Leo's Birth Story

Leo Michael-Born April 6, 2015

Children are a beautiful blessing. Each child is so different like each pregnancy is so different, and every birth story is different. And so I felt the need to share my own with you. Leo Michael is my second child, and my first, Zooey Anne, her birth story was totally different. Amazing how that works.

At the end of March, at my 39 week appointment I was asked to schedule a stress test for the following week since I hadn't started dilating yet. This wasn't a surprise to me considering I was late by almost a week with my first.

Later that evening David got a call from his Dad who scored opening day Chicago Cubs tickets with a pregame party with the Rickets family (the owners of the team). His Dad was seeing if David could join him, the catch, though, was it being on Easter Sunday afternoon/evening (2 days before my due date). Since I wasn't showing any signs of my impending labour and that being a once in a lifetime opportunity for David plus good bonding time with his Dad I told him to go for it.

Okay so here it starts getting more honest and "medical" haha. Saturday morning I woke up to not only my last scheduled day at work, but also pieces of my mucus plug! It made me so nervous to work the entire 9-5 day that I decided to finish up the little details before my 10 week maternity leave, and work just half a day (I work part time as a children's librarian). Who knew if I would end up in the hospital later that day or the next!

Zooey Easter Egg Hunting

We hadn't planned a whole lot for the following day, Easter, considering we never really knew if there would be a baby or not and especially since by this point I was feeling v e r y pregnant. All I really felt like doing was sleeping, waking up for food, and then sleeping. But instead of sleep, eat, sleep, we had a pleasant morning with the three of us. We opted out of going to church this year. I didn't feel up to the stress of entertaining a 2 year old and being an obtrusive, uncomfortable, crabby ball during church. So we had breakfast of fresh fruit and cranberry scones. Zooey enjoyed her Easter basket (filled with a couple books, crayons, coloring book, drawing pad, and chocolate graham goldfish). Afterwards she went Easter egg hunting in our backyard. We had filled a few eggs with graham goldfish. She LOVED finding the eggs and was pretty darn good at it too!

The plan for the day was simple. A pleasant morning and then David heads off to the Cubs game while my parents come over and we have a quiet simple evening. I know it sounds like I'm building up right now that my water broke and I delivered on the side of the road while I drove myself to the hospital. No, it actually was that simple evening that I had hoped for. David went to the Cubs game and had a great time. He actually even met Billy Corgan! My evening with my parents was great too. I would say it was actually the most pleasant Easter I spent with them for the past few years! We had sparkling grape juice with home cooked Alaskan Salmon, Cauliflower, Asparagus, Roasted Potato and cake for dessert. It was delicious and it was lovely. We said our goodbye's, and I put Zooey down for bedtime.

Zooey & I playing between contractions

I was expecting David to get home around 10:30 or 11 pm, but when I looked at the clock and looked at what inning they were in I knew it'd be a longer night than expected. So I pleasantly read and fell asleep, or at least tried to. Shortly after I tried to sleep I started feeling discomfort about every 10 minutes or so. It wasn't too bad, but enough to notice. By the time David got home around 12:30 AM I had a feeling that I was in labor. I didn't want to make him nervous since it was so early on, so I said hello gave him hugs and kisses and he went to sleep. I tried to sleep too, but kept getting woken up with every contraction. By about 3am I was too uncomfortable with every contraction that I knew there is no way that David was going into work. I could tell I was having a baby Monday (one day before my due date). So at 3am I woke him up and told him the news. So we talked and timed the contractions, called the nurses on the warm line, and spoke with his Mom (who was going to be watching Zooey). The contractions had moved up to about 7 minutes apart and we were waiting for those lucky 5 minutes apart. We thought we'd be leaving in an hour or so, so we started getting ready: packing the final items in our bags, showering, changing, etc. But after all of that my contractions slowed down to 10-14 minutes apart! So gladly I fell asleep for a couple hours. When I woke up we continued on our day monitoring the time of the contractions which remained 10 minutes or longer apart. Zooey however was not a fan of my contractions. She was really worried, and it broke my heart knowing that all she wanted to do was make me feel better but could not. We called the warm line back just updating them since instead of progressing the contraction were further apart. Shortly after the phone call, however, my contractions picked up again and became 3-5 minutes apart! So it was an immediate we need to get out of the house and to the hospital!

We dropped Zooey off at Nana's, headed to the hospital, and was admitted at 2:30 pm, because I was dilated 3cm. The nurse walked us over to the delivery room to be set up. The doctor came in and told me that most likely I'd be deliver in about 6 hours (the norm for 2nd timers) and so that would be around 9pm. She also explained I might need pictocin and my water broken. After she left and after answering a few questions the nurse attempted to start an IV for me. It was awful. I did warn her that I was not an easy IV patient and I get really nervous. I stupidly got so nervous this time I almost fainted and they needed smelling salts and an oxygen mask to keep me awake. Another nurse came and started the IV. Part of the problem was that during the whole process I kept having contractions. They felt quite close together. I wasn't due to be checked for dilation, but the nurse thought it'd be a good idea for her to check since she noticed how uncomfortable I was becoming.

It felt like she was checking forever, and finally announced, "Not to scare you, but we need to set the room up for delivery! You are at 9 cm!!" WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?!?!?! I knew I was feeling a lot of pain, but that whole time I was thinking to myself, "You just got admitted, don't be a baby, deal with the pain, it's going to get a lot worse, you can do this!" Apparently I secretly coach-talked myself into feeling "no pain" to the point I was ready to deliver! I couldn't believe the news. Nurses, techs, the doctor sped in and set up the room. I told them that I had planned on getting pain relief and hoped I could get something still. Apparently they don't typically give you anything if you haven't had a full IV bag yet (which I hadn't), but luckily was able to get some pain relief. They administered a "one shot" which helped with the intensity of the contractions and a numbing shot. I 100% could feel and move my legs, the contractions were less painful but I still could feel them, and when I was pushing I could feel everything, but a tolerable everything meaning I could feel the crowing and the birth.

Part of me wishes I just went for it without the pain relief since I had gotten that far, I really could have gone all the way, but I was glad to have experienced the sensations of the birth without excruciating pain.

I look and am SO happy!

From the time they announced I was 9cm to the time I gave birth it probably was about 30 minutes? It was so fun to give that final push, feel the baby being born, and the doctor saying, "You thought it might be a girl, and it is a...." She flips the baby around and says, "It's a boy!" He was screaming to the top of his lungs, they cuddled him up on my chest, stitched me up, and then did everything they needed to do with him while they cleaned me up.

David and I were in total shock. It was crazy to think that just after we were admitted David had called our families to let them know I was admitted and expect a baby around 9pm, and then only a couple hours later he called them again to tell them, "It's a boy!" They were all so pleasantly shocked!

I feel that Leo's birth story is truly beautiful. I'm still shocked at how strong I was through the whole labour and birth. I feel that in full confidence that I can tell anyone that you can handle it! And if not that numbing shot works wonders! ;)

I wish all mommies to be the best of luck with your birth story! You will do beautifully and brilliantly!