Welcome Levi

Our third son, Levi Jesse Robbins, was born 19 days early on April 6th at 9:59 pm. He weighed 7 lbs, 11 oz. He has plenty of hair, which looks red in some lights, and light brown in others.

The labor started off with my water breaking at 3:40 pm while I was at the park with the boys. I squatted down to help Noah, and then I felt a trickle. I thought, "either I peed my pants or my water broke," but since it was just a trickle with no immediate contractions, I remained calm for another 20 minutes until we got home and I could figure it out better. Still having just occasional trickles at home, I called Kyle and told him to come home right away. Not long after I called Kyle, I had no doubt that my water was broken because it was coming out in gushes, but I was blessed to still not have any contractions because that helped me to stay calm while I arranged for help with the boys, waited for Kyle, ate some food, and packed my bag. Kyle came home and helped me straighten up the house, and then we headed to the hospital at 6:00. It was strange and nice to stroll into the labor and delivery room without any pain. We were in the delivery room for another hour and a half before I felt contractions strong enough to ask for the epidural.

Grandma Diane, Grandma Linda, and Kyle were with me all through the delivery. I was so grateful for their love and support. It was very helpful to have one on each side of me, and one helping from behind.

My neighbors across the street, Grandpa Jesse, and Aunt Megan were so awesome to watch Noah and Jason while we were at the hospital.

Like my other boys, Levi wanted to come out seeing everyone, that is to say, face up. He was far down the birth canal before the doctor realized this, so there was no chance to try and turn him. The doctor gave me an episiotomy to make more room for this presentation. It took about 30 minutes of pushing and then he was born! Levi let us all know that his lungs were functioning well and that he was not happy to be there. He was quite ornery for the first couple of hours, but he was a natural at nursing, which helped calm him down.

It's always a special moment, introducing the older siblings to the new baby. Both boys have been interested in holding Levi and touching his hair. But they quickly figured out that visiting us at the hospital was super awesome because they could get a slushy each time they came, so they visited 3 times! So far Noah has accepted this change better than we expected. He hasn't been at all upset by Levi sleeping in his old crib, even though Noah got emotional when I mentioned it a few weeks before. I know the real test of acceptance will come when no one is around to entertain the boys for me.

Recovering from the delivery has been fairly routine. I was more swollen after Levi than I was with Noah because of the episiotomy. We are so blessed to have lots of help from family. I don't know how we'd survive this recovery period without them.