Sierra V. Fedorko

On November 27th we welcomed our beautiful baby girl, Sylvia Colette.

But where to even begin?

Because there’s so much to say and not very much to say at all, because her delivery was absolutely peaceful and sprinkled with laughter.

The hardest part of labor were the weeks leading up to her birth. Our Sylvie decided to wait an entire week past her due date to burst into the world. And of course babies do this plenty, but neither of my children had waited that long. (Not even my first!) I cried often during these long days of waiting. I found myself praying, God, deliver us, because in this time it felt as though I also needed deliverance.

Mentally I had been ready to give birth for weeks but days kept on passing and with each day that passed I became more exhausted and more overwhelmed, less able to focus on the tasks at hand and less certain about my ability to actually accomplish the feat of giving birth.

My body would begin to labor and then stall. Hours of contractions only to wake up the next morning still pregnant. At my 41 week appointment, my midwife checked everything to make sure baby girl was healthy and happy. And oh was she! There was just no rush for Sylvia, and though it had tried, my body just hadn’t been quite ready for full labor and delivery.

On the evening of that 41 week appointment around 6 pm when we sat down to dinner I began to notice that contractions were steady and for real. Finally! But I didn’t say anything at dinner. I was just keeping track quietly to myself.

When I started tracking the time between contractions I thought surely it was longer than 5 minutes, but nope! These contractions were steady and 5 minutes apart. Still I waited to say anything. I helped clean up dinner and my husband and I did our nighttime routine with our other two children.

After that I sat on the couch and worked through each contraction as they came. Around 8:30 I decided I should let Ben know. Everything had been steady. My body was ready. My baby was coming.

“Ben, I think we’re going to the hospital tonight.”

Of course, once you say that there’s no going back for the man who loves you. He was ready to get us to the hospital the moment I said the word.

Soon after that I texted my midwife because she’s been my midwife for each baby, but due to outlying circumstances in every case she hadn’t made it for their births. Both of those births were beautiful, by the way, and so detailed in God’s blessing and goodness!

But it was important to both my midwife and I for her to be there for my third baby’s birth! It took awhile to process my midwife missing my daughter Heidi’s birth and to this day she and I still talk about how right it was for everything to go the way it did, but how sad we were that she couldn’t be there!

I nearly feel a part of my midwife’s family for how they rallied around my midwife and I to do everything possible to ensure she made it to Sylvia’s birth. After texting my midwife that we would be heading to the hospital soon, I finished gathering last minute things for the already packed hospital bag. The kids were happily tucked into bed, Ben’s mom prayed for me and everything to come, and Ben’s Dad made sure everything was set for us to go.

Then we were off!

The main thing I remember about the drive to the hospital was Ben getting frustrated because we hit a red light and he just wanted to get to there as soon as possible. I assured him I wasn’t going to be pushing out the baby right that second! This was my third rodeo, haha.

We checked in, my midwife arrived, and we got settled in. Since this was my third baby, and I wasn’t planning for and didn’t have an epidural, our birthing team was small. Apart from the neonatologist who comes at the very end just in case of emergency, our team consisted of just one nurse, my midwife, and my husband in the room. Then the nurse and my midwife would go about other things which left a very quiet few hours for Ben and myself.

These were special hours where I labored, we listened to music, and carried on conversation in between contractions. It was a truly peaceful time. Topics ranged from discussing when McDonalds changed up its marketing tactics to listening to a song I’d had on my birth playlist that touched our souls and one that will live on in our home and our hearts for good. Listen to it and be encouraged…In the Arms of God We Sleep by Sarah Sparks.

My favorite line,

“As we close our eyes each night we prove again our God is King.”

This song accurately portrays the year 2024, the last nine months of pregnancy, and Sylvie’s birth.

I labored through the night and in the early morning hours things were shifting and becoming more intense. I focused on getting through each contraction and Ben was right there for whatever I needed. Eventually I needed my midwife more than anything else.

Once in a better final laboring and birthing position, my midwife sat right next to me and talked me through each all-consuming contraction. As my body approached delivery it began to get feverish so they put my hair up and my midwife held a cool cloth on my neck and we labored on.

Sometimes she would use words to help me and other times just by her slow and steady breathing I could tell what she was saying and I’d slow my body and breath down accordingly.

It was painful, but it was peaceful.

Soon it was time to push and in those moments right before Sylvia’s birth I felt the most depleted, but in that dimly lit, quiet room with just a few people by my side, they cheered me on and there was Sylvia Colette bursting into the world at 2:05 am on November 27, 2024!

Sylvia came out strong and healthy and she looked as though she had been lazing around on a beach in sunshine! That extra week was just the thing I guess, haha! She was all tanned and ready for the world.

Alongside her peaceful birth, God truly saturated those very early postpartum days with His grace, provision, and protection.

Of course, I’ve ridden the ocean waves of postpartum and I’m still in the thick of it, but physical, emotional, and mental recovery has all been about as smooth as you could wish for in a broken world.

We came home from the hospital on Thanksgiving Day which means Sylvie’s first day home was Thanksgiving itself.

My brother and sister-in-law met us at our own front door and kept everything moving so we could still host our small and lovely Thanksgiving in our home. I had done some prep work beforehand but Sylvia was an entire week late, and we weren’t expecting to cut it quite so close on the hosting Thanksgiving front, ha!

For the meaning behind Sylvia’s name? Well that’s a whole good story too.☺

Initially both Sylvia and Colette were the names my husband and I couldn’t choose between. We had planned to use one of them alongside my middle name Vaughn. Then one day Ben said why don’t we just use both names we loved together?? I loved the idea and it just felt right.

Sylvia came to mind late at night and I couldn’t stop thinking about this name. Come to find out Sylvia means “forest, woods” and is not only a nature name akin to her siblings but also literary as a subtle nod to Tolkein’s epic LOTR tales (the Silvan elves) which made that name even more special for us.

Colette is a name we simply loved and we discovered it means “people of victory.”

And that was fitting.❤

My pregnancy with her was fraught with much physical struggle, a chaotic time of grief and unknowns, and an intense season of resilience in the face of weakness.

God’s light prevailed, His Presence was evident, and made every day of this season bearable.

Victory is the story here.

How God made beautiful things anyway. How birdsong still filled the spring. How Sylvia Colette was given to us as a Thanksgiving baby in the mess of a new year, before the precipice, in the midst of darkness, in the bright and glorious aftermath of God’s hope and goodness.

Those two weeks before Sylvie’s birth were mentally draining and physically demanding. My prayers for deliverance felt desparate.

I cried a lot.

But in God’s beautiful time, He delivered us both and it was with peace and gentleness. A simple and quiet birth after an intense year. It was joy and happiness. And then we walked back into our home on a sunny Thanksgiving Day of blue sky.

Only God can weave a story like that!

My husband and I are treasuring this season and it being our third time around we know how fast it goes and are soaking up all the sweet newborn littleness and the lack of sleep doesn’t feel quite so overwhelming.😅 It has been so fun to do this with Ben!

Happy Birthday, bright-eyed Sylvia.❤

We love you ever so much, our Thanksgiving baby! We are so excited to watch you grow and cheer you on as you go.

Love,

Mom & Dad💓