This little munchkin was due today, but he made his appearance on Sunday the 17th. I wanted to make sure and write about his birth before all the details get fuzzy, and since Levi has been awake all of 10 minutes this morning and his older brother is sleeping, this is the perfect chance.
When I was pregnant with Hendrik, I never really got to the point where I was ready for him to come. In general, yeah, but he came in a hurry when we thought we still had a few weeks left. I was lucky the hospital bag was packed and the camera battery charged! Nothing else was ready.
So after that I figured I needed to be ready for Levi to come early. We got up to the point where Hendrik had come, and no baby, and then a week later, and no baby... I had figured the timing would be perfect for him to come on Saturday the 9th, or the next day. Well, when he didn't cooperate, I was so sad because Dirk had a very busy work week coming up and it would be hard for him to miss at all. It was just one more thing to be anxious about, along with figuring out where to take Hendrik (different possibilities depending on what day/what time of day it was), and whether or not I'd get to the hospital soon enough or be able to handle the pain of labor and delivery.
All week my students said, "You again??" every day and asked me multiple times when the baby would come. I was pretty irritable about that. Finally we made it to Friday night, and we went out to eat. We were both hoping for a baby over the weekend. Later that night I got sick and felt sick all day on Saturday-- I hoped it was a sign of pre-labor, but it seemed more like a tummy bug. Finally on Saturday night I felt a little better, and after Dirk took me on a walk to help me calm down and not be so anxious, we all went to bed early.
On Sundays we usually get up with just enough time to get dressed and go to the early service at church. As we were driving to church, I felt a painful contraction-- my first one. I figured if there were any more I'd time them. I did, all through the service, and they were 7 minutes apart and getting closer. In a small miracle, my doctor was sitting right in front of us with his family, and after the service I talked to him briefly-- my instructions: call him and go in when the contractions got to be 5 minutes apart. So we went home. I hopped on the treadmill for 30 minutes-- I did not want the contractions to dissipate! After about an hour and a half we were on our way to Hendrik's regular baby-sitter's and the hospital.
Checked in at the hospital-- 12:25. Got wheeled downstairs and found out I was at 7 with a bulging sac. My wonderful doctor came in, broke my water, and said there would be a baby within an hour! I turned down pain medication (hesitantly!), but I don't think it would have really kicked in anyway, because Levi was born 20-30 minutes later at 1:24. That last half hour was quite painful, but it was only half an hour.
For all of my worrying and fretting, Levi arrived on the perfect day-- we made contact with the doctor at church, the baby-sitting was perfect, Dirk was here for everything, and his parents made it just after the baby came to come visit and to take Hendrik home with them for several days. God was so good to us! And I had been so fragile about how he was coming later than Hendrik had (18 days before the due date, while Levi came 8 days early), but you know what? They had exactly the same measurements, except Levi was 1/4" shorter. So he cooked just long enough. I was nervous about the pain of labor and delivery, and it was definitely very painful. But it was short, and God walked me through it. I am so blessed to see God's loving hand in this story.
Since then Levi has been a sleepy head. Hendrik came home on Saturday night and has been talking and talking about the baby. He's been really gentle with him too, except when he tries to use Levi's head as a support to help him climb on the couch. Such is the unglamorous life of a younger sibling.
Welcome, Mr. Levi Thomas! We are thrilled to have you here!