Kelly's Version of Our Birth Story

Our Birth Story – Kelly’s Version

This is my rendition of our baby Madeline’s birth.  We couldn't have asked for a better hospital to have our baby at.  The nurses at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center are absolutely wonderful.  Even more awesome is my midwife Tiffany.  She is such a calm, knowledgeable, and positive person.  I wouldn't want anyone else to deliver my babies.  A couple warnings: I am normally very good at guessing what time it is, how much time has passed but somehow through the miracle of hormones, drugs, and excitement, my perception of time during the labor and delivery was quite amiss.  Half of this was written when I was very sleep deprived.  The week before Madeline was born was crazy busy.  I was feeling so worn down and was still dragging myself around at work trudging along.  My co-worker and boss were out sick for most of the week and it was a very busy week.  By Thursday night I decided I had to take Friday off.  I took a personal day and we worked to get the house ready for Dave’s birthday party that we were to have on Saturday.  The party was great, we had a good time with friends singing karaoke and Sunday turned out to be a recovery day.

Monday rolled around and it was work as usual.  By this time in my pregnancy I was 38 weeks along and I was not sleeping well.  But hey, I had at least two or three weeks to go and I planned on resting as much as possible once this hectic week was over.  I was uncomfortable but I felt like I had to get stuff done before our baby girl arrived.  Monday night was awful.  I think I woke up around 3 and didn’t really get back to sleep.  I just lay there wishing I could sleep.

Tuesday I was so tired and I considered calling in but went in. I still wish I had taken time to rest but that’s something I’ll have to remember for our future baby.  My boss asked me if I thought I’d be able to work much longer.  I guess she could tell I needed a break.  I was showing signs of possible impending labor during work on Tuesday.   I won’t go into the lovely details but I made sure to text Dave all about them at work.  I wasn’t due for two more weeks and I was really planning to relax and “enjoy” those last two weeks!  After work we had dinner with my family then went to get a few groceries and to the Halloween store and oh man was I tired.  I waddled down the aisles with Dave and at some point told him that I was done shopping and we had to leave.  I remember texting a friend that I was going to loan a top to and I jokingly said that I’d see her the next day unless I was in labor. 

Sleep did not come easily on that night.  In fact, I woke up with what I’d guess were practice contractions early that morning.  I half expected them to pick up and when they didn’t and my alarm finally went off, I looked out the window and told Dave about it and then said, “I guess I’m going to work today”.  Walked into the bathroom and low and behold a trickle of water ran down my leg.  I said “oh dear” and walked to wait outside the other bathroom door for Dave to come out.  I told him the news and he called our Midwife’s office.  He got me an appointment to confirm that it really was my water and that I didn’t pee myself as pregnancy has a way of making your bladder control not so controlled.

I emailed my boss and told her that I think I might have sprung a leak then I got ready and he packed the car just in case they might send us to the hospital.  At the office it was confirmed that it was my water and that we would be in fact having our baby within about 24 hours.  Wow!  I was stunned.  We also found out that my cervix was totally not ready for the baby’s grand entrance into the world and were advised to go to the hospital.  I had to ask, “How many hours do we have before we need to be at the hospital?”  And the answer was by lunchtime.  My plan was to go home to try to get labor moving on my own.  I was trying to avoid Pitocin and an epidural since I really had my mind set on a natural birth.  We drove home and I got on the treadmill and walked a mile.  I had a few little contractions.  We tried some other natural methods to get things moving and I continued to have minor contractions.  I was so glad.  Dave was eager to get to the hospital although I was not in a rush whatsoever.  I wanted to get myself going with labor before heading out.  We compromised and went around noon after I had some leftover pizza AND spaghetti! 

We arrived at the hospital and checked in.  The contractions had continued all the way to the hospital but when we were checking in they pretty much stopped.  They were going to give me a ride in a wheelchair up to labor and delivery triage but I told them I preferred to walk.  I was getting annoyed that my mini contractions had stopped. 

We got up to triage and was promptly handed a lovely huge, no GIANT, blue hospital gown thingy.  When the triage nurse found out that I was a midwife patient and had already had my cervix checked she decided to contact my midwife and go from there.  My wonderful midwife Tiffany showed up shortly and went over our options with us.  We went with the one that she recommended, it sounded safest for the baby and for me.  We went to our labor and delivery room (after I changed back into my own clothes) and settled in.  I was then hooked up to a fetal heart monitor and contraction monitor.  Since I was going to have medication to augment my labor this was going to be necessary.  Not what I wanted but at least I could get up and move around.  I was allowed to eat and drink per my midwife as well as disconnect myself from the monitors to make bathroom trips.  I did have a hep lock which is the part of the IV that is in your arm in case they need to administer fluids or medication.  It kind of felt pinched but I dismissed it. 

I took the first dose of cytotec and my mini contractions started back up after about an hour.  Dave and I entertained ourselves by watching Ru Paul’s Drag Race on his laptop.  It was actually not so bad.  So I thought.

 He was timing my contractions on my phone, bringing me water and making sure I had what I needed.  Four hours went by and I was having more contractions with slowly growing intensity.  My midwife decided I should have another dose of cytotec and about a half hour after that, my contractions went from tolerable to holy shit.  I could get through the contractions but it seemed that there was such a tiny break between them I didn’t have time to get my bearings between them.  They really felt like they were starting to pile up on top of one another.  I did the breathing thing.  It sort of worked.  I got on all fours on the bed and kind of rocked through it.  This was a little better.  I had to sit up for some reason and the nurse was talking to me at some point and I wasn’t in the right position for my contraction.  I started to freak out and let the pain take me over.  My body tensed up and I grabbed on to Dave and probably pinched him or clawed him a little.  I’m sure I squealed and when I reacted this way the pain was sooo much worse.  I tried to hang in there as long as I could but I finally gave in and said the magic word to Dave, “cacao” (Portlandia referenceJ).    I needed the epidural.  I was at 4 cm at this point and knew I couldn’t possibly ride these contractions out all night, not the way it was already going.  I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to be laboring on my back in bed.  So I signed the paperwork for it and the nurse had to give me IV fluids but the original hep lock turned out to be putting the fluid in my arm and that hurt a lot.  She put one in my other arm and I could barely feel it.  The anesthesiologist administered my epidural probably 30 minutes later and within 5 minutes I was feeling better.  Numb and pretty much helpless and weak but the relentless and ridiculous pain was gone. 

By now, the evening was approaching and the evening went on like this.  Dave constantly checking the baby’s heart rate and my contractions on the monitor and not sleeping.  Me falling asleep only to be woken up by the damn blood pressure cuff every 15 minutes.  Our nurse coming in to do things on the monitor or help me drain my bladder.  Kind of humiliating I suppose but at the time in that situation, it was no biggie.  At some point it was decided that I have Pitocin to help my contractions.  I think the epidural had slowed them.  Also, the baby’s heart rate dropped significantly a few times.  Each time the nurses had to come in and roll me over to get her rate back up.  My midwife showed up sometime in the middle of the night and at that point the baby’s heart rate was just fine and did not drop any more.  She stayed at the hospital to monitor me and baby.  So the night went on and on.

Early in the morning my midwife came in and checked my progress.  She said that we were ready to go!  I was sooo happy!  The moment I’d been waiting for since early this year!  I told her that my right side was getting painful and she said that we could get more epidural meds pushed by the anesthesiologist but we’d have to wait an hour to push.  I decided I’d forget about the pain on my side as soon as I started pushing. I didn’t want to wait!  I couldn’t wait to meet this baby!  So while my midwife had to run out for a bit, the nurse was going to help me practice pushing.  I tried my best and she saw the baby’s head.  She got my midwife and it was go time.  I got her out pretty quickly.  It was tough trying to push when I could barely feel my legs.  They say push like you are pooping and I kept thinking that.  Also, I asked for a mirror so I could see my progress.  That was pretty cool to see, and strange, but mostly cool.  Soon enough, her head popped out and I think at this point my memory is sketchy.  It was such a big moment I don’t think my brain registered it right away.

 I know her head was out; I had to wait a second for the cord to be unwrapped from her neck.  No fuss, Tiffany unwrapped it and we moved on.  One more push and she was out and on my chest.  Nurses wiped her off and I was in such a state of euphoria.  What a cool and surreal and BIG moment.  We already knew each other very well but my squeaky little baby was opening her eyes and seeing me for the first time as I was looking at her for the first time in amazement.  I looked at Dave and he seemed to be in a similar state of awe.  And now there are three of us in our little happy family.  J

Dave's version of our birth story.

If your wife is pregnant, as a guy you will hear A LOT of suggestions, ideas, philosophies, and the occasional crappy comment about child birth...  most of which comes without any details or specifics, so I am here to tell you what we've experienced so far.

First and foremost let me tell you that even at the upper echelons of intelligence in the birthing community you will hear contradictory information.  Consequently, you will be forced to listen to a LOT of ideas. My first bit of advise is to listen to it all, learn all that you can, and then do what YOU THINK IS BEST for your family.  Every baby is different, every situation is different, TRUST YOUR GUT.   You will be overwhelmed with a ton of baby information, and so it's really hard to know what's important to remember, and what is ancillary fluff.

Today is the fourteenth day after our healthy child, Madeline, was born.  We are blessed to have a healthy child.  I would like this blog to be for other men and women out there who haven't had a baby before and would like a straight talkin' perspective on things.  Before I give the straight up tips and ideas, I feel it necessary to detail our 'birth story'.  Partly to just document the day she was born, but others may find it useful as well.



Our Birth Story - A dude's perspective as told by -Dave:

Kelly and Dave

In short, my wife and I have been together for six years, married for a year and we decided it was time to start a family.  I'm an AV Tech for a college and singer/songwriter for a band and she also works for the college and has her Bachelors in Biology in Society.

It's our first baby and I have next to no experience.  Consequently I am NOT an expert in this subject.  My wife helped her sisters and parents out with babies, but this is her first baby too.  We thought it would be a good idea to go to a few baby classes offered by the hospital and around town. Let's see, there was CPR, Birthing, Baby Safety, Car-Seat Installation, Breastfeeding, Baby Care, and we also joined an excellent group at our Doctor/Midwife's office of other couples due around the same time. In retrospect it was worth it, we learned a lot.  It wasn't expensive, and we learned some really important things.  Plus we at least FELT more prepared, which is important when embarking on such a critical mission together.  Still before we get into that I guess I should share our birth story...  The birth story, is different for everyone.  It's not like the movies, when the lady's water breaks, you running around like a chicken with no head, you get to the hospital at Mach 6 speed, and the doctor says PUSH, and the wife punches the husband, then sneezes and a baby emerges.  So here's how it went down for us.

We had drawn up a fantastic little poem of an un-medicated and ideal "birth plan". What's a "birth plan"?  Well, I play music in a band, so immediately I compare a birth plan to a band's "Tech Rider".  You know, that document that bands give to promoters that says, "We need a sound system, lights, the singer needs a blue towel, six gluten free meals, and a bowl of green M&Ms."  Below was our birth plan.  You can find many others online, but our midwife said to keep it fun and simple or they might not read it.  (Funny thing is that a lot of bands do the same thing... Google Slayer's Tech Rider)

David and Kelly Birthing Plan for Mercy Gilbert Hospital 10/7/2012

We understand, if the fit hits the shan we might need an altered plan.

But if we have it our way, unnecessary people should be turned away.

There’s Tiffany the Midwife and daddy Dave,

Kelly’s the mom and the Nurses can stay.

Kelly prefers no IV, we’re shooting for drug free.

She prefers to run wild and roam free, so please monitor intermittently.

Hot tub? birthing ball? dim the lights? and cue the song?

(Dave says “C’mon this sounds like an MTV hip hop song.”)

Kelly might push and Kelly might scream, while Dad’s on camera, calm and serene.

Don’t cut the cord, till the pulsing is over.

When it comes to placenta, we’re bringing a cooler.

We brought a book for her footsies, so ink up those tootsies.

And Kelly’s breasts are like the finest silk, no formula, no pacifier,

baby just gets mom’s milk.

We got through the first line of our birth plan, because the fit did ultimately hit the shan, and most of it didn't work out the way we thought it would...   Kelly and I made a lot of decisions based on the health of the baby during the process.  Here is a play by play as best as I can recall.

4:30 AM 10/24/12 Dave's iPhone begins vibrating madly and dies. (As in dead, can't turn it on, can't reset, phone dead.) Containing hospital instructions, things to remember to bring to the hospital.  It basically had everything I need to do when Kelly starts giving birth to Madeline...  so much for being prepared.

7:30 AM 10/24/12 Kelly's water breaks. (2 weeks early at 38 weeks)  Her water breaks but she is not in labor. Called the Doctor's office.

8:30 AM 10/24/12  Appointment at the Doctor's office.  They say, within a couple hours we should check in at the hospital.  At this point we are hoping that Kelly's labor starts.  The longer her water is broken, the greater the chance for infection.  She has a few mini contractions.  We tried all the tips and tricks, birthing ball, and this and that's.

Nice room.

10:30 AM 10/24/12  We get to the hospital, (and remember to bring everything).   Midwife shows up, we explore all options and decide that unless labor starts soon we need to induce because Kelly's cervix was checked and is still at 1.  My understanding is that to start pushing it needs to be at 10.  For dudes out there who don't know, the cervix has scale of "open-ness" from 1-10 and the scientific way they will check is to poke around in there with their fingers. ( Isn't this 2012? Why don't we have tri-corders like Star Trek yet?) They roll us to the room and we get settled in.  The room is actually really nice and the staff is thrilled to receive our poem birth plan.  Even if we're about to completely throw it out the window.  Let me take this moment to give props to Mercy Gilbert Hospital and the office of Dr Kells.  A+ in service, comfort, staff, and knowledge. Also our midwife Tiffany was super fabulous, smart, funny, cool, had a phenomenal bedside manner, and knew when and how to best step in and offer suggestions.

Weathering early labor.

1:00 PM 10/24/12  1 pill of Cytotec.  Labor starts.  It was early labor so we ended up watching RuPaul's Drag Race on my laptop.  Kelly is weathering early labor very well.

5:00 PM 10/24/12  2nd pill of Cytotec.  Labor goes into overdrive, but it's getting to be too much for Kelly to take.  Cytotec can make labor much more painful.  She endures it for a long while, but eventually decides to get an epidural.  This was one of the hardest times during the birthing process for me.  Kelly was in agony and the contractions were coming at her every couple minutes.  She was hanging on me.  Don't forget to cautiously say nice things to her during this time.  "You're doing great." or "I'm so proud of you".  Don't say anything stupid at this point.   Just as one contraction would let down the next would start.  I was glad she decided to get the Epidural, because she was getting so drained from the contractions and there was a LONG ways to go.

7:30 PM 10/24/12 Kelly's labor had to continue it's course while we waited for the Epidural.  Partly because the midwife wanted her to get to at least a cervix open-ness of 4.  Kelly did great during this whole process, she really gave it her all, and I feel that we made the right decisions along the way.  By the time the epidural arrived my wife was completely drained and enduring a LOT of pain at this point.  After the epidural things got easier, and harder.  I mean, anyone who's had one should know that you have a lot of little tubes and contraptions.  You can't feel your legs, so the nurses have to roll you around every couple hours.  It's pretty crappy, but at least the pain was gone.

8:00 PM 10/24/12 Up to this point the baby was looking fantastic as far as the heart beat and monitors go.  But then the baby's heartbeat slowed down.  Nurses rush in and roll Kelly to re-position the baby.    Since Kelly's lost a lot of water from her water bag, it's possible that there was less water in her and the baby weighed more, and was smushing her life-giving umbilical cord.  At any rate I start to get really scared, but the nurses get it sorted.

8:30 PM? 10/24/12 Not much later it happens again.  The babies heart beat slows really low.  Nurses rush in and re-position.  After her health restores,  I ask what if it happens again. She said we move her again.   She leaves. It happens again. I move Kelly.  (BAD MOVE)  Nurses don't like when you re-position a pregnant mommy that has a million tubes, an epidural in her back, and a baby inside her.  Let them take care of that.   They keep track of babies position, and plus there's a bunch of wires going into Kelly including the one in her back which could get badly messed up if she is moved incorrectly. WHOOPS. I get a firm 'talking to'  At any rate, everything was okay after that. (Cough Cough)  The nurses contact the midwife, who rushes to the hospital to spend the night there!  She slept there to closely monitor the situation. Naturally, after she arrived the baby's heart rate didn't  dip again.  At this point, I can't sleep.  No way, no how.  My eyes and ears are fixed to the monitors.  Another nurse eventually comes in and shows me how they are all monitoring all of the rooms closely and that they have this completely under control.  I still couldn't sleep.

I stared at this thing too much.

9:00 PM 10/24/12 The midwife advises Pitocin to help induce labor.  We agree, and the Pitocin kicks her labor into Phase 2... Kelly sleeps through most of the night.  The nurses slowly increase Pitocin.  I can see a noted difference in the contractions. They get smoother and hilly-er.

6:30 AM 10/24/12 Nurse checks Kelly's Cervix and it's at 10!  The midwife comes by and says it's now or never. Let's have a baby!  She asks the nurse to show Kelly how to do some practice pushes while she makes the rounds.  The nurse casually started making preparations   She then sauntered over to Kelly and asked me to hold one of Kelly's legs, the nurse held the other, and she said push like you're pooping.  That's something they don't always tell you, apparently when they say push it feels like you're pooping.  (And I heard it's normal that some ladies in fact DO poop.  My wife was relieved that she did not, but if you do it's no big deal to the nurses.)  I guess that the fear ladies have of actually pooping sometimes makes the labor go way longer.  So ladies, make like you're pooping and lay caution to the wind.  At any rate on her first PRACTICE PUSH the babies head comes out a little bit!   The nurse hurriedly makes more preparations, but grabs her phone and calls the midwife back.  It really took not longer than 16-20 pushes to get the baby out.  The midwife was fantastic and when the babies head came out, she told Kelly WAIT, and then like a ninja she unwrapped the cord which very quickly had gotten tight around the babies neck. 


6:45 AM 10/24/12 Madeline was born.  The moment she emerged I was completely overwhelmed. Speechless, literally speechless.  Frozen, jaw dropped.    It was surreal to see her little face, arms, legs.  Here's a person, a whole new person.  I remember thinking, "She has a face, I don't know that face, this is so weird."  I am overjoyed.  I am completely beside myself.  I am frozen.  I am completely useless to speak or do anything.  It is such an emotionally over-driven experience that I think I may have had a momentary out-of-body experience.  The nurses and midwife worked with speed and precision during the delivery.  It was like one of those super-fancy restaurants where the work is like a choreographed dance.  Thankfully they were so good because I was completely useless.  Even if I did manage to cut the cord, with excellent direction from the midwife, and after it stopped pulsing.  Dudes, the cord takes a couple snips cause it's kind of rubbery.. or rather like the toughness of cooked Octopus.  Just FYI.  Okay this is all blurry but I think this is how it transpired after that...

Right after she was born they gave Madeline to Kelly, and she rested the little baby on her chest and held her.  They sucked some fluids from Madeline's nose, and whatnot, made sure the baby was breathing.  Madeline was a little choked up too, but crying and breathing fine, so the nurses left the room so that Kelly could have a moment with the baby and try to breast feed her.  Madeline was born with a lot of hair.  She was pink.  They said she might be blue or white or other colors, but she was normal and pink. Not all covered in blood or anything.

A bit later the nurses came back in, and brought the baby to a little heat lamp area in our room.  I went with and observed.  They gave her a thorough inspection, counting fingers and toes.  Weighed her, measured her, and gave her two shots. Vitamin K, and Hepatitis B. Baby cried only for a moment.  She really didn't cry all that much and was calm and alert.  She had a full head of sandy blond or red hair, weighed 6 lbs 8 oz, and measured 21.5 inches from crown to toes.

I thank a higher power that everything worked out so well in the end.   But even more I thank my wife for being both strong and flexible during possibly the longest 24 hrs of our lives.

Madeline Celia Levy

We are happy to report that yesterday morning (October 25th 2012) a healthy Madeline Celia Levy was born to Kelly Levy and David Levy (AKA Dave Strand). She weighed in at 6 1/2 lbs, 20.25 inches, pink flesh and a full head of sandy blonde hair! Both of us are so very thankful to see our little girl enter this world. She is very healthy and we are now at home adjusting to this new life! (ALSO, Dave's iPhone completely died so no calls will come through there. This is so taxing, so we will be checking-out for a while to concentrate and create good times.) For those attending Nightmare on Main Street Kelly encouraged Dave to still play the show, so he is going to be rushed there to perform a set and then rushed on back to the baby! Here's a picture of her at day 1.5 after we got her home.