Introducing Levi Thomas Dean part ii

Well, for you to get the whole story we have to start from the beginning.

It all started about 9 months ago when.... just kidding :)

Friday, April 8, I headed to work just like any other day that week. I went to the bathroom as soon as I got there and there was a lot of blood in the toilet. I called the Dr to let her know and just see if it was something to be worried about, which it wasn't, and went on with my day. Throughout the day every time I went to the bathroom there was something not quite right. When I got home that day Barret and I just hung out and waited for Daddy to get home from work. We had Lemon Pepper chicken for dinner and baked potatoes, which were yummy! After dinner we headed to Menards and Home Depot to look at paint swatches for our new place. I felt fine, but at the same time, I just felt like something was a little off.

We headed home, put Barret to bed and of course, I baked a dozen cookies, which I ate all but 3 (and I wondered where all my weight gain was coming from), and Steve and I sat down on the couch to watch a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother, this seems to have been our routine for the past couple of weeks and was becoming less and less enjoyable each night and a lot shorter for me. I got up to go to bed about 8:45pm and had no problem falling asleep.

About 11pm I woke up to use the bathroom and get a drink of water. Headed back to bed, when I woke up at 1:00am. Steve had fallen asleep on the couch so I turned the TV off, went to the bathroom, and grabbed a drink of water. As I sat down in bed to lay back down I felt this sudden gush. I thought, was that my water? I just went to the bathroom, it couldn't have been pee. I laid in bed for a minute to see if any pain came, I didn't want to wake up Steve and go to the hospital for no reason. About fifteen minutes later I felt this horrible pain in my left side and it wasn't going away. I went out to the living room and woke up Steve. "Can you call your sister? I think my water broke, but I'm not sure, and I'm in a lot of pain." He was very quick to call and get things ready. Of course Barret heard us up and walking around the house and he wanted in on the action. He came out into the living room with his blanket and his Bear and we just kept telling him that everything was going to be okay and that he needed to go back to sleep. Chelsey got to the house and we said our goodbyes and our I love you's to Barret.

When we arrived to the hospital my contractions were clocking in at 5 minutes apart. By the time I was all hooked up and getting 'comfortable' they were already between 3 and 4 minutes; this was about 2:45am. When they checked my cervix I was dilated to a 4 (if you remember I was stretched to a 3 on Thursday at my appointment)! Yay, I was excited because it seemed to be moving along quickly already.

Around 3am they moved me to the tub so I could try laboring in there. 'Try' is the key word here. I don't know if I thought something magical would happen by me being in the tub or if I was just kidding myself, but every ounce of me was expecting to have little to no pain when I got into the tub. WRONG, I was. The tub did help ease the pain I'm sure, but I was still very uncomfortable. (I'm going to advise bringing along little floatation devices to set on the bottom of the tub to make it a little more comfortable, to anyone who is interested lol). I wasn't in the tub too long before my contractions were right on top of one another. The nurse came in and checked me about 4ish and I was almost a 7! Yikes! This is when the pain put me into tears. I was ready to be done, and I kept telling Steve I couldn't do it and I didn't want to do it and I actually was making a lot of yelling noises which I didn't think people really did :) I decided, or rather finally said out loud, that I needed to get the epidural. After about a 10 minute walk from the tub to the bed, which were only a few feet away, I didn't think I was going to make it. The nurse checked me and I was an 8, the anesthesiologist was not happy with me and did his job as quickly as he could, given I couldn't relax and I was contracting nonstop. He kept arguing with the nurse about how I shouldn't have waited so long and that the nurse should have done this and should have done that because it was only going to take him longer now to do what he needed to do. I finally yelled and told him to shut up, then gracefully apologized. It was kind of awkward and not me at all, but I was about to give birth and in a ton of pain, so it was okay right? After he finally left and my entire right side was numb, and my left side was just a tad numb aside from the severe pain I was feeling in my pelvic bone, I looked at the nurse and said you need to call the doctor, I feel like I need to push. I was a 9 and ready to go. At this point it was almost 6am. I thought the baby was going to just plop out right there with no doctor to catch, no nurse to clean him up, no nothing. I wasn't ready, but he was, and I was nervous and trying to hold him in (if that's even possible).

My doctor was the one on call for the weekend which made me even more excited, but when the nurse came in and told me she couldn't make it because of child care I was a little more than upset. I wanted to cry, but there was nothing I could do about it. This baby was coming and a different Dr. one that I don't know and had never heard of was on her way to deliver my baby. She arrived about 6:10 and we began pushing. I pushed through about 4 contractions and she looked at me and said she would be back after filling out my paperwork. The baby wasn't visible except for a small portion of his head. She told me to sit and wait it out a little bit so he could work his way down a little more or I could keep pushing to help alleviate some of the pain I was feeling on my pelvic bone. I opted to keep pushing, even though it was only making me more tired, but the pain I was feeling was absolutely horrible.

The nurse stayed in with me to help guide me, but I felt completely alone and like I was doing it all myself. Around 6:30 they came in and concluded that the baby was facing the wrong way and he was a little on the left side at a weird angle (explaining the horrible pain I was having in my pelvic bone). He was stuck there and his head just wouldn't adjust. The Dr. called my Dr to let her know what was happening and that I was still pushing. My Dr. was going to be in at 7am and all I had to do was wait it out. During that wait time the shifts were changing and I was assigned a new nurse, who I loved and was so helpful during the rest of the delivery. She coached me through each contraction and held quite the interesting conversation with Steve all at the same time. Nothing like talking about beer and coffee in the delivery room :)When my Dr. finally arrived at about 7:15, I thought I was going to lose it. I was so tired and so ready to be done, I asked if she could just pull him out with the forceps (which I had already asked the nurses prior to do so too; clearly joking but being serious all at the same time) She felt what was going on and reached in with her bony fingers and turned him the right way. I pushed through four contractions and there he was. Levi Thomas Dean Gaffney made his way into the world at 7:43am crying and screaming already. As soon as Daddy cut the cord he peed on me and the Dr. It was really a great way to introduce himself :)

He was perfect, and both Steve and I looked at each other and said he looked just like his big brother Barret. They wrapped him up and put him on my chest so I could get a good look at him and he just laid there crying and wailing. For a moment I felt like I didn't know what was going to happen or how I was ever going to get him to stop crying. I felt like I had never done this before. They took him away to get him cleaned up and warm and when they handed him to Steve my heart just melted. He looked so perfect in his Daddy's arms, and all of my secret hopes that the baby would magically be a girl, disappeared and I was so excited to see another baby boy. Levi was just perfect and I was so in love with my new little man. When Daddy handed him to me we realized he didn't really look like Barret at all, he had my nose and he had Daddy's eyes, but that was it, he was his own person, his own sweet little individual and he was ours!

The family all arrived just before or just after he was born and took their turns welcoming him into the world. Daddy went home to get Barret and brought him back wearing his 'Big Bro' shirt. He was different than I expected. He was quiet and shy and just wandered into the room looking at me, wondering what on earth was going on. He climbed up in the bed with me and looked at his baby brother. He was so interested in what that little thing was that was wrapped up in a blanket in Mama's arms. Barret kept pulling the blanket away to look at what was underneath and then when Levi would cry or make a noise he would try to cover him back up. I was so happy to see that Barret wasn't scared or upset that Mama had another baby in her arms. I was so excited to see our family of four instead of three. I was so excited to share this wonderful moment with my favorite people in the world.

Barret spent a few hours with us in the hospital later on in the day too. He was more interested in the room than the people in it, and even found a way to drink a cup full of water from the toilet. YUCK!

Levi spent most of the time in the hospital crying, eating, or sleeping (the norm). We cuddled and snuggled and had a great old time in the hospital :)

Levi even slept a straight 6 hours on Sunday night giving Mama a sense of relief. Monday morning we got home from the hospital about 10:15 or so and had a great first day home relaxing and adjusting to our new life as a family of four!

Introducing Levi Thomas Dean!!!

Levi Thomas Dean Gaffney

born 7:43 am

8 lbs 11 oz

21 inches

Happy and Healthy!!!!

More to come later :)

still waiting

Well, if you don't already know, Mama is still here and STILL pregnant. I had my 40 week appointment yesterday and the Dr. was very surprised to see me. She had every expectation of the baby being delivered before that appointment, which made me very much ready each and every day this week; I can only clean the house so many times in expectation of leaving to go to the hospital! As a result of the Dr. appointment I am now dilated to a 3 and the baby is still in position and ready to rumble. Yesterday I was hooked up to the monitor so they could make sure baby was okay. I had mentioned that he wasn't moving a whole lot anymore and really the only thing I would feel of him was his hic-ups and his making me have to go to the bathroom every three minutes. So, they wanted to make sure his heart rate was up and that my body was still making a good home for him. Needless to say, I am still here and there was no emergency induction or c-section, so yes, everyone is fine and it is simply a waiting game! The Dr. had me schedule an appointment for Tuesday to check and make sure things were still on the up and up. She doesn't want me to go more than a week overdue, so we will just see how that goes :) After my appointment yesterday I took Barret in for a check up. He hasn't been himself lately and yesterday morning had a temp of 101 so I thought we had better be safe than sorry. His symptoms describe an ear infection and his Dr. was very disappointed that he didn't have one (he's not crazy, he just wanted to give me a reason for the symptoms :)). We came home after the appointment and lounged around since we both needed some rest according to our Dr.'s and Barret finally fell asleep and took a GREAT nap! When he woke up though he was burning up, so I took his temp again, and it spiked to a 103.5; we filled him with Tylenol and kept giving him water to keep him hydrated and eventually the fever broke and he was as much of a happy camper as you can be when you don't feel the greatest. He did however finally eat something of substance at about 3:30 yesterday, which was the first time in a couple of days, making Mama feel a whole lot better. So, other than that our lives haven't been all that exciting. Mama wakes up about 11 every night and can't sleep and just lays in bed for hours and hours. Barret must sense that I'm not sleeping because the last few nights when I'm up he's up. Last night I went in his room because he was screaming at about 11:30, and I found him standing in the middle of his room. Not sure if he was on his way out or on his way back in to his bed.... It's a mystery. I've been taking half days this week to give me more time to rest and relax before the baby comes and to just give myself more Barret and Mama time. During naps I get a bit antsy though. Wednesday I rearranged the kitchen (counters, cabinets, everything). When Daddy came home he was really confused. Yesterday I packed up some of our clothes and things in the bedroom that we won't be needing until after we move into our new place, and then I rearranged the closet. There hasn't been a dirty dish in the sink for more than a few hours and there hasn't been a full laundry basket for more than a couple of days. I don't know whether I am nesting, being impatient, bored, or simply just trying to make myself nest in hopes that the baby would come sooner....whatever it is, I like it because the house is CLEAN and I LOVE IT! We went to Sam's Club last night to get some groceries and they kept announcing that every adult in the store would get a free gift if they simply came over to the Value table and saw a demonstration. "This free gift is ideal for anyone, especially if you have a cat or a dog," she kept announcing it over and over again..."two minutes to get to the value table and get your free gift. Every adult will receive this gift and it is ideal for cat and dog owners." "one minute...." Eventually she stopped announcing and began her demonstration of this 'new' product. Steve and Barret went over to check it out, just to see what she was trying to promote, and after about 5 minutes of wasting time, they still didn't know what the product was and they hadn't received their free gift. It looked like some sort of carpet stain cleaning rag or something like that based on the set up she had at her table. My only opinion of it is that it was annoying and completely ruined my shopping experience (just kidding, I don't enjoy grocery shopping ever!). Daddy and Barret love going to Sam's though, for the free samples. Last night Barret probably ate and entire breaded cod while we were there. His thing right now is fish; which is actually what he had eaten earlier in the day, so when we saw the breaded cod we were super excited! We each got a sample and Barret ate two out of the three. Daddy went back to get another one for him, Mama went back to get another one for him, and then I'm pretty sure we walked by the booth again and we all got another one, this time Barret ate three out of three. He LOVES it, and the little cup and spoon that comes with is just an incentive! So not only does our boy love water, but he loves the fish that swim in it!

Another beautiful day :)

and it's a no go...

So today was the last day of spring break. As we were making the most of it, I was in the middle of really not feeling well. As you know we have been passing around a bug in our house the past month and apparently I just keep holding on to it....

After first service I went to pick up Barret from Kids Church, and while I was in the toddler room I decided to just stay and sit for a little bit. I really was feeling nauseous and didn't really want to move but I knew I couldn't sit there forever. All of a sudden I had this horrible urge and I started to walk hastily to the bathroom. Unfortunately I didn't make it and threw up right where all of the kids get checked in and out! Lucky for me know parents were there at the moment, just some of the kids workers. I made it to the bathroom where I noticed I felt really wet. Chelsey Wantland came into the bathroom to check on me and I asked her if when your water breaks you have contractions right away. She said that she didn't have them until she got to the hospital and also mentioned that she has heard of people throwing up right before their water broke. Well, not knowing exactly how my body goes into labor on its own since we induced with Barret, we concluded that I was probably going into labor. She went to get Steve and we eventually made it to the hospital. It was a very weird feeling, and we both thought that we were going to be coming home with a baby this week!

We get to the hospital and check in, I change into the beautiful gown that Bromenn offers, sit patiently as they hook me up to the computer, answer all of the silly questions they already have the answers to (in like a million different files), tell them I'm not sure if my water really broke over and over again while they continued to confirm that, yes indeed it did because the wheelchair was wet, and then wait.

Steve and I just sat in the delivery room looking at each other, we hadn't packed, we hadn't prepared anything, neither of us had our phones on us, the baby's crib wasn't set up yet, we didn't have anything, we weren't ready....

The nurse came in again to check and see if my water did break; we concluded that I must have just gone to the bathroom while I was throwing up! Delightful! I was a bit embarrassed since she knew we had a little one already, and I thought of all the people at church who thought I was going into labor...Now my story of having my water break at church and being prayed for before we left the hospital to go have a baby wasn't so Cinderella-y. Instead, I will forever be known as: "the girl who threw up at church!" Wonderful :)

But, we got to come home. We drove back to church after being dismissed and picked up Barret, came home and had lunch, and just relaxed around the house. When Barret woke up from his nap we went for a walk to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner and then grilled a marvelous dinner, pork chops, mashed potatoes, and delicious apples! We gave Barret a bath and then Mama packed her bag for the hospital, we set up the pack-n-play, and we realized that Baby is coming very soon.

So ladies and gents, according to my doctor and the nurse at the hospital it could be anytime now :)

Here are a few photos of Barret pounding an apple after we got back from the store. We took the wagon and so he was nestled in with the groceries on the way home. At first sight of the apple, it was LOVE! He immediately knew what to do and began eating :)

Friday, Day 5

We spent the day at home mostly, after leaving G and G's house around 10. Barret slept in the car and Mama wanted to do just the same. The sun was warm but the snow was a'fallin when we left, making spring feel like it was really never going to show up.

Ms. Tara came over for lunch and we enjoyed her company on our lazy day.

Daddy started working overtime at work this week, so he didn't get home until about 4:30...something we have to start getting used to again.

Then, surprise! Uncle Jason came to visit. We went out to dinner at Maggie Mileys then headed over to Emack and Bolio's to enjoy a delicious waffle cone with some very exquisite ice cream! Mama had Oreo cake batter, which was wonderful! Unfortunately Barret thought so too, and was not interested at all in his Pineapple Sorbet (which has real chunks of pineapple in it!) We threw a fit and Daddy had to take him outside to have a talk. Mama felt pretty bad, but when they came back in Barret thoroughly enjoyed his Pineapple Sorbet and was perfectly content with it :) Uncle Jason got Carmel butter pecan and Daddy had some sort of cookie vanilla-ey ice cream. It was all delicious.

This week, being on spring break, I had two goals:
1. To spend as much time enjoying just Mama and Barret time
2. To finally finish Barret's scrapbook of his first year

Well, number one was as easy as pie. Number two however, was not. But, last night I ended up putting together or finishing about 8 pages (I did three pages on Monday). So now all I have left is a few odds and ends pages that I still don't have the pictures printed for....Wish me luck :)

Wednesday and Thursday

Well, day 3 and 4 of spring break were a lot of fun!

Barret and I woke up a little early on Wednesday and enjoyed our cereal and bananas while we watched 'Word World'. If you are curious what that is, you should look it up, because it is actually very entertaining as well as educational :)

We took a trip to the post office and the park and just soaked up the wonderful weather.

Mrs. KT came over for a little bit too. We all went to lunch at Noodles & Co. for a little something different. We sat outside on the patio and just enjoyed the weather and the deliciousness of our lunches. Barret was quite the handful, but whats new? :)

We hung out on the deck, and I'm pretty sure today was the first day of the whole week that we didn't have to change our clothes multiple times...WOW!

Mama had her weekly Dr. appointment with Dr. Dameron to see how things are coming along with baby and according to her, it won't be long now. She predicts it will be sometime late next week or early the following. We will see :)

On Thursday, we woke up and packed the car to go visit G and G Boehm in Bradford. Mama was doing a Thirty-One show in the area that evening so we decided to just make a day trip out of it. It was pretty cold compared to the rest of the week, and I'm pretty sure I even saw some snow. Barret and Mama both took a nap when we got to their house and just spent the day relaxing. Later on in the afternoon we tried to go outside and play but we didn't last long. After about 20 minutes our cheeks felt frozen! YIKES!

Here are some pictures of Barret saying Hi to Levi! He still doesn't understand that there is a baby in Mama's tummy and I know we are in for a great big shock when baby arrives, but for now Barret loves to pat Mama's tummy :)