Welcome Levi Matthew Kassebaum!

On September 30, I was feeling stressed out so my Mom offered to have Katie over for a slumber party at her house the next night.  After gymnastics on October 1st, Katie went over to the beach for her fun filled night.  I was looking forward to a relaxing afternoon with a pedicure and then going out to dinner with Dan and maybe doing a little shopping the next morning on my way to pick Katie up.  I wasn't really sure what to do so I decided to watch some Criminal Minds from 2 until 3, during which I started having some mild cramps.  I was so excited to be having any sign of labor since I didn't want to be induced again.  After the show, I took a bath and continued to relax.  I told Dan to stay at work and get some stuff done.

About 3:15 I started having very short, mild contractions.  Dan left work around 3:40.  By the time he got home at 4:10, I felt pretty icky and decided to start timing my contractions.  The doctor said they have to be 1 minute long, 5 minutes apart, for one hour before coming into labor and delivery- oh and be very painful.  Mine were like 30 seconds long, 1 to 2 minutes apart and painful, but not unbearable.  I wasn't sure what to do so we kept timing them.  We got through about 3 cycles before POP! My water broke at 4:18 and we still weren't sure if we should go in or call, but my contractions were getting stronger so I had Dan go upstairs and pack the bag.  By this point I couldn't do anything during the contractions.  We left about 4:35 and Dan drove about 90 the whole way down to the hospital.  We arrived around 5:15 and Dan ran in and got me a wheel chair.

The took me to a triage room to assess me and decided I was 5 cm dilated so they said we would go to a delivery room.  I asked immediately for an epidural but they had to start an IV first.  Apparently my veins were terrible and I was really dehydrated.  I had 3 people sticking needles into my arms in various places to get the IV going.  They were trying to wait in between contractions, but I told them to just do it since there was no time in between them.  Then I said I thought I was pushing.  They told me not to push, thinking I was crazy and then checked and I was 10 cms dilated and ready to push (this was 20 minutes later)  I told them I wasn't ready and that I wanted medicine but they said there was nothing they could give me and the only way to end the pain was to have the baby.  Not exactly what I wanted to hear since I had done nothing to prepare for a natural birth.  They didn't even have the baby cart in there or any doctors.  A midwife happened to be walking by, stop in, and delivered the baby.  I asked her for anything to numb the pain, but she would not give it go me so I peed on her ;) As I was pushing, they finally got my IV in.  I hadn't even taken my normal clothes off before he was born.  No discussion of our birth plan- I wasn't actually admitted as a patient yet.

Levi Matthew was born at 6:06 pm on October 1st in what was deemed as an uncomplicated delivery :)  He came out with a fury.  They placed him on my belly to clean him off and to cut the cord (some corpsman's idea).  He was 7 pounds 13 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long.