Welcoming Levi

As promised, I am finally getting around to posting about Levi's birth and his first week of life. On May 27th I had a doctors appointment and it was decided that on Thrusday evening I would be admitted to the hospital to be induced for labor. Levi was due that Friday, and from ultrasounds the doctors didn't want him getting much bigger than he already was - since he was estimated to be about 8 and a half pounds at that time. We were really excited that the birth of our son was just days away, and we started getting things in place. Aaron and I had planned to spend Wednesday night together before the little guy arrived. Dinner and a movie was the plan. However, my water broke at 1:51 a.m. Wednesday morning. Never having been in labor before and not having contractions at the time, I wasn't sure that my water had actually broke, so I woke Aaron and we decided to go to the hospital anyway just to be on the safe side. I called my mom, and we picked her up on the way.

We arrived at the hospital around 3:30 a.m., and checked in. They put me in a room and it was official - my water had broken and I was in labor. By this time contractions had started and were about every 5 minutes. I was doing well until about 9 a.m. when my labor turned into back labor. My pain was indescribable. I had already decided that I wanted to go as long as possible without pain meds, and I wanted to wait until I had at least dilated to a 5 before I asking for an epidural. When the pains first began I was given some pain meds to take the edge off. The medication totally knocked me out, well sort of. The beauty of this mediation was that it would allow me to sleep between contractions, but I always woke to emjoy each contraction. Not exactly what I had in mind when I asked for relief. During this time I said and did lots of funny stuff, but you'll have to ask Aaron or my mom for them - remember I was totally out of it. I finally asked the nurse to check me to see how far I had dilated, and sure enough I was a 5, so I requested the epidural.

I finally received my epidural and the relief was wonderful. I was able to rest, but I wasn't much for company since I could barely open my eyes from the previous medicine they had given me. In hind sight it is quite funny. I remember people coming in, I could hear them talking, but couldn't actually talk to them. Once I remember mom telling someone I was asleep and I remember thinking "No I'm not." As I said totally out of it, that was until the epidural started to wear off. My back pain started again, and I was in agony. They brought me another dose, but it was short lived. I received little relief from it and they had to give me a third dose. The third dose worked the best. I could still move my legs for the most part (with a little help of course), but my back pain was completely gone. It wasn't long after this that I was dilated to 10 and it was time to push.

My midwife arrived and I started pushing a little after 7 p.m. Looking back it seemed like pushing went on forever, but the time also seemed to go by so quickly. I'm not really sure how that works. My mom and Aaron were in the room with me, and they along with my nurse were great encouragers and motivators. Aaron was so supportive throughout my enitre labor. He really rose to the occasion. I pushed for about an hour and forty minutes before Levi made his arrival. Everyone was saying that he was almost there, just one more push, and with that our son made his arrival into the world. He came out bright eyed looking around, and we couldn't have been happier. He was born at 8:47 p.m. on May 28th. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 14 oz. and was 20 inches long.

We have been so blessed by the outpouring of love that everyone has shared with us during this time. As we are adjusting to parenthood, many of you have offered your assitance my bringing us meals, cleaning our home, and helping with the baby. We appreciate all your love, support, and help. We couldn't have made this transition without you.