Samuel.

Well, in 3 days our sweet Sam is going to be 2 months old! I wrote Joy's birth story at 2 weeks old, so, I thought I'd stick with the two theme!

This darling little boy is rocking to sleep beside me right now, as I sit down to recall his birth journey. It started on a Monday morning at 6am, and ended on a Tuesday night at 11:54pm or somewhere around there. Basically a long time from when it started. (Ha!)

So, being induced. Yeah. No. It's not fun. Essentially telling your body, "Hey, have this baby right now!" When your body is like, "Umm, I know when I'm ready and it's not right now. " Thus leading to the ridiculously long birth story that is ours.

If you've followed the posts I've written, you know we had a few moments of uncertainty along the way with this pregnancy. Sam was diagnosed with an umbilical vein varix when he was 29 weeks along, and we had to monitor him and his cord closely through the rest of the pregnancy. The specialists told us lots of scary "could be's" along the way and it was definitely a little intense for me in moments, praying he was okay. All to which my OB urged me to not allow them to put any fear into me regarding any of it. Wise words. All in all, nothing negative came from any of that, praise God. However due to all of that, they said inducing at 39 weeks would be recommended. On top of that, this little guy decided that being head down, and prepared for natural labor wasn't something he was all about, so, my OB suggested that at 38 weeks we try something out to flip him into the head down position and then induce at that point if that was successful. The option of a c-section was talked about and something I hoped could be avoided, so I took my doctors recommendations for the 38 week positioning intervention which brought us to that Monday morning at 6am.

We got to the hospital for our version, and miraculously Sam had already flipped himself head down. Which basically meant they checked us right in to get the induction moving. Now, I had heard stories from other friends who had been induced, so, I naively thought, sweet, we'll be holding our little one by sometime that evening and on our way home shortly after. WRONG.

To spare the more unsightly details... 24 hours went by and nothing happened. Literally nothing. My body was like... "Nope. Not ready." So we took a break and decided to try again the next morning. And in the meantime, we had gotten word that my brother and sister in law were heading into the hospital and proceeded to have their baby within a few hours! And there we were, twittering our thumbs...LOL! Of course we were unbelievably happy for them, it was so fun doing pregnancy with Jess, commiserating through it all together, and it has continued to be awesome having our boys be only about 25 hours apart and going through all the newborn stuff together. But, we were ready for our little guy to make his appearance. Anyhow, things finally started moving along the next day and once my body was officially in labor, it was only about 11 hours total before Sam came. Which, compared to my 20 hour labor with Joy, it wasn't so bad.

And, just like the first time, there is absolutely NOTHING on earth that compares with the explosive joy of seeing your baby for the first time in person. The joy shared between my husband and I, and just the intense and wonderful love felt for this beautiful little person who just entered the world. And even though I don't necessarily want to have anymore children biologically, I am certain that feeling would never grow old, with all the wonder and amazement it brings.

This is a pretty personal photo, and part of me hesitated to even share it because it is so special to me, but I just LOVE everything about it. It was such a wonderful moment and I'm so lucky my sister got to be there with us to capture this rare shot which I didn't get for Joy's birth.

If you know me, and have been around me while I've been pregnant, you've definitely heard me rave about my OB, so having her in a picture is so special to me as well. She's absolutely one of my favorite people on earth and such a pillar of wisdom, strength and comfort as I've gone through both of my pregnancies and giving birth to our children. Gah. All the feels looking at this picture. I'm so blessed to have had 2 wonderful birth stories at our woman's hospital, and so blessed to have such a wonderful partner there for me through the journey that bringing babies into this world is. I don't take it for granted one bit, any of it. I know not everyone has the same feelings and stories regarding their journey. I just feel so very thankful.

Our wonderful little Samuel Polansky is here. He's perfect. He's 100% healthy and 1000% adorable. Newborn phase is always a blur, I remember saying that with Joy and it's still true. Filled with so little sleep, so many bottles, lots of great snuggles and my phone maxing out because I've taken way too many pictures. But, I guess I just try to cling to the truth that these days (even though they seem soo long at moments) go by sooo quickly. My 2 year old proves that when I look at her and hear her speak in full sentences to me, and I'm just thinking, "you're still a baby, how are you so grown already!?" And internally mourning the loss of my baby girl but loving and anticipating this amazing little girl she is so quickly becoming before our eyes.

Man. Parenthood.What an intense journey. What an absolute blessing. I wouldn't trade any of it for all the sleep in the world. And coming from someone who hasn't had a full night of sleep in probably 5/6 months at this point, that's definitely saying something :)