On October 25, 2008, at 12:05A, Jamie and I welcomed Siena Mae Pilkington to our family. She was 7lbs 2oz and 19.8 inches long. My first contraction was Thursday night while at my good friend Lorissa's house for dinner. I didn't say anything at the time because I was unsure if it was the real deal. I got home, Jamie was already asleep, and I recorded my contractions until about 1A on Friday. The contractions were 3-5 minutes apart, but not extremely painful, so I woke up Jamie. Just as we were about to call the doctor, my water broke. The time had come to head to Swedish Hospital! We arrived around 1:45A and were put into Triage. During that time, they had us walk for a good two hours to help progress my labor. Lorissa joined us for the fun filled hours of roaming the halls at Swedish in the middle of the night. We settled into our birth suite around 6A. The "soon to be" grandmothers arrived all a flutter around 7A. The morning was long with contractions becoming closer together and stronger, however, I was not dilating. They gave me Pitocine to speed up the dilation. Unfortunately, as they would increase the dose, Siena's heartbeat would slow down making everyone nervous. We did have one incident where we lost her heartbeat - it was terrifying. Early afternoon, they gave me my epidural. That was a welcome relief for all of us! I continued having contractions with little dilation occurring eventually reaching three centimeters. Around 10P on Friday night, the doctor encouraged us to go ahead with a C-section. Siena was not dropping down to help my cervix dilate, and she was responding negatively to the Pitocine. We headed into surgery around 11:30P and Siena made her appearance at 12:05A on Saturday morning. She had her dad wrapped around her finger from the moment he took her from the nurses in the OR. Our family was anxiously waiting in our room to welcome her to the family. Since we did not know her sex through the pregnancy, everyone was thrilled to see Jamie carry in a little bundle of joy with a pink hat. I have to thank everyone for their support, especially my mom, Karen, Afton, and Lorissa. Most importantly, I have to thank my wonderful husband, Jamie. All I needed was to look into his eyes and he filled me with love and strength. I'm thrilled to share this adventure with such a remarkable man!
