1 Month and Birthmarks

Our sweet and beautiful Shiloh is already a month old!


So I was playing around with the camera after taking pictures today and saw I could fix the red eye with it (the camera) rather than doing it on the computer.
Well apparently it does not distinguish between eyes and birthmarks, or at least Shiloh's birthmark. ;)

On that note...
Many of our friends have asked about Shiloh's birthmark so I thought it may be helpful to disperse the information via our blog for those that are curious.
It is what some call a strawberry birthmark, also known as a hemangioma.

Basically it's a grouping of blood vessels. No one is quite sure what causes them to occur. It will grow for approximately one year, then there is a resting period and then it will slowly fade (at least this is what I have read, I'm sure there are variations of this timeline).
50% of hemagiomas are gone by age 5.

Here is Shiloh's birthmark progression...

In the hospital, the day she was born.
She had a very small purple-ish dot, barely visible in this picture.

2 weeks

1 month
Today was probably the first day I could feel that it is slightly raised, about a week ago I could see texture in it but it still was smooth to the touch.

Picture Summary

First time holding Shiloh. Very proud to be big brother (again) and big sister!
Take note of Shiloh's amazing tan...or jaundice.At Shiloh's 3 day appointment we found out her bililevels were at 19.2 and we were admitted to Downey Kaiser to put her under the bili lights to get her levels down. The little velcro circles were glued onto her head so she could sport...
...these cool sunglasses. :) We were in the hospital 2 nights and finally got to go home when her levels were down to 10.7 (the whole thing was a bit of a rollercoaster and I will spare you the details cause I don't have the time or energy to write about it).
We got a visit from the Fieldhouses. Molly Grace was born 10 days before our Shiloh Grace, they are 2nd cousins, or at least I think that's the relation. :) (Not sure what the wet spot on my shirt is...pee or spit-up I suppose)
First bath, she loved getting her hair washed.
Sisters.
Proud big brother.
She's still a little jaundiced but clearly eating very well, note the chubby cheeks, :) and working on getting it out of her system.

Shiloh's Birth

All 3 kids just went down for a nap so I thought I would take a moment to post Shiloh's birth story before the details of it fade. Most people that read our blog have probably already heard all this but I wanted to write it down for my own record as well. :)

On Tuesday, Dec. 29, I had my 39 week appointment. I had to see a NP instead of my midwife because my midwife, Cheryl Pearce, was not in the office due to being on vacation...or so I thought. Anyway, I went in to see a very nice NP and was told I was 1cm dilated and 40% effaced. I went home and decided to take castor oil (even though every person I had asked about it had warned me against it). It was my brothers last night staying with us and if taking the castor oil could send me into labor then he would be there conveniently to stay with Malachi and Zoe. If it didn't start labor than at least it would clear out my system. ;)

So here is the timeline:

2:00pm Took 2 Tablespoons of castor oil mixed in orange juice which was no where near as gross as many on the internet made it out to be. My research said to take 2-4 T and I did play it safe and stuck to the lower end.

3:30pm - 5:00pm Took a nap, nothing was happening.

5:30pm We decided to go get food at Open Sesame. Wound up getting it to go cause I was beginning to feel sick to my stomach.

6:45pm Got home, tried to eat but didn't feel well. I only had 3 small bites of my favorite restaurant food, big red flag...

7:oopm Went to the bathroom...got cleared out from the bottom end but still felt icky.

7:30pm Went to the bathroom...got cleared out from the top end...can't remember the last time I threw up like that...felt much better! That was the end of the bathroom escapades for me so not too bad. :)

8:00pm Feeling contractions every 2-4 minutes but nothing intense.

9:00pm-ish Started packing hospital bag just in case. Big difference from my first pregnancy...I think the bag was packed 2 or 3 weeks before I delivered :)

11:30pm Went to the hospital. Contractions were still relatively minor but consistent enough that I wasn't really sleeping and due to Zoe's labor only lasting 4 hours we were concerned about getting to the hospital in time.

12:00am Got to Kaiser, checked in at triage and found out my midwife, Cheryl Pearce, was there until 8am! (If you are unfamiliar with Kaiser...you can see the same person throughout your pregnancy but will be delivered by whoever is at the hospital) She checked me and I was only 3cm. We chose to walk around for an hour...which turned into a little longer, I really did not want to be sent home.

2:30am Got checked again. 4cm, 80% effaced. We opted to have Cheryl strip my membranes and walk some more.

4:30am Got checked again in triage, 5cm, so we got admitted! Yay!

5:00am My contractions were still a little inconsistent so we had Cheryl break my bag of waters...I was trying to get this baby out before 8am. :) Cheryl asked if she could pray for us, so we held hands with her and one of my nurses while she prayed for a safe delivery!

5:30am I was having back labor and decided to get in the shower. Stayed in there about an hour. It felt great on my back but I could still tell the contractions were not intense enough ie I had not hit transition yet.

7:00am Got checked...7cm...Cheryl had me turn on my left side and showed Kurtis how to apply counter pressure. She said it would help my contractions work more efficiently...boy was she right! Cheryl started dressing to deliver me and Kurtis later told me he was a little doubtful that I was that close to delivering but then again Cheryl proved to be correct!

7:50am-ish Cheryl had me get on my elbows and knees and asked me to try pushing. I was a little leary when she said it but I went ahead. After 2 pushes she told Kurtis to look. He says he expected to see Shiloh's head crowning and was shocked to see her head was out. One more push and she was out, with Kurtis helping to deliver her!

Shiloh Grace was born at 7:59am on December 30. 1 week before her due date(good thing since she was already 8lbs 10oz), before the new year, delivered by my midwife before 8am, and as if that wasn't enough blessing...I didn't even tear! This was one of the biggest blessings considering what happened in Shiloh's first week, but that is another post...not to mention2 of the 3 kids are now awake. :)