Levi's Birth Story

Reader’s Digest Version:

Checked into the hospital at 3am. Received an epidural about 6:30am. Water broke 10:45am. Delivered Levi at 1:51pm. He is perfect.

And now for the detailed, you may blush when you read, story:

There were many things about this pregnancy that were different than Addilyn’s. Which led to a very different delivery as well. The biggest difference was how I carried Levi- that affected everything. My lack of heartburn and increased amount of pelvic pain from him being so low were the biggest “side effects”. I’ve also had way more Braxton hicks contractions. Which now leads me into the actual story of how Levi made his debut….

All last week I had been up just about every single night for several hours with contractions. Sometimes I would fall asleep normally and wake up at 2am with consistent timed contractions for a couple of hours. Or it’d be flip and I wouldn’t go to sleep until the contractions ended around 2am. I was exhausted. I wasn’t getting any sleep leading up to the real thing and it was bothering me! Thursday morning was one of those where I woke up at 2am and didn’t fall back asleep. I had a Dr apt conveniently at 7:30 that morning. My contractions were happening they just weren’t as I call “different”. They hadn’t really felt like the kind you get when you’re in active labor. Scott was already planning on coming to that apt and was going to take me back home before he left for work. It was really convenient. At the apt my doctor measured me between a 4-5 and after I got dressed he came back into the room and said he called the hospital to tell them I was coming in that day. Scott and I did not really believe it was happening because my contractions were not becoming anything. But, we did what he said….we dropped Addilyn off at our friend’s house and we killed about 4 hours before going in. Long story short, we were sent home after about 2 hours. I don’t blame them. I should have trusted what I was feeling that we didn’t need to go in. Also, because that meant we took up one of Scott’s days of work that could have been spent with a baby. Bummer.

What we thought was my last meal...biscuits and gravy

Friday morning I lost my mucus plug. “They” say it can still take up to a week to go into labor after loosing it. I spotted a little but nothing out of the ordinary or should I say eventful. 

Saturday morning we went to Old Salem and spent a few hours there walking around doing their free day activities. We got home and from about 3pm on I was having bloody show. “They” say I should go into labor within 24-48 hours of having bloody show. By this point I’m starting to hate them… That night I actually slept fairly decent compared to the last several nights. Still not very restful, but I don’t remember waking up for contractions. 

At Old Salem

Sunday was church of course. I was dreading it because I was thinking I was going to be especially uncomfortable with sitting for all that time. It actually wasn’t too bad. While at church I peed 4 times. I wouldn’t think much of it except it was as though I was drinking gallons for how much I was going. I took my normal nap afterwards, but it was cut short because Addilyn didn’t take a very long one at all.

Sunday night I didn’t go to sleep. I couldn’t get comfortable. There was a spot in my lower left back that was really causing me issues. I was having contractions but nothing unusual about them. It wasn’t until I had 2 contractions that were different at 1am that I really started to time them. This time, they were different. I woke Scott up at 1:45 to tell him “I think I’m really in labor this time”. He of course asked if I was sure and I told him they were the different kind. Definitely more painful and 4 minutes apart. I said he could lie there for another 10 minutes but he needed to get up and get ready to go. We dropped Addilyn off at our friend’s house at about 2:30 am.

Once at the hospital they put me in a triage room where they assess whether they are going to keep you or not. We were in there for what seemed like forever. I finally got Scott to step out and ask for a nurse to come in to get things going. All I could think about was getting into a bathtub to labor in. He came back with some water saying that the other 2 women who were in the triage as well were on their way to get c-sections so all the nurses were with them. Grrr. After another 10 minutes I told Scott that the pressure I was feeling was making it almost like I wanted to push….hehehe…that got the nurses in there. I measured at a 5, the checked me in, and I went into our labor/delivery room. I had to be monitored for 20 more minutes before they’d let me off of them. I got into the shower around 5am. Scott stood on the other side with the hand held sprayer and just went up and down my back. It was a really nice distraction. While in the shower I realized that I was already physically exhausted. I was having back labor- again. And because I went all natural with Addilyn with back labor, I could have many many more hours to go. At that point, I knew I needed an epidural. After an hour in the shower I had to get monitored again.

I told Scott before the nurse came back to monitor me about the contemplation and decision I was preparing to make. I said the deciding factor will be how far I’ve progressed. The nurse measured me at a 7, but his head was stationed at a -1. This is just a gauge of where his head is in the birth canal. It meant he had to go from -1, 0, 1, to 2 to be heading out. I asked for the epidural.

Even the anesthesiologist was impressed with how relaxed I seemed. She was surprised I was actually going to get one. They had to do it twice. The first time wasn’t going in properly because my back was too tight- aka the spaces between my spinal cord were small. It was later explained this is really a good thing, it meant I had a strong back. Once the epidural was administered I was feeling really good. Scott could relax and I could relax. I didn’t fall asleep because I felt like I was getting a second wind. My mind was ready. My body was getting a break for the first time in over a week. I felt great.

Dialated to a 9! Feeling good!

The part that took so long to progress was because I had just a little bit of cervix left. When at a 9, the Dr wanted to see what it would be like if I pushed once or twice, maybe get passed the cervix and be “complete” aka fully dilated to a 10. I pushed, and peed everywhere. (I say this laughing because it truly was funny). The doctor wasn’t even convinced that I had actually broken my water. So he poked around and decided that I in fact broke my own water, but 95% of what came out was pee!

He told me at that point that since I was so close to getting ready to push to not push the hand-held drug administer thing that gives you more of the epidural. I really didn’t push it much until I started feeling the contractions in my back again (like 3 times). So I stopped, but the nurse and Scott convinced me to cheat and push it one more time after about 30 minutes. They didn’t have to tell me twice to do it. I took a nap for about 30-45 minutes at that point.

I woke up and told Scott I was ready to push. He stood up and asked if I was sure, and are you going to have him right now? I told him I wasn’t going to move (I was on my side) until the Dr and nurse were back in. He quickly got them, they all came right back in. My Dr checked me and said I was complete and we could start going. They were all aware that it only took 20 minutes to push Addilyn out; so at least the nurse was ready to have a quick delivery. The Dr stepped out until he was called in. Scott and the nurse each held my knees to do some pushes until we needed the Dr. After 2 pushes I saw the nurses eyes get HUGE and she said to stop and ran out and told the doctor he was coming. He quickly came in and tried to get dressed and was giving me instructions as to how it needed to go down. I started pushing and could feel Levi just about to come out when he said to STOP. He wasn’t ready!!! I held him there what seemed like an eternity and finally was able to continue. Mind you, during this “hold” the dr said, “This is the time where we make you sign a contract saying you’ll have 5 more kids”. It was funny and I sort of not really laughed because I was in pain!

From the time the Dr checked me at a 10 and said I was ready to start pushing to the time Levi was here was 12 minutes. This was including the stalling, waiting for the Dr, and pushing within 2 contractions. Once Levi was out, they gave him an APGAR rating of 8/9. He is perfect. We had plenty of time skin to skin and he has been nursing wonderfully. He is a sleeper right now, which I know can change. But in the mean time I’m happy with that. Scott picked up Addilyn to bring for about an hour. She was in heaven. She absolutely loves her brother. All she did was kiss and hug and hold him. He took her back to the Shafer’s house and stayed the night here with me at the hospital.

8.5 pounds 20.5 inches

Moments after he was born

ready to move rooms

I am so glad I did the epidural this time. It was well worth it. In the end my active labor was about 13 hours. I am so grateful my L/D with Addilyn was without any pain medication because it helped me gauge this labor to know that I was not going to last. I came into labor already being sleep deprived and worn out from all of my contractions from the past week. My body was done!