Scott Desmond Leavitt

A mere two days after my last post, our little boy arrived! Scott is a name we had liked for a long time; we had actually planned on giving that name to Nathan for a while. Near the end of my pregnancy, it just started to seem more right. And once he was born, we were sure. Also, Scott was one of the top performers on my highly scientific Facebook poll. :) His middle name, Desmond, is my paternal grandfather, who turned 90 this year!

And now for the story of his birth! You may recall that with both of my previous births, my water broke in the middle of the night and that was what got things going. Well, Scott was no different! I still have no idea what it's like to be timing contractions and wondering if I'm in labor or not. My water breaks and we go to the hospital!

This time, however, I knew that my water breaking didn't mean I was suddenly going to start having a ton of contractions and the baby would come right away. So we took our time getting things ready. I took a shower, did my hair, and put on some makeup so I could actually look decent for pictures this time. :) We even waited until our boys were awake. We got them ready for the day and then took them over to a neighbor who had volunteered to watch them in just such a case as this. We stopped and got an early breakfast, which I was very glad about later since I didn't get to eat for a long time after that.

When we arrived at the hospital around 7:00, I was only dilated to a 3. I was having regular contractions, but they were not very strong. So we waited to see how things would progress. With the other two, my labor was only about 10 hours from water breaking to baby being born, so we were expecting something similar in this case. That would put him being born around 2 in the afternoon. Well, the next time they checked me, around noon, I had only dilated to a 4.

I had wanted to avoid Pitocin this time if possible, but my dang body just doesn't seem to know how to get babies here within the 24-hour time limit that your water breaking imposes (to avoid the risk of infection). So I got started on a very low dose, which did basically nothing. They kept slowly increasing it, and by 7:30 in the evening, I was finally dilated....to a 6. :( It was just going so slowly and I was exhausted from having been up for 14 hours and contracting all day. I also hadn't eaten anything since our quick drive-thru breakfast, in case we had to do a c-section, and I was so hungry and feeling really weak. I had gotten an epidural to help me through it, but I was still just having a really hard time. So I said a little prayer asking for help to endure it, and asking that things would start progressing a little better if possible.

A little after 8, I asked the nurse if she would check me again, even though it hadn't been very long since the last time. She obliged, and discovered that I was suddenly at a 9! She called the doctor to come back in; he'd gone home to get dinner since it didn't look like I was having the baby anytime soon. He only lives about 5 minutes from the hospital, but before he got back I was already feeling the urge to push. As soon as he arrived he told me to go for it! So I did! :) As soon as the next contraction hit, I pushed, took another deep breath, and pushed again. And there was my baby!

They immediately put him up on my chest and I just started sobbing. Not just from the sweet relief of it all being over, but from this sweet little miracle finally being there in front of my face. They had to take him away pretty quickly because he wasn't breathing very well, but that got better soon and then they brought him back and let us snuggle skin-to-skin while the doctor stitched me up. It was such a beautiful time. Too bad my tears ruined any chance of me actually looking nice for pictures like I had wanted. But it was worth it. :)

Scotty is the most perfect angel of a baby we could ask for! He was 18.5 inches long and weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces. He sleeps fairly well and is so much fun to watch when he's awake. He inherited his father's enormous eyes and has lots of dark hair, just like Alex and Nathan did when they were new. He also has really long alien fingers and toes. Basketball or piano, perhaps? ;) To my great relief, he was not nearly so jaundiced as our other two and we didn't have to have him under the bili lights at all. That made things so much easier with the first few nights at home.

I am a mother of three! I'm pretty sure I won't be on time for anything the next few months, and I forget things almost the instant I hear them, but life is good.

And now, a million pictures!

Welcome to our family, Scotty D!