That’s right our family welcomed a sweet baby boy yesterday. Below is his birth story. All images are by the lovely and amazing Anne Lord Photography!

Monday afternoon we went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. I was 41 weeks pregnant, had just been to the chiropractor and had been having contractions off and on all week. Autumn was especially excited to visit the zoo because they had jaguar cubs there. Our friend Anne was with us and my the time we were leaving I was having contractions that I was having to stop walking through.

On the way home we stopped for pizza for everyone, but I was not wanting to eat and had a grape soda instead. By the time we got back home around 8:15PM I was starting to really think this time the labor was really for real this time.

Josiah and Autumn went to bed and I called the midwife around 10PM to let her know my contractions were between 7 and 10 minutes apart. At 11:45PM I called her back when my contractions were 3 to 5 minutes apart and after laboring upstairs for a while with Brian, I decided to come downstairs. My contractions were serious and I had to focus through them and felt I needed Brian to be fully present with me for each one. He comforted me a lot and put on music and helped me stay calm and focused when I struggled with the pain or felt worn out.

The midwives arrived separately between 1 and 2 am and around 3:30am when contractions had been pretty intense for a while, they suggested breaking my water to move things along. After doing some contractions in the birthing pool and then some on the stool I agreed.

Brian added some new hot water the the pool and I got back in and started having really intense and difficult contractions. As I felt the baby moving down I became intensely aware that he was much bigger than Josiah and Autumn had been! I began to bare down during contractions to ease the pain. As I moved his head down I got really worried that I was not going to be able to push him out, feeling the resistance of him against my body. I started to panic a couple of times and was afraid and Brian reminded me that I was strong and could do it. Many times I didn’t think that I could do it and then a contraction would come and I would push down and feel him moving down each time. Once his head came out I could feel his shoulders were stuck and tried to push them out and felt them not moving. I turned over quickly to my hands and knees and then at my midwife Jesse’s suggestion stood, with Brian’s help and gave a push as his shoulders came free and he was born at 4:27am into midwives Ann and Jesse’s hands and as he came out his cord tore and broke. I turned around and took him as Ann clamped his cord and remarked at it being shorter than average. I looked down at first to see if he was a boy or a girl and announced to Brian that he was a boy! Brian’s eyes had been full of tears for several minutes now since I had pushed out his head and I was glad to meet his gaze and rejoice at the birth of another son together.

I held our baby boy in the pool for a couple of minutes, rubbing his head and feeling his soft skin and taking it all in. I thought about how much he resembled Josiah when he was born, except chunkier. The kids were now awake having hear me pushing him out rather loudly and hearing him cry. They were standing across our hallway in their doorway. I handed the baby off to Brian and invited them in while I got up into bed to deliver the placenta and get inspected. Josiah and Autumn were so excited to meet their new brother. Soon I had our brand new baby boy in bed nursing and Josiah and Autumn sitting bedside me smiling and taking it all in.

When the midwife weighed and measured him, baby boy was 8 pounds 15 ounces, 21 and a half inches long and had a head circumference of 38 cm! (Average head circumference is 35 cm!)Brian kissed me and our son and then went upstairs and made me something to eat and drink. After eating and nursing for a while I handed the baby off to Brian while I went to the bathroom and rinsed off my lower half in the shower.

Soon Autumn went back to bed, as did our friend and photographer Anne, and Josiah went upstairs to play quietly as the midwife Ann gave me and the baby one last inspection before leaving us alone for the night. Brian and I then called out parents to tell them we had a son and then went to sleep for a while. I was feeling great after about a 30 minute nap and was too excited to look at my new baby to sleep much more and dozed in and out while laying in bed with Brian and the new baby. Later in the day we decided to give him the first name Silas, which means “third.”

Thanks to everyone who supported us during this birth, especially Anne Lord (www.annelordblog.com) my amazing friend and photographer who interrupted her life in the middle of moving to be here for me and this birth and made my 41st week of pregnancy much funner by being around and just being herself-not to mention for taking spectacular pictures during our birth and being a calm and quiet presence throughout my labor and birth.