My precious Levi made his arrival in the world at 8:36 pm on Thursday, October, 6, 2011. He weighed 6 pounds and 12 ounces and was 20.5 inches long…this was my biggest baby…a whole pound bigger than the others and I could tell! Anyway, I’ve had lots of people…well, women, men don’t seem to care ;)….ask me about my birth story. So, here it is!

This story begins on Monday, October 3. Well, I guess technically it started 9 months ago, but you get the picture. I arrived at my doctor’s office being 36 weeks and 3 days his time (my time would have made me 37 weeks, 3 days). I was already a good 4 centimeters dilated and he seemed a bit concerned. He asked me if I had been having contractions and I replied, “yea, but nothing too painful or consistent.” So, off to the monitor I went to measure my contractions. I am proud to tell you that I apparently have a very high pain tolerance. My contractions were some GOOD contractions. My doctor asked, “You don’t FEEL that???” That is the result of being a momma. We don’t have time to lay around and “feel” contractions! We’ve got to keep on going, and dealing with children! Anyway, I was ordered to come back 2 hours later to be rechecked. Well, 2 hours later, there was no change so I was sent on my way still pregnant. After that, contractions stayed about the same in consistency but started to to be “felt” a little more. I was told to call my doctor the next day and to describe what I was feeling. Did that. Was told to come in Wednesday. Did that too. No big change, so once again I was sent on my way….still pregnant. Things became different that night. Now, I realize that mostly women will be reading this post so I have the ability to accurately describe exactly what was happening, but I will try to be discrete for those mommas who aren’t thrilled with “details”. We will put it this way, I became aware that my underwear we becoming very, very wet within hours of wearing them and it was not urine. Being a woman, my body has always continued to shock me, but when this happened I knew exactly what was happening. I knew I was leaking amniotic fluid. Google confirmed it. 🙂 I called the doctor the next day and again, had an appointment. At, this point I felt like I lived there. I felt like “that patient”…the one they all dreaded coming into the office. “Oh, no, here SHE comes…” I was reassured that it was “better to be safe than sorry” but I couldn’t help but worry that it was not amniotic fluid, it was simply that I was peeing on myself and was going to look silly. After a quick test, I was told that it was indeed amniotic fluid but there was another test they needed to do to confirm. Well, that test was “questionable”. So, I was off to the ultrasound room to check my fluid. Well that looked good so I was sent home again, still pregnant. But I was told to come back in 2 hours. Boy, little did I know my world would change that day 🙂

I called my mom (and my husband who was on edge an hr away at work worried the child would pop out any second) and she told me that she was taking off work and heading my way to go back with me. THANK GOD! Because I don’t know what I would have done if I had been there alone! I again got tested to see if it was indeed amniotic fluid that I was leaking and again the test was “questionable”. I was drilled with a million questions about “how much, how often, the consistency, the feelings” of this mystery fluid that was happening…GEZZ! I was hooked to the monitors again to test for contractions and they were picking up for sure! They were about 4 minutes apart and were starting to get a tad strong. In and out my doctor came looking and thinking and talking about the results, the outcome, the probability, the complications, etc. We were all in a complete atmosphere of STRESS! He felt like I was too early for labor, and was hoping that my body would stop what it was doing. Yet, he knew with it being my third, there was a big chance the baby was coming soon. One last check determined the outcome. I had dilated another centimeter in that short time span and was 70% effaced. YAY! I was sent to the hospital!

At this point it was about 3:30 and we did not realize he was only 5 hours away! We arrived at the hospital and checked it. The doctor arrived and broke my water at 6:15. The contractions were 3 minutes apart and I was 5 centimeters dilated and 80% thinned out and so very close! The anesthesiologist arrived about an hr later to put in my epidural and I really wish I wouldn’t have even had it! Seriously did more harm than good. According to the anesthesiologist I had “C-Section doses” and I shouldn’t feel a thing, BUT I was also told the way that little Levi was moving down was coming too quickly for even an epidural to help. About 20 minutes after that lovely epidural I asked to be checked and I was 8 centimeters, and then 10 minutes after that I felt like he was about to slip out. I was checked again (unwillingly by the nurse because I know she was convinced nothing had really changed in that 10 minutes). Bless her heart, she was in disbelief that I had no cervix left and was 100% effaced! Soon the doctor arrived and I began to push. But at that point, that lovely epidural (the one I was actually starting to loathe) was causing more harm that good. It was so powerful that my arms (a part of my body I was supposed to still feel) couldn’t even help hold up my body. I pushed for what felt like hours, big baby I know….it was only 45 minutes but Levi was difficult! He got hung on the cord, so tight that as I pushed it contracted more and more and the doctor actually had to pull his head out and clamp and cut the cord around his neck to let the poor child have air. Once they got the shoulders out, which was also hard apparently because his little arms and shoulders were so bruised it made me cry, they whisked him away and started oxygen and stimulation because he wasn’t breathing. You could have heard a pin drop in that room apart from the monitor sounding an alarm and nurses shouting orders and receiving them from the doctor. I can’t begin to explain to you how scared I was. Yet, I had a strange God-given peace. After about 10 minutes he was fine and in my arms. 🙂

Five days later and I am utterly in love. It’s amazing how much you can share your love with your children. I have enough love that allows me to be madly in love with all three of them. It’s incredible! So far he is a wonderful baby and is a champ at nursing. A friend of mine works with my doctor and asked him if he felt that maybe, just maybe because my child was a POUND heavier and supposedly 2 weeks earlier than the others, if maybe, just maybe, he was wrong about my due and MY due date was right and he replied, “yes” LOL 🙂