I am now the proud owner of a beautiful baby boy. And I'm having zero buyer's remorse what-so-ever! I mean, how could I with a face like his!
My first month (and so on I'm sure) I've been busy feeding and changing diapers. Thus my lack of any kind of update. Buuut, since the little guy is sound asleep and Gracie is preoccupied with Toy Story 3, I thought I would finally write down a quick (oops, that wasn't quick!) version of his birth story and even share a video below!
Like I had said before, my doctor & I had decided to induce labor rather than play the guessing game. I was really paranoid about getting any labor inducing medication, but since I was already dilating and effacing pretty well for a while I thought I'd go in asking to be given the smallest dose of pitocin, and then see what happens. The hospital was suppose to call me by 11pm on Monday night. Never got the call. So I called them. Apparently some other babies thought it'd be totally ok to just cut in line and jump in without any reservations. So the nurses told me to go to bed, and they'd call back when they had an open delivery room. Four thirty AM rolls around and I get the call. I check in to the hospital and before they hook my IV or anything in, the nurse has to play a game of 20 questions with me. I thought I pre-registered downstairs two weeks ago so when I came in we could jump right into the good stuff. Around 6am they strap on the contraction and heart rate monitors. I haven't been given any medication yet, and I'm already reading contractions on the screen. Sweet, because they're not even hurting! Around 7am they start the smallest possible dose of pitocin they could give me. I asked when I could be given my epidural, she said whenever, and I stupidly said, "Alright, I'm fine for now."
I'm such a dumb ass.
An hour later passes and I have this feeling that things might go pretty quickly. I'm not in much pain at all, but I go ahead and tell the nurse to send up that anesthesiologist juuuust in case. Alright, he should be up within 30 minutes. TWO HOURS go by and he's still with another patient! What the heck!? By now I am in extreme pain. The kind of pain that makes you scream and make all kinds of funny noises. I remember calling the nurse, "Where is he? Get him NOW" "Tell that man to freaking run. Don't walk, don't jog, RUN!" "I hate that epidural man!" "Tell him I'm about to literally die in this bed!"
Meanwhile, as I'm dying on one side of the room, my mother, mother-in-law, and Jason are all having a friendly conservation that involved a lot of smiles and giggles. I'm not mad that they ignored me during my last few moments of life, because every time they tried to talk me I yelled and told them to shut it! I was so mad at people telling me to breath through my contractions. It freaking did NOT feel better to breath through them. Holding my breath and grinding my teeth as hard as I could was what I was going to do. At about 10:05am this short dude strolls into the room with his little cart of medication. He's not running, or even jogging. Jerk! I waited 2 hours for something that took 5 minutes.
I've had my epidural for about 10 minutes. Niiiiice. I was watching my contractions on the screen and feeling nothing. I felt like a freaking rockstar at this point.
But wait... I kinda just felt a contraction... Ok, I definitely felt that one. Good golly, this stuff ain't working!!! My nurse ups the medication, but I can still feel contractions. Not as bad as before, but if I'm paying this kind of money for this crap, it better work as well as I remembered it working with my first born. She said to give it some time, she checks me, and I'm at 5cm. She'll check on me in a while.
Not even kidding you, about 10 minutes later I feel something weird. I page the nurse, "I'm feeling some major pressure right now." "Well that's normal, he's making his last inches down." "NO nurse lady, I feel like he's trying to come OUT!" She checks me to be on the safe side, and what do you know? I'm a 10 and ready to go. I thought she was joking at first. They page my doctor who is just in the other building, and three different nurses come in rushing around preparing for a baby to be delivered. Umm, I thought I had like 2 more hours, I didn't mentally prepare myself for it to happen this....OHHH MY GOSH, I HAVE TO PUSH NOW!
I felt much more than I wanted to. My epidural did not do it's job as much as I would have liked it to. I'm not sure if it was because of how late I got it, but I really wish the anesthesiologist would have taken a pointer or two from Levi.
We welcomed Levi into the world at 10:48am on July 26th. He was 8.2lbs & 21in. Today he is just barely a month old, and he's growing so fast already!
Warning: This video might be slightly graphic. But only if you're a big time prude!