Jonathan's Birth Story

Introducing Jonathan Levi.

Born Sept 16, 2014 at 5:57am

9lb, 4oz    21'' long

He's named after his late Grampa, John. With a "th" added to make Gramma smile (because all our kind unintentionally share the "th"). And his middle name is a complicated version of his Daddy's middle name, Mathew. Because Daddy is a complicated man and knows his Scriptures well enough to know the disciple Matthew also went by the name Levi.

********************************************

On to Jonathan's birth story...

Tuesday morning, Sept 16, we welcomed our fourth child into the world in a very unexpected way. Certainly not the way I imagined it! Here's the full story. But a word of warning, there may be a bit TMI for some of you. It is a birth story, after all ;)

Back up to Friday. I had a 41 week sonogram, where baby scored a 6/8 and worried my midwife a bit. She wanted him out within 48 hours. So stripped my membranes (for a 2nd time) and started me on a regiment of tinctures. They tasted horrible, and after two days (and 8 hours) of taking them, with zero signs of labor, she had me give up. And she called her back-up OB to get his opinion and give him notice that she had a stubborn baby that needed an eviction asap... 

Monday I saw the OB. He was very nice and wasn't too terribly concerned about the slightly lower score on baby's 41 week sonogram. But he agreed that the baby needed to be evicted sooner than later. He scheduled me for an induction Tuesday morning at 6am.

After examining me, the doctor was floored that I had not yet given birth. He couldn't explain it. He understood my desire to have a home birth and so he stripped my membranes (for the 3rd time). I didn't have any side effects that time... and almost zero discomfort. Not a good sign...  Because of the sonogram results, being late term, and having stripped membranes, the doctor put me on a fetal monitor for a half hour. And the baby did awesome. Again, the doctor was confused - baby had almost no signs of being such a late term baby. Yay! The doctor had me sign in at hospital admissions office and then sent me on my way and gave a 50% chance of seeing me at the hospital in the morning. 

So, in a last ditch effort to try anything to get this stubborn boy born naturally, I tried castor oil... again. I said I'd never take that stuff again. Never say never.... I took 2oz, twice (5 hours apart) last Monday and nothing happened. So this time I tried 3oz. 

I took my castor oil milkshake about 2pm on Monday. By 4pm, I was regretting it. haha! It worked well this time around... So well, I wondered why people pay so much for weight loss or colon cleansing potions - castor oil is just $2 ;)   

Anyways, by 8pm I was empty but still cramping and there was not a single sign of a contraction... My midwife told me I could take a 2nd dose of castor oil... But I couldn't bring myself to do it, I was still a bit too uncomfortable from the first dose... So I went to bed, knowing it would be an early & busy morning. I couldn't fall asleep until about 11:30pm, though. And at 1am, I woke to mild back labor. Nothing new, unfortunately. After 3+ weeks of false labor, I'd learned to wait at least an hour before calling my midwife. So I got something to eat and curled up on the couch to nap. 

By 2am, the back labor was gone. And contractions started on the right side of my belly only. Ug... I assumed they were braxton hicks since they were one sided and varied in time from 3-6 minutes apart. They also didn't last more than 45 seconds. I assumed it was more false labor.... 

By 3am, the one sided contractions stopped and new contractions started. They were relatively mild, and I couldn't tell if they were contractions or kickbacks from the castor oil.... Since they varied in time from 4-10 minutes apart, I was just left confused... 

I was feeling a bit of stress to figure out what was going on in my body.  We needed to leave for the hospital in 2 hours. So, unable to sleep/relax, I took a bath. And the contractions continued to be very irregular and not painful. Boo.

At 4:20am, Jacob's alarm went off and I started to get ready for the hospital. But my contractions were getting worse, some stopping me in my tracks for a second. But, again, they were irregular and not longer than 45 seconds. More confusion.... so I called the midwife.

My midwife asked me what my gut said, and I hadn't a clue. I was confused. I still wasn't sure if it was false labor, castor oil or the real thing. So she asked me to wait 30 minutes and see what happened, then call her back. 

I waited 25 minutes, but it was time to leave for the hospital and I couldn't wait longer... In that 25 minutes, I had 10 contractions and they were barely increasing in strength. I looked over at Jacob, who was ready to leave for the hospital, and tried to make him decide what we should do. It certainly didn't feel like I was in labor, but I didn't want to get to the hospital to learn we were 7cm and could have stayed home... I also didn't want all this to stop on it's own and regret missing our induction date, knowing baby had to come out that day. We decided to see if one more contraction came in the same time frame as the last few (every 2.5 minutes). It did. So we called the midwife to come over. And called the hospital to cancel our induction. The whole time I'm thinking, "this is crazy... I'm still not sure if I'm in labor!" That was 5:20am.

Around 5:35ish, the contractions got worse. FAST! I was very much regretting not being at a hospital where I could have had an epidural. Because things intensified so quickly, I was certain this was the START of labor and I was just 5cm. I was sure I had hours to go. And that thought was the hardest part of the pain. I only remember 2 really bad contractions. After the 2nd, I ran to the bathroom. The castor oil was working again. I wasn't in there a minute (that I recall) when I heard keys jingling, my midwife had arrived and was asking if I could make it to the bed. No way. I was stuck. 

My midwife checked in on me. I stood up and there was a little blood in the toilet. Great sign. But I didn't realize how good of a sign. I couldn't walk, so I sat back down while my midwife prepped the bed for delivery (because the birth pool had only 6'' of water in it by now - remember, everything started FAST, there was no time to prepare!). While she worked, I tried to think about how I'd get off the toilet... That's when I reached down and felt the baby's head!! I was in a relieved panic. Relieved that I wasn't just starting labor, but paniced because I'm sitting on a toilet giving birth!! The last place I wanted to be (well, besides Walmart)... I think I had to say something twice before I was heard, "The baby's coming!" I was just too terrified I think, unable to shout.  

Within seconds, my midwife had the bathroom floor covered with the big absorbent pads. I remember thinking that she was paving a way for me to walk to the bed, so I lifted my hips off the seat, leaning them forward and I hear, "Baby's out!" And a gush of relief went through my body.  Then it started to sink in... I just had a baby in the bathroom!!! 

Poor little guy will always be known as the boy born on a john. Guess it's fitting that we named him Jonathan. His Grampa John sure would have gotten a kick out of that. Well, he would have groaned at the joke ;)  Maybe Jonathan will take pride in it one day, that would be such a boy thing to do ;)

My midwife checked the baby out, and we took our time waiting for the cord to stop pulsing. Then Daddy did the honors and cut his son's cord. Someone took the baby - the nurse assisting my midwife? Jacob? I really don't remember. It was all a crazy fog. And I waddled to the bed.

Jonathan was born at 5:57am. My midwife figured it was approximately 14 minutes of active labor, transition and delivery. If only I had known those two horrible contractions were my body reaching 10cm, I never would have run to the bathroom. And I would have been much more calm in the face of excruciating pain had I known it was just for a second. But I was just convinced I was in the first stage and had a long road ahead! Oh well. We got a crazy story to tell out of it...  

Jacob found Faith not long after the birth. She'd woken up and was (oddly) laying on the couch. So she got to be the first sibling to meet her baby brother! Strangely enough, we didn't wake anyone with the delivery - not even with my midwife and her nurse coming in our house. Everyone slept through it.

After some clean up and stuff, the other kids came in to meet their new brother. Ruthie did a little dance/cheer that was adorable as she sang "baby brother!, baby brother!". She loved the idea of being a big sister, too! And Nathan was tickled! He went to school telling everyone he had a new baby brother.

My midwife's nurse assistant checked out baby Jonathan after he'd had some time with mommy and daddy. She did all the tests they do in the hospital. He got a 9 and a 9 on his apgar tests (equal or better than all our other hospital born babies). And all others tests were completely normal!  

Both the nurse and midwife were amazed that Jonathan didn't look or act like a 41week, 4 day old baby. Apparently late term babies tend to have breathing irregularities and leathery skin? Our baby was perfect! And we're certain of dates... so God just knew he needed a little extra time to bake :)

Jonathan weighed 9lb, 4oz at birth. And was 21'' long.

Here he is with my amazing midwife!

And an equally amazing, but exhausted, Daddy!

Everyone got turns to hold the baby as the morning progressed.

Big sister is in love with him. Day two, she woke to an alert baby brother and apparently ran to him and exclaimed "Baby brother, do you know how special you are?!" aww!

And little big sis, Ruth, adores Jonathan too! So far there's been no apparent jealousy. But then again it has only been three days and Gramma is here to spoil and distract the bigs ;)  She leaves in the morning and then the real tests begin.

I think the kids get frustrated sometimes because they love holding their baby brother but most of the time when they're ready to hold him, he's not ready to be held. He's a very slow eater (1-2 hours) at a time. Although today, he's picked up his pace a bit - yay! And he's a pretty good napper, too. In fact, he's in no hurry for anything really. Imagine that... after all he was 11 days late. Although once he made up his mind he couldn't have been more speedy! 

My midwife dressed Jonathan in a little onsie that says "I'm special, I was born at home".

And a sweet little hat to cover his horns. Yes, horns. Its hard to get a photo of them.... I'm not sure if you can tell in this photo or not?

None of our other kids really had cone heads. But Jonathan has two bumps on his head. My midwife said they're bruises due to how fast he was delivered. She recommended some things to help and said they'll go away in a week or two. 

So that's Jonathan's birth story. Would I do it again? In a heart beat! IF I wanted to have more babies. However, I am done; no more pregnancies for me!! But if God decides to play a dirty trick on me, I'll call my midwife again and plan another home birth! And that time, we'll get a heated tub and keep it filled and ready to go at the drop of a hat. ha ha

Speaking of birthing tubs... I've heard from many moms that a birthing tub is better than an epidural. I can kind of believe it after Tuesday. But I still would have liked to have experienced it. Call me crazy. It certainly would have been better than giving birth on a toilet! ha ha  

We've had the tub set up in our room since I was 36 weeks along. We fully expected baby to come early. Little stinker. Our bedroom feels empty without the tub now. But here's a few funny pics of it. Jacob and I had a mini photography lesson so he could learn to use the camera in the low light and get the picture I was hoping for. Little did we know we'd end up with almost no time for photos, and certainly not time to be sure we got good ones! But I thought you'd think our test photos were funny anyways, he played in the tub while I played with the camera settings. ;)

Well, they make me laugh at least!

So if you're still reading this, I'm impressed.

We had quite the birth experience and I wish I'd had home births before baby #4! Midwives rule! If you're pregnant, I encourage you to check into a local midwife - regardless if you're planning a hospital, birthing center or home birth. What a great experience it is! Far surpasses OBs on so many levels! And I never ever ever thought any of this would be something I'd do!!! 

Never say never :D

Baby #4 Update

I'm 41 weeks pregnant today. Can you sense the excitement in my words? I never thought I'd be this late. We were all certain baby would be here by the end of August. Guess he's stubborn. But I'm more stubborn. I will win. He will not stay inside much longer.

This was me at 38 weeks.

We had a sonogram today. It's standard procedure at 41 weeks, to be sure baby and placenta are all ok and it allows the doctor or midwife to decide if it's safe to keep waiting as long as 42 weeks, or if they should induce right away. The placenta looks good. And fluid levels are fine. But baby didn't do as great on his test. A perfect score is an 8. 4 means trouble. Baby got a 6. He lost a point for lack of movement - which is NORMAL for him that time of day. He's a mover and a shaker, but only during certain times of day and at the time of my sonogram, he's usually sleeping... I wish I'd known he was expected to perform, I would have downed a chocolate shake before the appointment ;)  So, anyways, my midwife isn't concerned about losing a point for not moving much. But he lost the other point because he's "breathing" more than he should be. I didn't know, till this pregnancy, that babies practice their breathing while in the womb, and our little guy is a bit too good at that trick. My midwife said it's actually a good thing. It means he's very ready to come out! The bad part comes in waiting much longer, because babies this ready tend to start declining in health in the next 48+ hours if not born. So we have 48 hours to have a baby. If he continues to be disobedient, my midwife will call her backup OB Sunday night and schedule an induction or csection at the hospital. Which I'd much rather avoid!

Here's some photos from our sonogram. Disappointed? Yeah, us too. We knew we'd see very little because he's squished in there. But I had no clue we'd not be able to make out anything! The tech said it's because his bones are denser now and cast shadows. Interesting.

On the left is his heart, on the right is the top of his head.

Baby is measuring right on schedule, and guesstimated at 9lbs even. We shall see if the sonogram machine is right - I've never met a mom who was told anything even close to the actual weight of her baby based on a sonogram. I hope it's right. I really don't want a 10pounder! And this late in, that's my fear.

The tech was unable to get a picture of the baby's face, as he's in the proper birthing position, head engaged and facing downward. Don't get too excited. He's been in that position for 5 weeks now. Yeah, that's not a typo. FIVE weeks. We had good reason to think he'd be here by now, huh?

Baby just hasn't been ready. Or maybe mommy's been too stressed? Maybe both. My body is more than ready. Without getting into all the TMI details, lets just say my midwife said she hasn't seen a cervix as ripe as mine in years. So what's the hold up, buddy?!

I've had whats called prodromal labor for 3 weeks now. It's more than braxton hicks, its real labor. That just stops for no reason. Almost nightly I have contractions that are 5 minutes apart for 2 hours, and then stop, regardless of how I try to keep it going (and I've tried just about everything). This last week all has been eerily quiet though... making me wonder that maybe next time it starts up, it'll be the real thing?

Monday night I took castor oil. Uh huh, I was desperate. It's one of the two things I hadn't yet tried. Castor oil milkshakes... not so yummy. And the 2nd one tastes worse than the first. Lucky for me, or unlucky, not much happened. I had contractions for a while that evening and then all stopped. No explosions. But I did have an interesting conversation with the cashier who asked me why I was buying castor oil. What is up with nosy cashiers!? Do they really want to know about their customers bowel movements?!?

Anyways, all has been too quiet since Monday night. Baby is moving at his normal times, and no weird symptoms for me. So all is well in that regard. For that, we're grateful! But Gramma came to meet, and help, with baby. And her flight is scheduled to leave tomorrow - and still no baby. Did I mention stress? No pressure.

So I met with the midwife again today and she's no longer a happy lady. She had her game face on. She's serious today. Baby WILL come this weekend. Or else. She left me with a boat load of "goodies" to take every 15 minutes. Awful tasting stuff that should kick-start labor. It's the last thing I haven't tried. So, bottoms up.

My midwife said once I'm having good contractions, she will break my water. It's kind of her last resort. The most severe thing she can safely do for a home birth. But, unlike OBs, she won't do it till labor has begun. I'm 4cm, bag of waters is bulging and baby is at the 0 station, so I'm right there on the edge - hopefully these tinctures push me over and baby comes fast tonight.

So if you're reading this and haven't heard yet that there's a newborn in our family, would you say a prayer for baby and I? That I can relax, labor starts soon, and baby comes safe and fast. Pray for the kids and Gramma, too ;)

Hopefully I'll be sharing photos tomorrow of the 6th member of our family :D

Nathan's First Day of Kindergarten

The day finally arrived. The day Nathan's been looking forward to for months - his first day of Kindergarten! He wakes up in the morning like his mommy... SLOWLY. But today, I went in to wake him and he literally bounced out of bed and got dressed in his new uniform quickly! He downed his Raisin Bran as fast as possible and was ready to leave before anyone else. 

(uniform logos removed digitally for safety reasons)

Nathan got to meet his teacher last Friday. She asked us to bring all his school supplies then, and leave his backpack there for the weekend. So he doesn't have his backpack for that traditional first day of school picture. But that didn't damper the excitement!

When we got to school, we walked him in and he wasn't too shy. He greeted his teacher by name and shook her hand, then posed for a photo before giving us the "look" that said, "you can all leave now."

As you can see, Nathan is almost as tall as his teacher! She's a sweet woman who taught elementary and was a principal for many years. She retired a few years ago, and when her grandson was preparing for kindergarten (last year), she remembered how much she enjoyed teaching that age. All his 4 year old friends ended up coming over to learn from her, too. So she told God, "if you want me to get back to teaching, give me a sign." She said that Sunday morning, a woman she didn't know came up to her and said, "I heard you use to be a teacher, we have an opening at the school, would you be interested in applying?" I sure wish God was that clear with all life's decisions!

So Nathan's teacher has come out of an 8 year retirement just to teach this class. She claims to have no life and not need the money, so she told parents that all her time, and her paycheck, will just go back to the 10 kids in her class! Yup - 10 kids! That's IT! How awesome is that? Not to mention an awesome teacher with the wisdom from 30+ years of teaching and the excitement of a brand new college graduate :)  Nathan's going to have an awesome year!

Faith and Ruth, on the other hand.... they missed their brother a lot today. But they're learning to play on their own and will become best buds. Ruth already thinks Faith is THE BEST GIFT EVER. She adores her brother, but she is mesmerized by her big sister! They'll have a fun year together. And then there's baby brother... he's due any moment now and sure will add some chaos, I mean joy, to our busy schedule :)

Happy first day of Kindergarten to Nathan and all his friends!

Nathan's 6th Birthday Party

Nathan recently turned SIX!

He is really into ninjas and legos. He loves the reality TV show "American Ninja Warrior", it's an obstacle course that "real ninjas" run through, it's a competition. Family friendly and he enjoys rooting for the guys and gals that compete. He also loves Ninjago - Lego's version of ninjas. So we decided to have a "American Ninjago Warrior" themed birthday party.

 

 

 

 

Because it's summer in south Texas, no one would want to run an obstacle course during the day! So we had an evening party, and made outside time the last thing we did. First - it was pizza dinner!

 

Nathan's table was decorated with ninjas and some of the lego creations he's made recently.

 

 

Then we pulled out black t-shirts for all the kids and turned them all into little ninjas. You can google how-to on you tube. It's super easy. A lot harder to get the kids to keep it on right though ;)

 

 

 

 

So the idea of ninja masks was grand in my head. Not so great when you get a group of kids to wear them. They looked more like a mini Taliban than ninjas. haha! But they LOVED it!

 

Later it was time for the obstacle course!

The kids started on the swing-set and had to cross without touching the ground.

 

Then the mushroom caps (buckets of different sizes) that the kids had to walk across.

 

The sandbox was meant to be a "spider jump", but the kids chose to walk the sides

instead of jump to the seats in the corners.

 

There was a balance beam.

 

And a climbing wall (thanks, Daddy!)

 

And the big balls to jump, run, or climb across.

 

Then off to the tunnel

 

And the pool noodle hurdles.

 

Finally, they climbed the mountain and ended their run!

 

Here's a few fav pics of Nathan's friends running the course.

 

 

After the obstacle course, it was time to cool off with cake and ice cream!

 

Mommy attempted another challenging cake... and the cake won this year.

It was a bit of a mess... But Nathan still loved it!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

 

I attempted to put ninjas inside each cake. As I said... challenging cake, and the cake won.

I really wanted a photo of all 3 ninjas clearly in the cakes, but I messed it... but, the kids still thought it was cool! And I learned some tricks in the process, so maybe I'll try it again another time. And maybe not ;)

 

The kids all loved the cake, Nathan was so proud.
And it tasted good, too. So all was not lost.

Except Nathan begged me to make him a lemon cake. His favorite color is yellow and he loves lemons... but apparently not lemon cake. Whats up with my kids asking for a certain cake and then not eating it? Faith did the same thing last year when she asked for apple pie instead of cake, and then chose to eat a cupcake instead. ha ha

 

After cake and ice cream, it was time for presents!

Nathan got a bunch of lego kits - he's put almost all together now. Some of them he's done 100% on his own. He's getting really good at following directions and being creative. Not so good at keeping the legos off the floor for mommy's bare feet to find...

 

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY BIG BROTHER!

Tooth Fairy

The Tooth Fairy has been visiting our house a lot lately. And, the dentist has warned us that there will be many more visits before the year is over!

 

 

After much drama, and three days of trying, Faith lost her first tooth on June 6th!

 

 

 

And it wasn't long, at all, before her big girl tooth took over. In fact, you could see the tips of it when we wiggled her baby tooth.

 

 

 

Faith had a dentist appointment recently, and we learned that big girl tooth #2 is even more impatient! Can you see in the xray, her baby tooth has a long root still, but that big girl tooth is getting close to the surface! So she's going to have to have that baby tooth extracted... The sort of good news is the dentist doesn't have to waste the sedation on just one extraction.... Faith has a couple very small cavities, in between her molars... She also has something called hypoplasia on two teeth - they're yellow, rougher and softer, the enamel never formed properly. We've been watching them for over a year now. Our pediatrician said it could be due to a high fever she had as a baby? Dentist said it could be due to a high fever I had when pregnant with her? Neither every happened though... so no one really knows. We do know that one tooth will be fine, it'll fall out before ever causing trouble. But the one molar already is susceptible to cavities. And the dentist said she'll have that tooth for as much as 5 more years. So, while Faith is sedated, that dentist will pull a baby tooth, fix the cavities and seal her hypoplasia molar. Poor girl doesn't have a clue what's coming...

 

Oh, and Faith has one more weird thing with her teeth - poor girl got the short end of the straw as teeth are concerned! Her upper left lateral incisor (between front tooth and canine) is appearing to be cone shaped... It should be flat. It could be a bad angle on the xray. So we're hoping and praying that's it. But if not, it's not a huge deal... she'll just have a cone tooth for a few years until it's in far enough to fix. But it'll be a year or more, most likely, before we even see that tooth come in.

 

 

 

Then there's Nathan! He lost tooth #4 just 3 weeks after Faith (June 23). His first came out October 13, 2013. The boy has no top teeth now, although his one big boy tooth is slowing poking in.

 

 

No front teeth has not stopped Nathan from eating his favorite food though - corn on the cob.

He's determined!

 

 

Even when it means getting the side of his face covered in butter ;)

The dentist said Nathan has 2 loose teeth, too! One should come out within the month, the other may take longer. The dentist also says his molars are almost in far enough to seal, so they'll do that at his next appointment in January.

 

 

And, of course, no one can forget about adorable Miss Ruthie Bear. This was her 2nd trip to the dentist. The first time, she laid on my lap while the dentist just counted teeth. This time, though, she decided she wanted to sit in the big chair! She liked the apple glasses, too!

 

 

No cavities or loose teeth for Ruth (whew!). She's doing great!

Her second set of molars are coming in, too! A little late, but that's ok :)

Soon she'll have a full set of 20 baby teeth. I'm a little worried about how close her teeth are together, the dentist said that just means she'll probably need braces one day.... yay.

 

 

 

 

Mommy & Daddy got A+s from the dentist, too. 4 out of 5 without cavities isn't bad, I guess... poor Faith though! Pray for her, we haven't yet made her appointment for the extraction/filling/sealing. But I probably should get on that before baby comes....