Well here we are again. It's really been over 3 months since Levi was born and I'm just now getting to his birth story, BUT as I promised myself all those years ago, that whatever I did with one I had to do with the others, which honestly has been no small task. I may be months late on getting his pregnancy and birth story down but better late than never.
So Story time....
I woke up at about 5:30 on the morning of June 8th. Adam and I had gone out to dinner the night before to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary. --Side note, it was a lovely evening and we really enjoyed the rare one-on-one time together to remember why we chose each other (we never really question it but for lack of a better sentiment). The contractions were strong enough that they woke me up out of my sleep. At this point Adam and I weren't sleeping together, his snoring, my general uncomfortablness plus my 5th appendages need to be near me at all times (Lynlie) it just worked out better if he slept with the bigs and I slept with Lynlie.
So he woke up to get ready for work and he thought I was sleeping so he just left, I called him to just give him a heads up that I was contracting and he asked if he should go to work. I told him yes to still go and I would call him if things picked up or got more intense. --side note I was in complete denial that it could even be labor, I was only 38.3 and I'd never gone that early. But needless to say I kept timing them anyway. The contractions were anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes for about an hour. Then in my typical labor pattern they started to space out. But I had enquired through friends at work what doctor was on call for my group and kept them apprised of what was going on with me.
Around 9:30 my contractions stopped for a few hours and I told my mom to come over and let me rest before work that night. I was resting a little earlier in the day because the kids had their first swim meet that evening and I wanted to see as much of it as I could before work. Unfortunately I had this really bad cough because Calvin had picked up something from daycare and it was slowly making its way through my kids and me (honestly I'd been battling it for about a week or so and I wondered if it was going to throw me into labor a little early...clearly my suspicions were right) So after my mom arrived I went to lay down for a little but it took me nearly an hour to fall asleep because I was coughing so much.
At 3:30 I was awoken to strong contractions every 10 minutes. My charge nurse texted me to see how I was doing and I told her I thought I would be ok and still be able to come into work (remember I latently labor for HOURS!!!) and I was still in complete denial that this was even the possibility of labor because I just don't go before 39 weeks, I'd never done it, I wasn't going to start now (Yes I know the twins were born at 27 weeks but that was completely a Laynie needed to be born issue, not my body going into preterm labor)
So I packed the kids up and mom took them to their swim meet while I got all my things together for work. I drove to the swim meet contracting every 3-10 minutes. I was supposed to have volunteered at the swim meet but had to tell the coordinators I was in labor and that my mom would likely have to work my shift for me (hindsight the things we worry about when in labor, of course the coordinators told me to forget the shift and focus on my growing family). But I showed up to the meet in early labor and painfully (Scale 6/10) every 10 minutes. But I stood at the side of that pool and watched those bigs of mine swim their little hearts out, even though I was keeling over in pain through a few races.
Of course when you are painfully contracting like that its hard not to draw attention to yourself (or at least for me it is) and multiple people were telling me to go to the hospital and get checked out. Well the labor nurse in me came out and I just knew that if this was labor of any sort I wasn't making enough changed to be kept and I was only 38 weeks so they wouldn't be able to augment me until I was at least 5 cm or my water broke. So I toughed it out through the meet, but I did eventually call in because the contractions were picking up in intensity and frequency and it would have been hard to work through that, I just didn't want to waste a call in if it wasn't truly labor...again the things we worry about!!
After the meet was done around 8:15 Adam drove us to my parents house (mom had taken Lynlie back, because well she's Lynlie and a handful at times). When we got to their house I was contracting pretty intensely and my dad said "am I going to have to take you to the hospital myself" I of course laughed but they just weren't frequent enough to warrant a triage visit--or so I didn't think.
I ended up calling my charge nurse and friend to sort of walk through what to do. Clearly my ego or something was getting the best of me...I didn't want to be the labor nurse who cried wolf. Plus this was baby #6 I should know what labor is like right? Anyway my friend convinced me to come in and at least get checked out...
...Adam and went home and quickly (somewhat) grabbed some clothes and things, I had luckily done some baby laundry the day before and packed it into the diaper bag when my contractions had started earlier in the day, just in case. --side note, for every delivery Adam and I have packed our bags while we are "rushing" to the hospital, pre packing is clearly not my strong suit--we got to the hospital around 9pm.
My favorite staff Dr was on, so she came and checked me and I was only 4 cm dilated (see I DID know what I was talking about). We talked about my options and I decided to walk and be rechecked. Luckily for me my friend Christina was taking care of me in triage and she is the guru of natural ways to induce labor and get babies out with position and things through a class she took with my charge nurse and friend Becky. They decided to have me do a circuit, where I would walk for 30 minutes then they would put me in some positions to hopefully bring the contractions on more frequently.
While Adam and I walked the parking lot my contractions were about every 2 minutes but they weren't too terribly painful maybe a 3/10 while I had maybe 2-3 of those contractions being a 6/10. We got back to triage and Becky had me lay almost (or as much as I could) on my stomach with my right leg dangling off the bed, She told me to lay like that for 3 contractions...well of course much like Lynlie and Landons labors that just didn't happen. After about 10 min she came back in and asked how many contractions I'd had and I said 1! When they rechecked me at the hour mark I was still only 4 cm dilated. Dr. Marsden had said she felt like I was laboring and that it would go quickly once it kicked in. We were debating on what to do...stay, go home...and unfortunately since Dr. Marsden wasn't my OB she couldn't keep me. But she told me she could probably convince Dr. Cleary to keep me if I wanted to. My hang up was that I didn't want to be induced, so if this wasn't really labor I didn't want to end up going home.
They left to call Dr. Cleary and inform him, Dr. Marsden also didn't love my BP so she said she could even keep me for just that reason. I wasn't sure, so she said she would discuss it with Dr. Cleary. While they were gone my contractions started to pick up a bit in intensity and frequency. I was unable to stay in bed, I had to stand to help cope with the pain. While they were calling my Dr. I decided I wanted to stay bc the pain got really intense in my back. It felt like it took forever for them to come back in the room (in reality it was like 5 min or less) but they came in and I told them I wanted to stay bc the contractions were coming every 2 minutes now with an extreme intensity. They wanted to recheck me and when they did I was 6...YAY here we go!!!! Off to labor I wend (not without asking Adam why we had done this so many times...haha)
When we got to my room, I decided I wanted an epidural the pain in my back was beyond intense, and my mom wasn't there to rub it and I just was really struggling to cope with it. Christina followed me to labor room and called anesthesia as my friend Ellen (yes the one who made me take the pregnancy test that changed my life) put in my IV. Anesthesiologists can be fickle, some of them really want you to have fluid in before they will give you an epidural. But Christina "fought" for me telling him it was my 6th baby and I was already 6 cm. Luckily Dr. Gulliya obliged us and came to give me my epidural.
This second epidural was much smoother than the first. But I must say that the lidocaine that was placed to numb the area felt so very weird going in. I may have made Adam and Christina laugh with the noises I made.
Once the epidural was placed I was still feeling a ton of pressure so Dr. Higgenbotham (one from my very selective list of approved residents) checked me and I was 7. I will say that while this epidural went in smoother, it didn't seem to cover my pain as well. It took away my back pain but I just continued to have an intense amount of pelvic pain (which had been the case for many many weeks with this pregnancy) but this pain was much more manageable than the back pain. When they checked me they asked if I thought my water had broken, I told them I wasn't sure, I had, had more liquid come out before walking to labor room but never felt a gush. They said on their initial check I they could feel my bag of water but they were no longer able to feel it. So we believed my water had broken at some point but we weren't exactly sure when.
I moved to my left side and was resting somewhat comfortably and talking to my mom when all of the sudden there was an immense amount of pressure. It was almost a panicky feeling. My mom came over and pressed my call light and Higgy came in to check me and told me I had an anterior lip (essentially 9.5cm), She told me she was going to go call Dr. Cleary. In the 2 seconds that she left, I told Christina that I knew I was no longer 9.5 as I was pushing. Dr. Marsden came in to assist Higgy incase Dr. Cleary wouldn't be there. I push maybe 2 times and Christina and Liz (another nurse friend {it really is wonderful delivering where you work and have so many friends and people who love and care for you}) told me to look down because as baby was coming out we realized that my water had never broken after all because baby was coming out en caul (or with the bag of water still intact). Christina had me reach down to pull this sweet baby to my chest.
Once baby was on my chest we immediately took the bag of water off baby and found out that our surprise baby was in fact a boy!!!! The final Chafin babe was a BOY!!! my instincts were right and we had a beautiful baby boy!!
Levi, you may have come into this world as a complete surprise and one that mama took quite a while to come around to the idea of, but once I heard you cry for the first time I was completely in love with you and singing Gods praises for giving you to us. You are every thing I didn't know I needed and it is not possible to love you more than I do.
Adam and I had a few boy names picked out from when we were pregnant with the twins (before we knew gender obviously) and we had decided we would wait on choosing a name until the baby was born. I wanted Levi and Adam wanted Logan. We had the middle name of Roosevelt Keith picked out. Roosevelt after the president and Keith is Adams middle name (and his grandpas name). But towards the end of my pregnancy and as I was trying to come up with girl middle names, I had settled on Randilyn Karter, I was feeling a pull to change the middle name to Randal Karter. Randal after my uncle Randy who died 2 years prior. I told Adam how I wanted to change the middle name at dinner for our anniversary and he agreed he liked Randal Karter for a boy better, he wasn't sold on Randilyn but agreed to let me have it if I liked it. So after we found out it was a boy mom asked what baby's name was. I told Adam to pick, and oddly enough he chose Levi. This was the first time we have had a baby where the name was not picked out and set in stone prior to birth. (I guess we weren't 100% set on a boy name when I had Lynlie but I was also positive she was a girl). Coming up with a 6th name to follow my complicated way of naming our children wasn't easy but it fits him. Levi is just perfect in every way and we are so grateful he has completed our family.
