Dylan Ray Smith

July 23, 2008

7lbs 13oz - 22 inches

First, let's just say Dylan was the most unexpected baby out of the three! Shawn and I were not trying to have a third and pretty much settled on the idea that two was a good number especially since we had a boy and girl. The timing, well that wasn't ideal either. We were living with Shawn's mom and trying to sell our house in Ohio and nothing was working out. We were even starting to discuss moving back to Ohio, then BAM! Surprise, baby number three would be here in a matter of 8 months. (8 months because it took me a whole month to realize I was late)

Anxiety, confusion, most likely some depression because I was thinking how could we have a baby when we were living with Shawn's mom. To me, the timing was just wrong. Morning sickness kicked in and caffine went out because it gave me headaches. Wow - it is amazing how God can give you a big surprise.

Dylan was born on a Wednesday. Let's just say that planning for something that is unplannable sucks! We had only been in our house for about 6.5 weeks. We were painting all the kid's rooms too. Once again Grammie baby radar came in handy. Our new house was an hour commute on a good day away from the hospital. Grammie was going to take the older two too. So, Tuesday before Dylan came, she was over helping finish up the kid's rooms. I started having a few contractions - and they didn't go away. They started around 2pm on Tuesday and didn't stop till about 6pm. Then I got a 2 hour break and they started back up until 11pm. Once again got a break for 3 hours and they started back up but were much closer together. I called the doctor and he suggested that I were to come in since this was my third child and my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. So at 2am in the morning we were getting our things ready to go to West Penn Hospital. We got there around 3 in the morning. Contractions were consistant and strong till 6am. Then they just stopped. The doctor gave me till 7 to start back up and they I had to decide to stay and get enduced or go home. This was a really tough decision to make and Shawn was little help. If we went home, Shawn would have to go into work and he didn't get much sleep that night at all. Hospital's are not comfortable places to sleep at all! If I chose to stay and get enduced there are issues with that. I enjoyed a natural birth experience with Emily and remembered the intense pain with being enduced with Eric that I just didn't know what to do. I didn't want an Epidural or pain meds. However, kids were at Grammie's. Shawn was there with me. It was good. So I made the decision to be enduced.

They started me on petocin around 7:30am. By 10am I was crying in pain! This was the worse labor I had in comparison to the other two. My water wasn't breaking so they had to break it for me. Painful too! I actually told the doctor to stop on his first attempt to break my water because it was just way too painful. He came back in a half an hour and finally was able to break it. The pain got excruciating!!! So then we began talking about pain meds through the IV. Got one of those and boy did things get funny. I got extremly tired and loopy. I was on drugs man! Shawn did everything he could to keep me awake. But the drugs they gave me did nothing to keep the pain at bay. So then I went for the epidural. I hate the epidural. It is the most painful thing ever. To be hunched over not able to move having contractions while they stick a needle in my spine - not any fun. The epidural is suppose to be a nerve blocker. They had changed it from when I had one with Eric and it was suppose to dull the pain but still allow me movement of my lower half. Well, it didn't really do anything for the pain. By time we got someone to come back to up the epidural I was too far along and they couldn't.

I was progressing pretty well. No one else had delivered that day yet either. I once again kicked off the delivery spiral. Around 4pm, Shawn and I were in the room and no doctors or nurses poking or proding me. I told him he needed to find the nurse. He goes out and comes back and says he didn't see her. So I yelled at him and told him, "Get the doctor then because I need to push and need to do it now!" Shawn is telling me not to push and runs out to get the doctor. The doctor comes in and takes one look and sees Dylan's head. He say's, "Yup she's ready to push." Well, duh!! Three pushes later and Dylan was born with the cord wrapped around his head 3 times. I was worried. He was sooo blue in the face. They unwrapped the cord; sucked out his nose and he then started to cry and get color into him. The doctor seemed to think that everything was going to be fine with him. Which it has.

Off he went to get weighed. I had asked my doctor at the beginning what he thought he was going to weigh and he was dead on. 7 pounds and 13 ounces. I guess after delivering so many babies he could tell. I had only gained 39 pounds. That was great for me.

The first thing that I noticed about Dylan was his monkey toes. His toes were LONG! He was a skinny baby and proportionate but he was long. He was our longest baby out of the three. He also had a full head of dark black hair. Eric still had more but it was very cute on him. Even in this picture you can tell he is still a little on the blue side.

Our little family just grew by two feet!
Eric was excited to have a little brother. Emily was confused. Eric wanted to hold him as soon as he got to the hospital and Emily wasn't so sure about it. She did and they were very proud. My sister came into town too. She has been trying to get to one of my deliveries but it just never really worked out for her. She was so excited to hold her new little nephew.  






Shannon was very excited too. Between Shannon having dreams that we were going to have a third and the pediatrician asking when we were going to have another one, I think we were just got too much vudoo. Shannon is amazing with babies, simply amazing. Her face lights up and is just on cloud 9! She is a great Aunt and the munchkins love her to pieces.














Grammie - we all know that Grammie loves her grandkids to pieces. She is a sucker for them. She thought we were nuts for having another one and really expected us to tell her on Christmas of 2007 but we had to tell her in the beginning of December because the morning sickness was starting. She is amazing with kids, simply amazing. I really couldn't have asked for a better mother-in-law.