Levi Matt Mitchell

Levi was born Friday, July 9th at 7:39 PM. He was 8 pounds and 20 inches long. I can't help but compare this labor and delivery experience to Lily's. I am so thankful everything went smoothly and he is here safely with us.

Just a couple hours old. We love all his hair.

We went home Saturday around 5:00PM. I would have loved going home sooner. I felt really great and our hospital room was extremely HOT!

Lily got to come visit that night. She was happy to see her "broder." She has been so helpful with him. I'm so thankful that Matt's parents live so close and could take care of Lily while we were gone. This was such an awesome experience and I am so thankful for how everything went. I feel overly blessed to be the mother of these kids!

Here's the story:

July 9, 2010 at 5:15am my water broke. It just made a little wet spot on the bed so I wasn't sure if it had actually ruptured. I woke Matt up to tell him. We both agreed just to go back to sleep for a while. I wasn't feeling any contractions and I wasn't gushing amniotic fluid either. I was just a little wet. I couldn't sleep at that point so I got up and made sure everything in our apartment was clean and ready for Linda, Matt's mom, to come stay with Lily. I got my bag packed and took a long shower. I am so thankful I was able to do my hair and make up. When my water broke with Lily it was gushing so badly we rushed to the hospital without even a proper shower.

At 9:30am we had an appointment with the Midwife anyway. We took Lily to our friends Kasey Montgomery while we went to the appointment. The Midwife, Rachel, reassured us that my water actually did break and that we were going to have a baby today. I was so happy!! She told us to head up to the hospital and get started on pitoson to start the contractions. She told us to take our time and go get something to eat. We went back to say bye to Lily. Kasey was so wonderful to watch Lily until Matt's mom could get off of work to pick her up. Matt and I then went to McDonalds for a little something to eat. I just got a fruit salad and a strawberry banana smoothie. It was perfect and gave me the energy I needed during the contractions.

10:30am (ish) we checked into the hospital and got situated in the same Labor and Delivery room where Lily was born. They finally got the IV in and started the pitoson around 11:00 or 11:30am. It wasn't too bad at first. They hadn't checked at this point to see how far I was dilated. The nurse just said she would check me when I was ready to have the epidural. I feel like I handled the contractions WAY better than I did with Lily. My body knew how to handle it better and I was able to relax more as they got more and more painful. The nurse checked me at about 3:00pm and I was only dilated to 3 cm. I tried to hold off on the epidural because I thought it would slow down the labor. With Lily, I got the epidural when I was dilated to 4 cm and then it slowed everything down. What I didn't take into consideration was the pitocin. I wasn't on pitocin with Lily. Anyway, I finally asked to the epidural at 4:00pm. Praise the heavens above for the epidural. It took away my extreme pain completely. The nurse came and checked to see if I had dilated anymore an hour or so later. I was only between 3 and 4 cm. At this point I thought he wasn't going to be born until the next day. I thought the epidural had slowed it down completely.

Rachel, the Midwife, came to check on me at 5:30pm or so. I still was only dilated to 4 cm. She still assured me that he was coming soon and that we would be able to eat dinner before the cafeteria closed at 8pm. She instructed the nurses to turn up the pitocin every 30 min. Well, I didn't see an nurse again until 7:15pm or so. The only reason one come in was because I was having extreme pain in my lower left hand side of my stomach. I thought the epidural was wearing off. I remember the exact same pain in the same spot right before Lily was born. I was also feeling nausea. I called for the nurse. She gave me medicine for the nausea and checked to see if I was dilated anymore. Praise! I was dilated to 8cm. The pain I was feeling was pressure from Levi getting ready to come out. She set up for delivery and they she was going to go call Rachel to let her know about my progression. As she left the room, Rachel showed up. Thank the heavens she did. She checked me one last time and I was complete at a 10. What I forgot to mention was that my water wasn't all the way ruptured. That is why I wasn't wet all day like I was with Lily. I was just a little wet. Rachel tried to rupture the rest of the water but it was too late. While the nurse was finishing setting up for delivery Rachel had me push. Matt was standing on my right hand side letting me hold his arm. By the time the nurse had finished setting up I pushed one last time. I was so thankful I could feel enough to push without feeling pain. I felt him come out but I didn't feel any pain. I was amazing. He came out screaming and I bawled. Levi was born 7:39 that night. He was perfect. They set him up right on my chest for a long time. I held him while they cleaned up and stitched me up. I even nursed him before he had a bath. They didn't give him a bath for another hour or so. I loved holding him like that and I will never forget the smell. They came and brought me a sandwich and fruit while I was still in the labor and delivery room. They then bathed Levi and I got to shower. We then went in the wheel chair to the recovery room. Matt's mom and dad got there around that time. They brought Lily to come meet her new baby brother. Lily climbed up on my bed, looked over at Levi in his bed and said "brother, brother." She knew he is her brother and she loves him very much.

Lily had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Mitchell. She wanted to hold their hands out to the car. Matt went home to get his things and he stopped and got me a vanilla frosty from Wendy's. Yum! I wasn't really that hungry at that point but it was fun to celebrate! Levi spent the night with us in our room. He slept really well. Matt slept most of the night in the hospital bed with me. His couch fold out thing wasn't very comfortable. I felt like we were up most of that night. They came in occasionally to get my vitals and give me meds. They also come and took my blood at 5 I think. I got up around 7am to shower and put makeup on so I was ready for any visitors. I was still really tired of course. We didn't have too many visitors with Levi. Cathy and her mom came. Kasey Montgomery came too. It was nice just to have some peace and enjoy our new son.

Doctor Prince came that morning to check on Levi and do the circumcision. It was pretty fast and I'm glad he only has to go through that once in his life. He slept for HOURS after that. I don't think he woke up the rest of that day. I had to try and wake him up so I could feed him.

I felt really good I wanted to go home as soon as possible. Our hospital room was more than 80 degrees and I was ready to get out of there. We went home that night around 5. I was so thankful to be home. I don't remember getting to rest too much. I was just so happy with how everything turned out and I was so happy to have Lily with us again. I missed her while we were in the hospital. We are so blessed to have Levi with us. He really is one special boy who is from heaven. He was sent to us as an extremely precious gift and I am forever thankful to my Heavenly Father for letting us be his earthly parents. I love you Levi, forever and ever!