The newest addition to the Deyerle family is already 3 months old, so I figure it’s about time that I write out his birth story before the details get more fuzzy than they already are. We welcomed our second son, Samuel Kreis, on November 30th 2021. He is the sweetest smiley little baby and loved by us all, including his big bro, James. His birth was actually pretty anticlimactic which I really appreciated! It’s true what they say about how the second one generally comes out a lot easier. But if you remember James’ birth story, you’ll notice a similar detail in Samuel’s birth story as well.

I was fortunate to have another healthy uncomplicated pregnancy with Samuel. My only complaint is that the back and hip pain kicked in wayyyy earlier this time and required a lot of chiropractor and physical therapy appointments to get some relief. I was induced with James 2 weeks early (read the backstory behind that here), so we decided to go ahead and schedule an induction for Samuel too. This allowed us to plan for James’ childcare and Branden’s paternity leave from work. I know that some may disagree with our decision to do an elective induction that wasn’t medically necessary, but it was a personal decision that worked best for us. 

His induction was scheduled for November 29th, 2 days before his December 1st due date. So we were able to get everything ready and planned for his arrival, provided he didn’t come earlier on his own. I was already a little dilated by my 37-week appointment, so we knew it was a possibility he could come earlier. But he stayed nice and cozy inside until his induction. 

So when the time came, we had everything ready to go and James packed up and sent to the grandparents. We got to the hospital at 5am for our scheduled induction to find out that there was no room at the inn… Labor and delivery was completely full and since I was an elective induction, they couldn’t take me until a bed opened up. So we went home and twiddled our thumbs at home waiting for a call from the hospital. I may have also called them every couple hours just to double check. We took naps, ate snacks, watched tv and finally got the call at 7pm that a bed had opened up! Hallelujah! 

So we roll up to the hospital again and settled into our room. Aat 8:00, the doctor checked me and I was 3-4 cm. She also did a little membrane sweep which resulted in a few minor contractions around 9:00. In case you didn’t know, my husband is also an ObGyn, so he did a few membrane sweeps at home to help get things going too. At 9:40 they started the pitocin. I attempted to get some sleep before the real contractions kicked in, but was not successful. They gave me some benadryl, but still couldn’t sleep. By 1:00 the contractions were very intense and I had the shakes real bad, which is apparently something that happens during labor. So we made the call for the epidural.

If you read James’ birth story, then you’ll know that we had a bit oof drama surrounding my epidural. With James, my epidural stopped working shortly after getting it. They ended up taking it out and redoing it, and it still didn’t work. And no one had any idea why they weren’t working for me. So I was a bit nervous getting the epidural this time wondering if it would work or not. 

We get the epidural in place around 1:30AM and I get relief pretty quickly. I’m at 4-5 cm now. They also go ahead and break my water at this point. But within 20 minutes, the pain was back and worse than it was before getting the epidural. Yayyyyy. They call anesthesia back in and try putting more medicine in the epidural. Still nothing. Just like with James. GREAT. Contractions are super intense at this point and I’m feeling every bit of it.

So we made the call to take it out and try again. By 2:45, we have the new epidural in place and I get relief pretty quickly. But the same thing happened with my second epidural with James and the pain still came back. So at this point I’m just waiting for the same thing to happen. They check me at 3:00 and I’m 9 cm! I was shocked! No wonder the contractions were so painful and intense!

Now we’re just waiting for me to get to 10cm and I’m crossing all my fingers and toes that the epidural doesn’t wear off this time. At this time we also texted our birth photographer letting her know it’s go time! A sweet friend of mine, Kady, is a photographer and offered to capture our birth for us! I’ve always wanted better documentation of our births so I was thrilled that she wanted to do this for us! 

As we were waiting for me to be complete, Branden comes over to me and says he’s going to turn me to my side. He didn’t say why and kind of had a blank stare on his face, which told me he was stressing about something. Quickly after he started doing that, the nurse came back in also wanting to move me to my side. At that point, even I could tell that the baby’s heart rate was dropping by how slow it sounded on the monitor. Moving me to my side can help to relieve pressure on the cord which may be restricting blood flow and causing the heart rate to drop. Then the doctor came in and checked me again. Luckily I was ready to go so we could hurry and get the baby out before his distress got worse. 

At this point it is 3:55AM and the second epidural that I got at 3:00 was still working, thank goodness! I did a little ‘practice push’ and the doctor quickly said ‘whoa stop!’ as the baby was already about to come out! She quickly got gowned up and asked me to push again. I don’t think I was even contracting and with 2 little pushes, baby was out at 3:57!! It’s true what they say about your second baby just walking right out! Haha! 

My sweet Samuel came right to my chest, crying and perfect. But shockingly small! I had a growth scan at 37 weeks saying he was about six and half pounds at the time. So we expected him to be about seven and half pounds at birth. But when they weighed him after birth, he was six pounds one ounce! Being just 1 day shy of his due date, this categorized him as SGA, small for gestational age. This means they had to do some extra testing on him for the next 24 hours to clear him to go home. Blood sugar and temperature readings every 3 hours. Branden later told me that if they had actually gotten his weight correctly at my 37 week scan, they likely would have suggested that I be induced earlier and NSTs (non stress tests) twice a week since he was not growing at the rate he should have been at that point (IUGR – Intrauterine Growth Restriction), which could be an indication that something is not right. So we are lucky that he was ok all the way to his due date.

After that, it was a pretty uneventful 24 hours in the hospital. There were limitations on visitors due to COVID, so we opted to not have visitors and just have our family meet him when we got home. Samuel took to nursing very well and passed his blood sugar and temperature checks every 3 hours, so we were able to go home after the 24 hour mark. We had a night at home on our own, then had my mom bring James home the next morning. He was so excited to meet his little brother and is still obsessed with him. He’s always asking to hug and kiss him and tries to make him feel better when he cries. 

So there’s our pretty smooth and uneventful birth story for baby boy number 2, minus the epidural hiccup…AGAIN. Recovery this time around was SO much different than the first, which made the post-partum period so much more manageable as I could just focus on the baby and not have to tend to my own recovery as well. Nursing also continued to go smoothly and Samuel has doubled his expected weight gain at every pediatrician appointment thus far. He’s chunked up very nicely and doesn’t even look like the baby we brought home from the hospital!

We continue to adjust to being a family of four as it’s a whole different ball game taking care of two small humans. Survival is the name of the game and if you manage to get anything else done in addition to that, then that’s just a bonus. Luckily Samuel is sleeping pretty well at night, giving me a good 8-9 hour stretch, so I’m able to function during the day.

This season has been the sweetest and most challenging thus far. Somehow I feel like I appreciate this baby stage more than with James because I’m more confident in what I’m doing. It also helps that Samuel is super sweet and sleeps way better than James did!! Here’s a photo recap of the labor and our time with Samuel thus far!

Last bump pics at home. Photo on the right was at 4am before we headed into the hospital thinking the next time we came home would be with a baby… oops!
Never thought I’d be so happy to be checked into the hospital! After 12+ hours of waiting, we have a bed!

So thankful to Kady for capturing details of this night! Birth is definitely a blur! Also super grateful to her for getting our of bed in the middle of the night! I guess my babies like to come around the 3am mark!This is where he started to anxiously watch the monitor…
Didn’t give Kady much suspense to work with. Couple pushes and he was here! 
Smiles all around! Beautiful healthy boy!
Just before 4am! James was right around 3am.

Cool as a cucumber. Downside of seeing childbirth every day is that it’s not as exciting when it’s your own child being born. haha!



Checking out his hair! James had none so we were surprised to see a head of dark hair. Maybe he’ll end up with Branden’s dark curly hair?

Tiny little babe at 6 pounds 1 ounce.



Hey dada! I’m your mini me!


Leaving the hospital and first night at home!
Making some gifts for little bro while at my parents house.
Meeting his little brother! He was so excited, it was so sweet.
Loved to hold him and ‘help’ take care of him.

Fresh 5-day-old babe on this year’s Christmas card.
Family of 4!
Since there were still pretty strict visitor rules at the hospital, we opted to have everyone come over to meet him once we got home. It was actually nice to just have our own time and space at the hospital.


Snoozing through big bro’s 3rd birthday party. Gotta love the sleepy newborn phase!
Christmas morning!


Baby’s first snow!His scrunchy smile is the best!
Maybe he’ll end up with blue eyes like James?
Landed in the ER with COVID at 5 weeks old. Luckily everything checked out fine and his fever went away after a day or two. Still not a fun experience to be in the ER with such a little babe.
Outnumbered by boys in the house.
Such a sweet smiley babe.