Momma's boy

Levi was born Saturday August 3rd, at 5:52am. He was 8 lbs 3oz and 20 1/2 inches long. He looks just like his big sister!

My induction was about 14 hours and it was such a better experience this time! Here are the details:


 My last ob appointment was Thursday August 1st and I was still only 2cm dilated and 75% effaced, but my ob assured me induction this time would be much easier because my cervix was very "favorable." So I was already scheduled for induction the very next day at 7am, at this point I was feeling very excited and anxious for labor. That evening we dropped Jackie off with my sister misty and I was very emotional leaving her. She has never been away from me for more than a few hours and I wasn't sure how well she was going to deal with being away from mommy and daddy for so long. But thankfully she did wonderful for my sister and she slept all night each night she was there and wasn't any trouble at all. So after dropping her off, Roger and I went home and I finished doing some cleaning and packing the last few things I needed for my hospital bag. So, my dr. had instructed me to call an hour before my scheduled induction time to make sure there was a bed available, she assured me though that it almost never happens where there is someone scheduled for an induction and they can't come in because there aren't any beds. Well, guess what happened to me?? I got up super early to shower, I called the hospital at 6 a.m. to be told to go ahead and eat breakfast and then call back at 8:30 a.m. So I had a light breakfast because I remembered from when I was induced with Jackie I wasn't allowed to eat anything, so I wanted to make sure that my induction wouldn't wind up being cancelled because I ate too much! Finally 8:30 comes and I call the hospital again and this time they say to just sit by the phone and wait for them to call me in. The nurse said she had 3 women all getting ready to deliver and as soon as one of them did I could come in. She also told me if it got to be lunch time to go ahead and eat, which I thought was crazy because my last induction I couldn't even drink water, I was so confused! So finally at 10:45 my phone rings and it was the hospital! They said be here by 11:30, so Roger and I grabbed all my stuff and we headed out, I was so excited!

We get there right at 11:30 and I got weighed, got into my room, gave a urine sample, and got into my gown. A nurse got my i.v. in and started asking all the usual registration questions. It was at this time I noticed I was feeling really hot and sweating like crazy. Since I have gestational diabetes the nurse needed to check my blood sugar before starting any medications. My blood sugar was only 57! No wonder why I was feeling so miserable. At this point the nurse rushed out if the room to grab me some peanut butter and crackers and she got my o.b. My dr. explained that I needed to eat lunch ang get my sugar back into normal range before starting any meds. So I went ahead and ordered lunch and around 3 p.m. I took my 1st dose of cytotec. Then they had me go walk the halls, which was so nice to be able to do! With Jackie I wasn't allowed to eat or drink for 31 hours and I was bound to the bed, it was so miserable! This time I felt so much stronger and I liked walking around to help labor along! So after 2 hours of walking I was having tons of bloody show, so my o.b. gave me 2 choices. I could either take another dose of cytotec or she could break my water and see if that would really get my labor going. I opted to get my water broken, I was ready to get this show on the road! When the dr. broke my water I had the biggest gush of fluid, way bigger than what I had with Jackie. Actually it was so much it even filled my dr's glove, ewww! Also for the rest of my labor every time I had a contraction I would just gush fluid. The nurse had to keep changing the pads on my bed, it was so gross, haha! I was glad I went the water breaking route because minutes after my contractions started picking up like crazy. They were coming strong about every 2 or 3 minutes. I started making good progress and I was able to breath through the contractions for awhile, lol. Finally around midnight the nurse checked me and I was about 6 cm dilated and the pain was just getting to be too much. She kept telling me to make sure I asked for the epidural before the pain was too much because it would take about a half hour before the anesthesiologist would actually make it to my room to administer the pain medication. So I decided to just go ahead and get the epidural, I felt bad for giving in because I really wanted to go natural, but I was in so much pain, plus I knew Levi was gonna be a big boy. I remember how bad it burned and hurt when Jackie came out and she was only 5 lbs 2 ounces, I was really nervous about tearing badly when Levi came out. So I got the epidural by 12:45 am and it was so hard to sit still while having very strong contractions, thank God I had such a wonderful nurse this time who helped me breath through the contractions! But once I got the epidural I felt such relief! I could feel the contractions happening but there was no pain with them and I could still move around fine by myself, my legs just felt like they were asleep. Finally, Roger and I both decided to sleep for awhile, this is something I never got to do while delivering Jackie, and wow it made such a difference to be able to rest. Not surprisingly though, as soon as I got the epidural and relaxed my contractions really slowed down, so my dr. started administering pitocin. Thankfully this time my epidural worked just fine and I continued to not feel any pain with my contractions for the rest of my labor. Levi did have a few decelerations, and one time the nurse could not find his heart beat again, this scared me to death! But my dr. said it was because I had so much fluid that it was hard to locate his heartbeat and it was hard to keep him on the monitor so they decided to place a fetal scalp electrode to monitor his heart rate constantly while I was in labor. Once they got the monitor on his scalp I was told to try and get some sleep. So around 2 am I was able to fall asleep and around 5 am I woke up feeling a considerable amount of pressure.

The nurse checked me and I was complete! I was so excited because I knew I would be meeting my little man very soon! But then I started to feel anxious because I was so afraid he would be too big for me to deliver vaginally and I would wind up being rushed off to surgery, then I was also afraid that I would deliver him vaginally only to end up with a 4th degree tear or something! But I just prayed to God for Him to give me the strength and to calm my nerves because no matter how Levi was gonna come out it was definitely gonna happen one way or another, so there was no reason to worry about it. Finally around 5:45 am my dr. came in and my nurse got me into position. She quickly reminded me how to push and she told me I was probably gonna push a lot longer this time than I did with my daughter. Well, Roger grabbed my left leg, the nurse had my right and with one push I got Levi's head out. His shoulders got stuck for a second, when this happened, the other nurse in the room that was supposed to be taking care of Levi once he was born, came rushing over, she pushed Roger out of the way. Her and the other nurse pushed me legs as far back as they could possibly go and both nurses and my dr. were screaming at me to push hard! So, I gathered literally every bit of strength I had and I pushed hard about 5 or 6 times and Levi came right out, thank God! Less than 5 mins of pushing and he was out! And thankfully I only needed 1 stitch! As soon as I saw him I was instantly in love, he is definitely momma's boy. He is so sweet and quiet, and he has been so alert since the day he was born, his eyes are always open looking around. Life has been good since we have been home, it's taken a little while to adjust to having two kids under two but we are finally starting to settle into a good routine.

 Me and Levi the day after he was born! I look awful, but that is what labor does to you, haha!

 Jackie with her little brother! She didn't know what to think of him when we first brought him home, but now she just loves Levi to pieces!

Here he is at 1 month old! I love those chunky cheeks!