Birth Story: Levi Edward

{planned home VBAC turned CBAC}

January 4, 2012 {Valerie & Jason welcome their second son, Levi}

Our second little boy arrived just like his older brother! We’d planned a home birth, and ended up with a swollen cervix, and c-section. But thank God my babies came out big, healthy, and perfect! The labor may not have gone as planned but God had His protective hand on us.

At 41 weeks and 4 days, my water broke at 12:15am and contractions came fairly hard and fast right away, about 2 minutes apart from the start. The boys’ room has the cushiest carpet, so we labored in there for a while on the birth ball. Our dog, Bo, stayed close by. Melody Hamm, massage therapist with Heavenly Touch and birth doula, arrived and we quickly found our groove… I’d lean on Jason, and Melody would massage my lower back.

We moved into the tub after a few hours. My birth team worked so hard! All through the night!

Jason is my quiet strength in labor. I am so thankful for his love and support!

We got to 7 cm dilated, but my cervix started to swell. Ugh! Just like my labor with Noah, 3 years ago. My midwife suggested some different labor positions to get the pressure off my cervix.

We moved to our bedroom, but these positions hurt sssssoooooo bad! After a couple hours of SUPER painful labor in the bedroom, I was still 7 cm and swollen. I couldn’t take the pain anymore and felt defeated mentally because of the swelling. I told the team we were going to the hospital!

Unfortunately “checking in” to the hospital as a transfer from home takes about an hour. All the while I was having TERRIBLE contractions still about 2 minutes apart. It’s hard to fill out paper work and talk to the doctor while in such pain. They just had to wait for it to pass. The doctor on call allowed me to get an epidural to see if relaxing my body helped reduce the swelling.

I heart epidurals! Well, after about 3 hours of relaxing in bed with an epidural, there was still no change to my cervix. Levi’s heart rate was a little sporadic as well, and my midwife, doctor, and myself all agreed a c-section was in order. I was clearly fine with it. =)

And look what I got! I couldn’t be happier!

Levi Edward
born on January 4th 2012
at 12:52 pm
8 lbs. 14 oz.
21 3/4″ long

Noah was so excited to come visit his new “baby bwudduh”.

I was so happy to see my “super-boy”. We are all doing great!

THE END

See more of Valerie’s beautiful labor and birth photos here!

The photos above were taken by Valerie’s beautiful & talented friend Alisia Thompson Photography. Valerie herself is also a beautiful & talented birth and family photographer. Be sure to check out her amazing portraits at Valerie Joy Photography!

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