no mood to eat. Things had changed very quickly. She found her way through each contraction and less than 4 hours later baby Remi was here after lots of hard work by his mother. Welcome baby Remi!

Remi Benjamin Elias Harrington 
Born at 9:18 pm on Nov. 12th
6 lbs 11 oz
19.75” long 

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Birth of Baby Calvin - Evergreen Hospital - Kirkland, Wa

The birth of Calvin.

He arrived faster than anyone expected. I think he was just ready to meet everyone. Inductions are typically long, sometimes they can even take multiple days. Amy’s induction went from a second dose of misoprostol to birth in about 6 hours! As her contractions built, Jeff supported her every step of the way. As the moment of birth neared, Jeff gloved up and stepped in to help catch their baby. There’s something extra sweet about a partner catching their baby. After birth, Calvin had a very short stay in the NICU for observation while he cleared some fluids but soon the entire family of three were reunited back together in postpartum. Little Calvin weighed 6 lb 8 oz at birth and was born at 10:32am on October 21st.

Welcome Calvin!

(P.S. - Check out the cutest little swirl of hair I think I’ve ever seen.)

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