Bringing Levi into this world...

I've heard it's always a good thing to write down the birth experience because later in life it's always great to go back and read how you brought your child into the world.

I was a little discouraged after my 38 week appointment (Tuesday, 5/18/10). I was still only 80% effaced and I think the doctor was being generous when telling me this percentage because I had expressed how excited I was that I had reached this milestone at the 37 week appointment. I knew that it could still be weeks until Poppy made his grand entrance, but I had hope that the little man would surprise us all by coming a few days early.

We went out to dinner with our friends Libby & Josh on Thursday night (5/20/10) and it was the first time I could just not get comfortable. I blamed it on the booth we were sitting in but deep down thought, could this be it? Could I be in labor? I shoved the feelings aside, again trying not to get my hopes up. Overnight, I diligently counted how many times I got up to pee (seven!) and woke Michael each time to let him know again that something was different.

This "different" feeling was reassured when it took me a good extra 10 minutes to walk the 2 blocks from the bus station to work. My hips felt like they were going to snap in half and I really felt like Poppy had dropped even further down the birth canal. By 11:00am, I threw in the towel and told my boss that I had to go home. Why on earth was I sitting in a cube at work feeling the way I was? I'll never forget when I called Michael to tell him I was heading home....he frantically picked up the phone, "Is this the phone call I've been waiting 9 months for?!" I disappointedly said no but that I was going home because again, something just felt different. The rest of the night was low key. We went on a REALLY long walk, Gary & Emily came over for dinner and we were in bed by 11:30 pm.

Saturday was frustrating to say the least. I was having contractions pretty regularly when I was sitting still, but once I moved, they'd disappear....a signal that it was false labor. :( We went on an evening walk and decided to go pick up some ice cream to satisfy one of my few cravings.

I woke up a few times throughout the night with contractions, but nothing that would warrant a trip to the hospital. Until 7:30 am.... I had gotten a contraction and was breathing through it when all the sudden I felt a pop! I thought, that was weird. I wonder what that was. When the contraction was over and as I was telling Michael about it, I felt this rush of fluid. My water broke!

I had mentioned many times earlier in the week that all I want is for my water to break in the morning at home. That way I'd be with Michael, I would have gotten a good nights sleep, I wouldn't have to worry about it breaking when I was on the bus to work (omg, can you imagine!), and most importantly, I would know for sure that I was in labor. I just really could not believe it actually happening the way I really wanted to.

As Michael started to gather the last minute items for the hospital, I called my doctors office emergency line. Not only did my water break like I wanted it to, but my doctor was on call! Capital Women's Care has 7-8 doctors that rotate days in the hospital. My doctor, Dr. Alter is typically at the hospital on Mondays. He just happened to be on call....it was his weekend. And it was my day to deliver this baby. It couldn't be more perfect.

We made a pit stop at Royal Bagel Bakery to get breakfast because I knew once I checked in I wouldn't be able to eat anything until the baby was born. Yum...bagel :)

After checking into the hospital, I waddled back to Labor Room 1 and got settled. Most of the day was spent seeing visitors, listening to a four hour playlist entitled "Poppy's Birthday" I had made less than 24 hours prior to arrival, and breathing through contractions with the best coach possible. Michael was by my side every step of the way. I had him write down a timeline of events so we didn't forget how I brought Levi into this world:

• 7:30 am - Water Breaks!
• 8:15 am - Stop off at Royal Bakery. Announce to the staff that Stephanie insisted on stopping here before heading to the hospital. Michael walked out with a free danish and a "Congrats! Love, Royal"
• 8:50 am - Check into hospital (it was POURING down rain when we arrived).
• 9:40 am - First cervical exam by nurse Kerry. 90% effaced, "fingertip" (barely 1cm) dilated.
• 11:00 am - Second cervical exam by Dr. Alter (ouch!). 95% effaced. 2cm dilated. Yay - we're making progress!
• 11:00 am - 12:30 pm - did a few laps around the hospital. Actually ventured out to the waiting room....
• 3:00 pm - Third cervical exam by nurse Trisha. 100% effaced. 2 cm dilated. Bring on the pitosin. I needed to get this labor thing moving along.
• 3:20 pm - "Pit drip" started. Pitosin is a drug that speeds up contractions. It is administered in 2 milli-unit increments. I started at 2 milliunits.
• 4:00 pm - Pit drip increased to 4 milliunits. Things definitely started to feel different. No more facebook updates, no more visitors. Michael was starting to slowly lose feeling in his fingers because I was squeezing his hand so hard.
• 5:00 pm - Pit drip increased to 6 milliunits. Everyone has different reactions to Pitosin. We quickly found out after 5pm that I am pretty sensitive to the drug. I was thrown into full on contractions with very very little time to recover between them. All of the sudden I got the feeling I wasn't going to be able to do this. I had the mindset going into delivery that I did not want to use any drugs if I didn't have to. I told Michael that when I first started asking for the epidural to talk me out of it. So he did just like I asked him. He tried to talk me out of it.
• 5:15 pm - Michael asks me to wait until 5:30 before getting the nurse. I couldn't do it. I insisted he get the nurse NOW. It was the most pain I've ever felt - with absolutely no recovery time. I had also heard horror stories of the Anesthesiologist taking up to an hour to show up to administer the procedure.
• 5:22 pm - In strolls Dr. Owens, the man who was going to save my life. He was very calm and started some small talk to attempt to get my mind off things. After confirming I was from the area and that maybe the accent he was hearing was from when I went to UNC, there was a moment of silence. "You aren't going to like me very much. I graduated from Duke." I (jokingly) insisted that I get a new doctor. A Dukie poking my back to help a Tarheel. Say it ain't so! After some back and forth about the number of basketball championships, the epidural was in and I believed I was on my way to a world of numbness bliss. Um - not so much.
• 6:00 pm - While I couldn't necessarily feel my legs anymore, I could still feel the contractions coming and STRONG. When was this miracle drug going to kick in. The nurses started moving more quickly around the room and I could sense something wasn't quite right. I was quickly given a shot to slow everything down. The contractions were still coming at an uncontrollable rate, making things extremely uncomfortable for me and dropping Poppy's heartbeat low enough to warrant intervention.
• 7:00 pm - All is calm. I wasn't feeling great, but I was definitely not feeling the intense pain I was feeling just minutes before. Trisha's (our nurse) shift was over and we welcomed Marissa with open arms. (Ironically, Marissa was our nurse when we had our short visit after my fender bender).
• 7:15 pm - Fourth cervical exam. 100% effaced. 5 cm dilated. We're making progress people! Marissa decides that I needed a position change and flipped me onto my left side.
• 8:15 pm - Fifth cervical exam. 100% effaced. 10 cm dilated. And I finally heard the words I had been waiting over 12 hours for. We're going to start pushing.
• 8:45 pm - After some prep work in the room, Dr. Alter arrives and announces that I am going to have this baby during game three of the Lakers/Suns playoff game. I said, what the heck - put it on the TV. The game was just starting.
• 8:45 pm - 10:25 pm - I pushed and pushed and pushed. I would occasionally open my eyes after a contraction, only to find Dr. Alter & Michael looking up at the TV to see what was going on in the game. For some reason, it really didn't bother me. Again, I have to give a shout out to Michael. He was my punching bag. Dr. Alter would make a joke, I would laugh. Michael made a joke...forget about it. It wasn't funny and I made him know it. (Sorry, honnay!)
• 10:25 pm - Dr. Alter looks me in the eye and says, "Stephanie, you are going to have this baby by 11pm". That was enough motivation for me to get "serious" and really start pushing.
• 10:47 pm - The most amazing noise. The first small cry of my son is something I will never forget. He was flopped onto my chest and that was that. Our son had been born. I had survived childbirth.

While it was painful, I would do it a million times over just for the end result. People have always told me that you'll never love anything like you love your child. I now understand what they mean.

I love you, Levi. I'm so excited for our journey.