Levon's June 14th Birthstory!! @becomingmommyagain

becomingmommyagain · June 2014

The short story - Levon joined our family June 14th at 3:09pm. He weighed in at 7lbs 8oz and 21 inches long. A bit smaller than we were anticipating, but still a good size boy! Labor was fast, delivery was faster, and we both did well.

The longer version -

I had started dilating at 36 weeks. My OB had "promised" at my 36 week appt that we could be delivering any minute now. (Levon is #4 and all the others were quick and early, so we were expecting him to do the same). This was probably the worst thing the doctor could tell me. I had been having contractions pretty consistent since 26 weeks and after she said I had started dilating, I felt the need to count between every single contraction - I was driving my self crazy. After an uneventful trip to L&D that weekend and just feeling pouty over all...I swore an oath to myself that I'd stop counting and just let my body tell me when it was time. At my 38 week appt we had an ultrasound and biophysical profile - LO was still measuring large and the guess-timate was that he was already weighing 8lbs + and so an induction was scheduled for the following Monday, June 16th. In the mean time, we did a lot of walking and I had my fill of spicy foods.

I had spent all night Friday the 13th puking (which was not unusual for me as I'd been battling severe GERD and middle of the night puking since 26 weeks). Saturday morning I was woke up at 7am by my father in law trying to do a video call to my phone at 7am and the again at 7:30am. DH is an early riser and usually goes to do the grocery shopping early on Saturdays. After the two interuptions I decided to jump in the shower and then maybe go with him to the store and get some more miles in... When I went to situp out of bed my back started cramping pretty bad. I had these "zingers" off and on for days so didnt think much of it and just waited til it passed. In the shower, the zingers started coming one after the other. I made it a long shower since at the hospital tour they had said that hot showers can help induce labor...by the time I got out, they were coming every 5 minutes. DH didnt know that I had gotten up and he had left to the store without me! I stayed as calm as could be, wanting to make sure that if I called him home it was for the real deal. I got dressed, blowed my hair out, and put on my make up. I grabbed the "Happy First Father's Day" onesie and stuffed it and my chargers in my purse and texted DH that he should probably not take his sweet time (grocery shopping for him is a 3-4 hour ordeal with multiple stores on the list) and that he should check out and come home (8:15am).

DH finally got home at 9:20am. He later admitted that as much as he was hoping it was the real deal, we'd had so much false alarms that he wasn't rushing home. Plus, the contractions were 5 minutes apart, and L&D had told us not to come back until 3-5. We rushed to put away the grocery, take out the dogs, arranged a ride to work for my DD and moved the laundry to the dryer. Then another contraction hit and DH became extremely apologetic for having made me wait. We got the hospital at 10am and was admitted immediately under the direction of the doctor before I had even been examined. I was 5cm with bulging bag of waters on arrival. I was going to try unmedicated delivery - but that thought lasted 30 seconds and I asked for the epidural. It was slow in L&D and the anesthesiologist had my epidural in by 10:30am - it was glorious. They did another check right before placing the epidural and in the 30 minutes I was there I had already gone to 90% effaced and 5-6cm. The nurse came to check on me every hour after the epidural and by 1pm she was calling the doc to let him know that I was at 8-9 but LO was still high. He came down to break my water and I sent DH for a quick lunch - warning that things would go quickly after then. The nurse told him we still had some time to go and that he didnt need to rush.

DH was gone for around an hour and when he walked back in the nurse and doctor were prepping for delivery. I was at 10cm and fully effaced, we were just waiting for LO to come down a little more. The doc opted to start the pitocin bag to help bring him down since the contractions had subsided. The nurse offered me to do some practice pushes to get him to move down and after 1 contraction with pushing she ran out to get the doc. The nurse told DH to get the camera ready and DH was in shock that it was happening so fast after they had just told him it would be a while. He started snapping pictures and was about to flip to video for the birth and while he was fumbling with the camera LO was born after just one practice push and one then one real push.

Levon's delivery was so fast he still had a lot of amniotic fluid in his stomach. This is much more common with c-section babies since they don't get the delivery massage. We were able to do skin to skin right away and we attempted nursing in the delivery room. They said his belly was so full of the amniotic fluid that he just didnt have the desire to eat. We ended up staying 2 nights in the hospital because he was not having the wet diapers or bowel movements despite nursing every 2 hours. He was so gassy and was puking up a lot of slimy fluids. By the 3rd day he was doing much better and we were cleared to go home.

He's doing fantastic now. He's regained the 8oz he lost in the hospital and then some! Unfortunately we've had to go to pumping only though. Something in his saliva had caused me to have a reaction. Started with normal nipple irritation but every time he nursed it got worse and ended up with an infection and not being able to nurse. It's been 8 days we've been pumping only and although I was very sad at first that I couldn't put him to breast, he's doing very well and my supply is great. We are seeing the breast feeding medicine physicians at the hospital where I work and as soon as the infection is clear and my nipple tissues are healed we will work on retraining on the breast. I've still got 6 weeks of maternity leave left, so I'm hopeful we'll get back to nursing at least for the middle of the night feedings.

See his total cuteness!

The little Francophile is 12 days old now and already rooting for France in the World Cup!

ETA - Picture fail!