Levi's Birth Story!

It's hard to believe our little love is already a week and a half old! So far Levi has been the sweetest, most chill baby, sleeping and eating wonderfully, and generally only crying during diaper changes. He is spoiling us so, and I hope he keeps it up!

I woke up last Wednesday morning (3/23) with some back pain around 3:30 am. At first I thought it was just GI issues - As mentioned in previous posts, constipation was a huge problem this pregnancy - but I realized after an hour or so of half-sleeping that the pain seemed to come and go and was a lot like the back pains I had with Samuel. I started timing, and sure enough, the pain was coming at regular 11-13 minute intervals. I never really went back to sleep after that, but tried to rest as much as possible. Samuel had stayed the night with Carole and Jimmy at their hotel, so I was able to lounge around and watch Fixer Upper at my leisure. :) I told Eric I thought I was in labor when he woke up. I'm not sure he believed me... He kept asking if my contractions REALLY hurt or not. Haha.

Anyway, Eric and his parents took Samuel to his preschool Easter egg hunt and then came back and ate lunch with me. My contractions weren't really any worse or closer together, and I had a check up at 2 anyway, so I decided to just wait it out instead of going to the hospital. I made Eric go to the appointment with me since I didn't feel very confident driving knowing I was almost certainly in labor. It turned out to be a good thing. After a non stress test that showed several contractions, the doctor checked me and I was dilated 5-6. So she told me to go grab my stuff and check in to the hospital. It was all pretty chill and very surreal. I wasn't in a ton of pain or anything, just a little freaked out - we were about to have a baby!

We got to hug Samuel before we left and collect all our things. We got to the hospital a little before 4 and had to wait a bit because delivery was full - it was a full moon after all! Haha. They checked me again in triage and said I was around 6 cm and then had us chill out until a room was ready. Once we walked over and got settled, my nurse, Jill (who also goes to church with us), had me walk around for a while since my contractions were still 10ish minutes apart and I hadn't progressed much in the previous two hours. So we walked the halls until 545 then came back to the room to go ahead and get my epidural. I wasn't in a ton of pain, but I knew I'd want one eventually and anesthesia was around, so I decided to go for it. I also had all the blood work and IV placement done beforehand (the IV actually took 2 tries and I ended up with a funny water lump in one of my hands. It didn't hurt or anything, it was just really cold and jiggly for an hour or so until my body reabsorbed the water. Haha.)

Anyway, Eric's friend Sehah was on call and placed my Epi for me while Jill monitored the rest of my vitals etc. He was awesome and it was fun to have people we knew around. Thankfully, they both stuck around to chat with us for a few minutes afterward, because about 5 minutes later I started feeling realllly clammy and weak and I told them I knew I was about to pass out. They took my word for it and pushed some medicine to raise my BP. Sure enough, right after that, my next BP reading came up as 80/40. I never completely lost consciousness thanks to their quick action and willingness to listen to me, but that could have been really terrible!

The next few hours were pretty chill. We hung around and watched some HGTV and Big Bang Theory. Jill left and our new nurse, Danielle, came on. Dr. Speaks came in and broke my water around 8:30 and there was some meconium stainage, so they let me know the NICU team would have to be present for the birth. I knew meconium was pretty common in overdue babies, so I wasn't overly concerned. Levi's heart rate stayed kind of low, so I also kept having to turn from side to side to keep it up where they wanted it. I kind of contributed that to the fact that my contractions started coming one of top of the other, though. I was contracting way more than not, and at one point they actually talked about giving me some medicine to slow them down (they didn't though). I dilated about a cm an hour from that point out, and around 11 pm was just about to 10. I had forgotten this, but it happened with Samuel too - I got to about 9 7/8 and just had one tiny spot that didn't want to dilate.Weird. I had the shivers some on and off, but not nearly as badly as I did with Samuel. I think I just wasn't quite as nervous since I'd done this before.

Anyway, around 11:30 the nurse came in and said I was about ready to push. I was SOOO tired at that point, I really wasn't sure I had it in me to push for a long period of time. I did two "practice" pushes with her and then Dr. Speaks came back in around 11:45/11:50 for the real deal. I decided to suck it up and give it my all. I don't remember if I pushed 2 or 3 times after that, but I was apparently REALLY effective because she was like, "Stop! Hold off for a contraction or two. Let me go put my booties on and then we can push him out!"

And of course I thought, "Sweet!"

My body thought differently.

No sooner had she turned to go get her booties on, but my next contraction started and it decided he needed to come out whether I was pushing or not. The nurse yelled for the doctor to turn around and she said, "He's coming!!" to which I replied, "I KNOW!" Haha. And Levi literally shot into her hands unassisted at 11:54 pm. It was crazy.

Then things got a little sad/dramatic. The NICU team rushed in. Poor baby was barely breathing. They sucked a LOT of meconium out of his lungs and he still was struggling. After several minutes, they wrapped him up, let me hold him for a second, and then whisked him off to the NICU. I cried holding him - it was so sad to see him struggling like that, and to not get to love on him and really spend time with him like I wanted to. But I could tell he was going to get it together, so I sent him down and held Eric's hand and tried to focus on the good.

Unfortunately, with Levi's rushed entrance into the world, the doctor had no time to direct him coming out, I so I got a "signifcant" third degree tear on my right side. The next hour to hour and a half was spent stitching me up, and counting how many tissues of blood I soaked through. I lost a lot, but not a crazy amount, thank goodness. My placenta also had to be sent to the lab, because it was stained which apparently indicated it detached a little early during labor, causing the low heart rate, meconium, etc.

They kept me around for an extra hour to monitor me. Eric was able to run down to the NICU during that time and spend a little time with Levi. He couldn't hold him or anything, but he got some pictures, found out his birth weight/length - 8 lbs. 6.8 oz and 20.5" long. He also got to stroke his head and hold his hand and assure me that he was fighting his hardest.

I finally got into a wheelchair around 2:30 am. I felt for a moment like I was going to pass out again, but got it together. I think it was probably all the blood loss. We swung by the NICU and I was able to hold his hand for a moment before I was wheeled off to the mother/baby room. I was pretty out of it at that point, and I knew it was probably a blessing in a way that I didn't have a baby in there with me. I needed sleep. I remember telling the nurse at least 3 times, though, that I needed a breast pump so I could send milk to my baby in the NICU. I'm pretty sure she thought I was nuts. Haha.

I did sleep for an hour or so, but of course the hospital isn't the best place for sleeping. The baby next door kept crying and then I would cry because I wanted MY baby with me or at least to know how he was doing. The NICU called around 4 am and told me they would have to keep him several more hours because he still wasn't breathing like they wanted. He wasn't on oxygen, but he needed to be monitored - his respiration rate was near 90, almost double what it should have been.

Anyway, around 7 am my new nurse came to meet me. It was funny, I heard the old nurse in the hall telling her that I "seemed a little high strung, but I wasn't mean or anything." Haha. Glad to know that's how I came across? Anyway, my new nurse, Jenni, told me I could go down to the NICU once I got up twice assisted and peed. My epidural finally to seemed to have worn off, so I had her help me get up and try to pee. No go. I tried again about an hour later. Still no luck. I'd been chugging water through my entire labor, and I felt like I was about to burst, so I started worrying something might be wrong.

The CNA went back and checked my chart, and, sure enough, I hadn't been cathed before I left L&D. That meant that my bladder had been full for 9+ hours at that point. I knew there was probably no chance of me being able to pee at that point and I was miserable, so I finally asked for a catheter. Jenni and another nurse came in, and drained pee out of me for 20 minutes. Literally. It was insane. Even they were kind of shocked at how much there was! After 1300 ccs (which is a ton!), they got a second bowl and continued to drain for 7-8 more minutes, so there was probably close to 2000 ccs?? They both kept saying "Oh my goodness, your belly is literally half the size it was when we started draining!" And when I had a contraction shortly after, there was a big ball on my right side, and they said it was because my bladder had been so distended it pushed my uterus to the side.

So that was fun.

Dr. Gobern came in to check in with me a little later. I told him about my tilted uterus and he checked and said it had made its way back in place. Whew. He also said to watch out though, because sometimes a distended bladder could cause a lot of bleeding.

Annnnd he was right. 20 minutes later I got up thinking maybe if I walked a little it would help me
pee for real so I could go see my baby already. I was walking around the room when it suddenly felt like I was having another baby (okay, not really, but it was a very VERY weird feeling!). Annnd out came a blood clot somewhere between golf ball and baseball size. Gross. I ran to the bathroom and made Eric get up and help me. That sucker was disgusting. We called the nurse and had her come look. We knew there was a reason for it, but she said she was going to have to monitor me extra closely.

Somewhere in there another phlebotomist came and took some blood, too.

By 9:30, Eric's parents had dropped Samuel off at school and then come up to the hospital, so they and Eric got to go to the NICU and visit Levi. I, on the other hand, was still stuck.

Jenni had to come check my stitches out, and mentioned she thought I had another blood clot that needed to come out. She tried to get it out, but it wouldn't budge. So she had me walk around a bit. Still nothing. I was able to see what she was talking about, so I briefly messed with it (I know, bad idea), and it was to no avail. She brought some other nurses in to look too. Finally, after a LOT of poking and prodding, it was decided that it was my stitches coming together funny with some extra stuff that had attached to it when the first clot came out. So then my stitches were extra angry at me too after all that messing around.

You can imagine that, at that point, I just about swore off having more children. I was pretty miserable, and still hadn't seen my baby yet.

By some miracle I went to the bathroom and managed to pee. It was not on purposet, but I didn't care. It was pee, which meant I could leave. We called for a wheelchair so I could go to the NICU. It took forever for them to bring me one. For.ev.er. Like an hour. I'm sure I did seem high strung, because I called and bugged the mess out of those people. I needed to see my baby.

Finally, a little before 11, Eric wheeled me over to the NICU. Levi was doing much better with respirations down in the 60s, so I was able to hold him and nurse him. He took to it like a champ! And it made all the bad stuff seem almost worth it. Almost. haha.

We stayed for a little while, then went back to the room for lunch and an attempt at rest. I needed to nurse him again at 2, so we ate some tacos from the cafeteria and I attempted to pee again (unsuccessfully - I was getting pretty stressed out about it!). I caught up on texts and emails, then attempted to walk to the NICU. I made it about half way there before deciding to sit in the wheelchair the rest of the way. It was progress though!

Levi was doing great at our second visit. I nursed him again, and the NICU nurse said he would just need his glucose taken one more time, and if that was good, he could come to the room with us. To say I was overjoyed would be an understatement! I actually walked the whole way back to my room. I knew I had to pee or get cathed again soon, so I made another attempt and finally managed to go. Intentionally. Whew! Then I took a quick shower and got some clean clothes on. I felt a little more human anyway!

Dr. Oliver came by at some point and looked at my "blood clot" stitches and confirmed it was just some weird swelling. That wasn't super pleasant either, but I was glad to know it wasn't anything to be concerned about.

Finally around 430/5, Levi got to come to the room with us. I was so thrilled to finally get to hold him as much as I wanted, to talk to him and get to know his sweet little personality! He still occasionally coughed stuff up, which was scary to me, but the nurses weren't particularly concerned, so I tried not to worry either.

Carole and Jimmy brought Samuel over around 530 so the brothers could finally meet. I was so happy to see my big boy, and to see how excited he was to meet Levi. He was a little overly interested in all the buttons, etc., in the hospital room, and reallly wanted to climb on my lap, so they only stayed about 30 minutes. But it was good to have our whole little family together for a few minutes.

We actually all slept pretty well that night. Levi was (and is) a champion eater/sleeper. He barely cried at all. They did have to come prick his foot again to take his glucose level every time he ate for a while. That was sad. But other than that things were going pretty smoothly. I kept making myself go pee (though I was afraid  to drink too much after my previous experience!), and all seemed well.

Dr. Speaks came back in the next morning to check on my stitches and to follow up on how everything went. She emphasized that my tear was really deep and that the only reason it was 3rd degree instead of 4th was because of location. I was thankful it wasn't in a worse location though! She said she wanted to refer me to PT for building the muscle back up, and also informed me that I'd lost a lot of blood. I'd expected that since I'd seen her and the nurse counting bloody tissues in the delivery room multiple times. She said I didn't have a hemorrhage, but was pretty close. My hemoglobin went from 13+ at my pre-delivery blood work to 9 and change the next morning. So I was instructed to eat a lot of iron rich foods and to take it easy/not lift anything heavier than the baby for a week or two. She said I was recovering well enough that she felt OK with discharging me though, which honestly surprised me a little considering all be issues I'd had!

Eric's mom came to visit for a little while before things got too crazy. We knew once Levi hit 36 hours, people would be all up in our business again, but we at least had a couple of hours where we could just hang out and cuddle our little guy.

Around 11 people started coming in to do all the routine 36 hour tests. Levi had his hearing checked and bilirubin run etc etc. The pediatrician came by to check on him and said after his circumcision, he should be able to go home too. That sounded pretty great to us! The lady who came in to do the bili check said his initial screen looked a little high, so they were going to do another heel prick to check, but she wasn't really worried. Poor baby got stuck again though. :( We started getting things together and preparing to leave when we got the lovely news that Levi's bilirubin was in fact high. He had jaundice, and we weren't going anywhere. There was a whole lot of back and forth over the next few hours, and a lot of different stories about what would happen from various doctors, nurses, CNAs and even lactation consultants. Within an few hours, though, we had bili lights hooked up in our room, and poor little Levi had a mask put on and was laid under them in just a diaper for the next 16 hours.

That was all kinds of miserable. Poor baby was soooo mad about the whole situation. It was cold, he couldn't see anything, and he just cried and cried. We could take him out for 20/30 mins every two hours to feed him. I admittedly kept him out a little longer a few times because I felt so so sad for him. After coming into the world, he'd spent the majority of his time in the NICU/getting pricked/now being blinded and laid out in the cold. I was not a happy mommy.

Carole and Jimmy brought Samuel up to the waiting room that night and we took turns walking over to have dinner with him. He was a mess and ridiculously wild and tired, and of course he didn't understand why he couldn't see the baby. I was thankful we got to spend some time with him though.

Anyway, we made it through that awful night with a little sleep anyway. They came in again at 7ish to prick poor baby's heel again to see if his bili levels had gone down. We waited for a several hours and kept getting calls from the nurses and pediatrician asking if we knew anything, because the lab hadn't contacted either of them (having a baby on a holiday weekend is a MESS, by the way. Staff is limited and no one communicates efficiently).

Finally around 10ish, the nurse came in and said we should get ready to go and took him for his circumcision. Ok! Finally!

Or not. I got a phone call about 20 minutes later from he pediatrician that they weren't supposed to take him.. His numbers hadn't gone down much, and they wanted him to spend another 24 hours on the lights. They were going to let us go home because of the holiday/the fact that he was already off the lights for a while/we had been there long enough, but they were sending lights home with us and someone would be contacting us shortly about getting them delivered.

I hung up from that phone call and started BAWLING. I felt like I'd been handling everything pretty well, but another night under those things at home just seemed like torture. The nurse came in and probably thought I had some mad case of depression. I finally squawked out why I was so upset, and she made me feel much better by explaining that the home version of the lights was just a little blanket wrapped around his stomach. I can't begin to tell you the relief I felt!

Levi finally came back to us and we got discharge papers. It may have been one of the happiest moments of my life!

It took forever to get someone/a wheelchair to get us out of there, but we finally rolled out around 2 pm. We had some carseat woes that turned out to be an easy fix, but delayed us another 30 minutes. But finally, we made it home around 2:30, just in time to get or bili blanket delivered. Levi had that wrapped around him until Sunday evening, but compared to the hospital lights, it was really no big deal at all. We could swaddle him and hold him and I could even feed him with the blanket on. It was sooo much easier of an experience.

We went back to the pediatrician Monday afternoon for one last heel prick and a weight check. Baby boy was 8 lbs even when we left the hospital Saturday, and already up to 8+6oz Monday, so he was definitely eating well. We got a call a few hours later that his bili numbers hadn't gone up, so he was cleared to be done with the treatment. And our normal life began.

I can't really complain too much, because ultimately, everything turned out we'll. Our little man is now almost 3 weeks (it took me hat long to write this! Haha), and is thriving, growing, and melting our hearts every day.

Hopefully if we have more children, though, things will go a little bit smoother. Levi is with every bit of it though! We are so in love with this sweet boy!!


(Other random stuff I forgot: the nurse at one point came in with some medicine to keep my blood from clotting. I asked why, and she said because of my history with PE. I was like "whaaaaaa?!?" Turns out they almost gave meds to the wrong person!)