One Week

I can't believe one week has already passed since Sylvia came into our lives. She is such a sweet baby. Here are a few pictures from our first week together.

Sweet Sylvia Ann Steffen

She's here! After being induced Monday July 27th around 9:00pm, about 16 1/2 hours later, she made her entrance into the world. I still can't believe it took so long, but she was well worth the wait. Since my fluid was still low the week before at the doctor's appt. they decided to induce me at 37 weeks. Estimated weight was 5 lbs 12 oz. Tom and I went out to supper and a little shopping and then checked into the hospital around 8:00pm Monday evening. By around 9:00 I had my IV and was started on pitocin. I was still only 1-2 cm dilated so soon enough I was up walking the halls to get things going. Well, literally all night long, my and Tom's family held vigile and kept us company. I had to walk basically around in a circle of the nurse's station because they were constantly monitoring her. She did beautifully the whole time, but unfortunately by morning nothing had really changed, except the intensity of my contractions! I was now pretty uncomfortable having to stop and breathe through them. My midwife decided to break my water midmorning since things were going nowhere fast. The only concern was that because my fluid was low, there could be dips in heartrate of the baby because of squeezing of the cord. After they attatched the internal fetal monitor and broke the water I was confined to the room. Now the pain really intensified and soon enough progress was being made. Within every 20 minutes I was moving up the ladder, 2-3, 3, 4, 5. Thank goodness. I was so thankful for everyone there and the distractions to help pass the time during breathing the contractions. Sylvia was posterior so this is why things weren't moving very quickly. I tried the birthing ball, rocking chair, various positions, and all of this over and over again. She just didn't move. Finally at about an 8 we decided to start trying to push. I thought for sure things would really move now, and really it didn't take long, but after the long night and morning. I was pretty exhausted. She finally delivered at 1:30 in the afternoon. A beautiful healthy girl. Praise GOD! Tom was such an awesome support and labor coach. I really couldn't done it without him. She was bigger than they thought at 6LBs 5.6 oz, 18 inches long. We named her Sylvia Ann. Ann being my middle name, passed down from my mom, as it is her middle name as well. Ann is also Tom's sister's first name. A special name in both of our families. She was born with lots of dark hair and looks like one of the family. Here are some pictures of her.