Our Newest Arrival (A year later)
Our second child, Levi Alexander, made his grand entry into the world on the morning of September 16th, 2009. His arrival was quite the experience. This post is dedicated to the telling of Levi's birth story. I apologize for this being a year later then I had originally planned.
It was Tuesday the 15th of September and we were still about a month out from the expected due date for our second son. We were pretty sure that Levi was breach and Rachel had been visiting a chiropractor for a short period of time to attempt to realign her pelvis so Levi could rectify his position. Rachel had a last minute appointment at the Greenhouse Birth Center to see if any progress had been made as well as to discuss our options. Levi appeared to still be breach so they were going to attempt to get Rachel in to have an ultrasound done to confirm once they opened from lunch.
We left the birth center and were going to grab lunch before Rachel brought me back to work. We got to the restaurant and shortly afterward received a call stating that the only available appointment was about 30 minutes later. We left the restaurant and headed over to have the ultrasound done. We confirmed that Levi was breach and the tech stated that it appeared that Levi was butt first. Rachel brought me back to work and I finished up my day there.
That evening after arriving home I did some quick research online regarding breach delivery, the geek in me wanting to be prepared for any eventuality. We then headed out and went to the store for some items we needed. Rachel started to make mention of not feeling exactly right, but didn't think that she was in labor. We had decided earlier that we were going to go to dinner that evening as we weren't able to go to lunch because of the ultrasound. During dinner Rachel was getting a bit more uncomfortable but still didn't think that she was in labor yet. After enjoying our dinner at Ukai we headed home and got Ayden ready for bed.
Once home Rachel was having difficulty getting comfortable in bed so decided that she would spend some time in the tub. Around one in the morning on the 16th, Rachel was still in the tub and was starting to think that she was in labor. We contacted the midwives, and were intending to meet them at the birth center. We also contacted our neighbor and Rachel's parents so that someone could be with Ayden while we were gone. I started packing things into the van and Rachel was transitioning out of the tub. By ten to two we were no longer going to make it to the birth center, Rachel was too far along to feel comfortable moving.
I called the midwives back and spoke with them. While on the call, between giving them directions, Rachel noticed that the amniotic sac began to present, and I conveyed this to them. Near the end of the call the amniotic sac burst, which I also conveyed to the midwives. I hung up with the midwives so that they could focus on getting to the house, and I could focus on helping Rachel.
On a side note, once the amniotic sac began to present and balloon out, I had a feeling that we would be in for a footling breach delivery. In the research I had completed prior to leaving the house for the evening I came across a few articles of midwives delivering breach. A couple of the articles discussed footling breach, in which the amniotic sac presented first and ballooned instead of breaking and presenting a body part. Had I not completed this research prior I may not have been as prepared for what happened next, but we would have likely been able to still deliver Levi fine.
At this point our neighbor had been here for some time to watch Ayden until Rachel's dad arrived from nearly an hour away. Ayden had been up for at least five or so minutes because of the commotion. At about 2:05 Rachel's dad arrived and hunkered in with Ayden. Over the next several minutes Rachel was attempting to get into the most comfortable position that she could find, that her body was telling her that she would need to be in for the delivery. Around 2:13 Levi's left leg was out, as noted before, this didn't entirely surprise me, but it did Rachel. We worked to make sure his right leg was out, and Rachel was ready to keep moving. I had to talk her down some to slow down progression just long enough for me to get his cord from between his legs, which could have proved to be a critical issue if not resolved. After freeing his cord, Levi was completely out just a minute or so later, born at 2:15 AM Wednesday September 16th, 2009. The midwives showed up five to ten minutes later and took care of the business that they normally do, making sure mom and baby were okay.
After things started to settle down, we took Levi to see our pediatrician, as there were some symptoms which the midwives thought that we should get checked out. He had some concerns over his blood counts and we spent a good portion of that day in the hospital attempting to get everything "regulated". We had a follow up appointment the next day with the pediatrician. It was at this appointment that his concern for the Down Syndrome was mentioned. We took Levi back to the hospital for additional blood draws. It would be an additional week before we received a confirmed diagnosis of Down Syndrome.
After the first few weeks everything seemed to go fine, except for some minor lung issues which meant that we had to keep Levi on fairly regular breathing treatments. Ayden slowly got used to his brother being there, and truly enjoys him now, even though he can be a bit rough at times. Things continued to go well until February.
February brought us to the hospital with Levi. They put Levi on oxygen and an IV at that time. We were in the hospital for about a week with Levi. For the period of time that he was in the hospital he was being treated for RSV and pneumonia. During that time, Rachel never left the hospital, and I only did for short periods of time. Thankfully we had family and friends that were able to help out with and take care of Ayden while we were in the hospital with Levi.
The rest of Levi's first year was fairly uneventful, although we enjoyed it greatly. Now Levi is over thirteen months old and is starting to really move around on his own. Sorry it took so long to get this posted buddy.
P.S. To my loving wife Rachel, happy fourth anniversary!
