Levi's Birth Story

(I wasnt into blogging when Bennett was born, but I will post about him soon as well)

So, after eating our delicious breakfast on the way to the hospital, I calmed down a little bit. The emotions about leaving Bennett subsided but the emotions of having a baby set in. I am such a planner, so I had to come up with a new plan on the way to the hospital.  I knew I would be getting pitocin so I wouldn't have the freedom I had the first time. I was also 8 centimeters when I finally got into a room with Bennett so things went VERY fast. I had to psyc myself that this time around could be much longer. I still didn't want a epidural, but tried not to focus too much on that and deal with what I HAD to have.

We got to the hospital about 11:30. The good thing about me having the baby that day was that Debbie was on call, so she would be delivering another Hadsock baby! Well, I have no idea why we bothered to preregister because it took forever to get to the room.  When we finally did, I had another blessing: my sweet friend Christine was working so she could be my nurse. I started to feel the anxiety subside and got my self pumped up for the "game"

When Debbie came in a broke my water, there was meconium (baby's first poop) A small concern, but not too much to worry about. It just meant that the nurses would have to suction Levi out really well to be sure he didn't swallor/inhale any of it.  They put the monitor on my belly and waited. Well, remember in my last post, I said Stacy was a little concerned with his heart rate? I hadn't even thought about it with all the excitement, but apparently it was still a concern.  Debbie didn't start the pitocin right away because we needed Levi's heart rate to regulate. I tried several positions, but nothing seemed to be helping. Finally, it was decided that we needed to monitor his heart rate internally (against my original birth plan, but when something could be wrong with your baby that stuff doesn't matter!) The monitor went in, I was positioned on my left side, and his rate rate stabilized. Pitocin was administered. 

Then, his heart rate started fluctuating again. If it was a big deal, Christine was awesome about staying calm and that helped me stay calmish.  A few times the machine alarm went off, and Christine would come in, adjust me, the machines and reassure me that everything was ok.  By this point, I had had quite a bit of fluids, and had to pee, A LOT! I couldn't get up because of the machine and pitocin so I had to call Christine to give me a bed pan everytime-EMBARRASING! I bet I apoligized a thousand times and she was so cool about the whole thing.  Debbie would radomly show up but I think everybody in Valdosta was having C sections that day and she was helping with those.

Up until this point, I had been handling the pain relatively well, but I told Quinn I wanted an epidural. I just told him, I knew I could handle the pain (I did it before with a 10lb baby, duh) but I couldn't deal with focusing on getting him here safely and the pain. I haven't mentioned before that there was alsoa potential problem with his kidneys. We had to have ultrasounds every two weeks during the pregnacy because his kidneys weren't draining just right. We knew he would have to have some tests after delivery to be sure that it fixed itself. He didn't try to talk me out of it. I think he was secretly freaking out too. So I told Christine I wanted an epidural and she said she would make it happen. By this time, it was around 4:00 an I was only 5 cm.  Well, the epidural was not quite what I expected. I mean, I've seen enough "A Baby Stories" to know how its done, but it was very uncomfortable. Kinda like, well like stabbing a nerve.  I knew it didn't feel quite right and I told the CRNA that I felt a sharp pain on my right side. I think he knew at that moment that it didn't work but he didn't say a word. It worked for about a second, and then I could feel everything on my right side. I think that it was worse feeling only on one side but didn't need to worry about that for too long because then I could feel on both sides. I didn't even need a catheter because I could feel everything!

I was really hurting and having a hard time relaxing through the contractions because I couldn't move for all the wires,etc.  About that time, Debbie and Christine came in together. It was around 5:30. I could tell that something was up. I looked at Debbie (who was eating a cracker) and very quietly said "I don't think I can do it anymore" and she very calmly said "well, let's see what's happening" Now the last time they checked, I was like 6cm.  When Debbie looked she said "oh well, there is his head" The weird thing is that I could feel the pain but not the urge to push like last time. Everybody went in turbo mode. I KNOW that they were coming in to tell me I was going to have to have a C-section but praise God he had other plans! I started pushing and they made me stop! They had not even lowered the table or called the nursery they were so excited.

I only pushed for about 15 minutes, about the same as Bennett, when I felt that most awesome feeling in the world. But I didn't hear that most awesome sound in the world. I remember kind of whispering "cry" and Mrs. Debbie telling me that they didn't want him to cry just yet because he was "playing with his cord.  He finally cried. I think all the worry and emotion finally caught up with Quinn. He almost passed out, not like him at all.  He actually had to sit down and drink some of my orange juice before he could cut the cord.

It was definately a more rocky road getting Levi here, but when he finally got here, he was perfect. He was born at 5:40 and weighed 8lbs 10 0z and was 21 1/2 inches long.

(more to come on the introductions)