First off, let me say that Levi and Grace's labor stories could not be more different! And after having experienced Levi's birth, I'm realizing that her birth was really pretty traumatic-no wonder I had such a hard time postpartum with her!
Levi's original due date was August 9, but our first ultrasound showed that he was measuring a wee bit small, so they moved it back to the 16th, which irked me to no end, since it meant I had to be pregnant for an extra week. This time around I had zero trouble with blood pressure, so our little guy remained a bit of a mystery compared to his sister who I saw on ultrasound at least once a week during the 3rd trimester.
The evening of august 6th, Kurt and I went to bed fairly late, a bad habit we had developed recently. We stayed up talking, ringing in the day of our 5th anniversary chatting about life and our little guy we were anxious to meet. After finally drifting off to sleep sometime after midnight, I woke up feeling very soggy about 2:45. My first thought was "What did Kurt do to me? Did he pee on me?" Once I came to, I realized that holy crap, my water had broken!!! I woke up a very groggy Kurt, called my mom to watch Grace and got ready to head to the hospital. Since my mom lived 2 hours away, we ended up having to wake Grace up and take her to the hospital with us. Let me say, she was a TROOPER!!! She walked around the halls with us for a good 45 minutes, getting very excited every time she heard the lullaby "mickey" (music) for a new baby. My mom eventually picked her up and Kurt and I got ready for another marathon day of labor. My friend Jen was actually called in when we arrived, so we had her, Heather and Jill for nurses. Yep...I lasted through 2 shift changes.
After it became apparent I wasn't going into labor on my own, they started me on Pitocin. Our day nurse Heather kept having to up the dosage to help me feel the contractions and we were all the way at a 12 (out of 20) before I really started feeling things. After some really disgusting laboring on the birth ball, I decided I was ready for an epidural. I had hoped to make it to at least 5 cm before getting the epidural, so I had them check me at that point. I was incredibly frustrated to find out I was only at 4 cm, after more then 12 hours of labor. Shift change happened and the anesthesiologist was already in the hospital for a c-section, so I went ahead and got the epidural anyway, feeling certain I was just preparing for a c-section, since I was sure my body wouldn't get it done on its own.
Imagine my surprise when around an hour later she checked me again and I was at 8 cm!!! Hot diggity dog! She started prepping the room and about 2 hours later we were ready to go. Now came the fun part. With Grace, I had to push for 3 hours and 15 minutes, despite the fact that everyone assured me I was pushing correctly This time, I was ready to get this thing done! The nurse prepped me to do a few practice pushes to help gauge how long it would be before the doctor was needed. I was in the middle of the first push when the nurse exclaimed "Stop right now! I can see his head!" It was at this point that I realized just how long our little boy was going to be-he was still pushing his little feet into my ribs even as his head crowned! By this point too, I had lost all my amniotic fluid so my belly was looking very lopsided. The doc was called for and within 4 or 5 pushes, Levi Obed made his way into the world. I watched the delivery in the reflective glass of the light above my bed, which I really loved. My epidural was working VERY well by that point and it was amazing me to watch my body do what it was designed to do, without feeling the pain.
At Grace's delivery, they knew she had swallowed meconium so there was a whole contingent of NICU nurses there to help her and she ended up having to spend a few hours in the nursery while they kept an eye on her oxygen levels. With Levi, there was 1 NICU nurse and he was in my arms within 15 minutes, nursing well within the hour. We were sent to postpartum once my epidural started to wear off and were actually able to get a few hours of sleep once there as they took him to bath him and check his hearing. My mom brought Grace over the next day to meet her little brother, although she was much more interested in the iPad at the time. We were discharged on the 9th and brought our little guy home to join his family.
One of the reasons we choose the name Levi is because it means "Joined in Harmony." As much as I love my little girl, those first few weeks with her were anything but harmonious and I really wanted it to be different this time. Praise God, it has been! Levi has joined our family almost seamlessly and my heart is fuller then I knew it could be! He eats and sleeps well and Grace has shown very little jealousy. I love my little family and am so thankful for the two little blessings God has placed in my care.
