My 35 weeker - updated! 💛 GRAPHIC RAW BIRTH PICS!

Very long so sorry!

On Wednesday the 15th of May (34+5) I had a pretty busy day, my SO (Josh) and I went out to lunch and walked around downtown. I was a little crampy and my back hurt but I thought it was just from walking around so much. We got home and i ran to the store to grab a few things since I was feeling the strong nesting urge that night lol. I got back to the house and cleaned our bedroom and the whole bathroom before laying down because I was getting pretty uncomfortable. Looking back I was definitely in early labor and just didn’t realize because of how early I was!

The next morning I was supposed to work (I nanny a 4 month old) and I had texted her parents letting them know I would still watch her but I was having a lot of Braxton Hicks and I might call and go in to get monitored. They weren’t Braxton Hicks! I called around 11am and was told to come in, so I went by myself. Got there around 11:40 and hooked up to the monitors.

The nurse comes in and asks me if I was feeling any contractions since apparently they were back to back and all I could feel was the tightening. The midwife came in the check me. I was already 3cm and when they swabbed to see if my water had broke it came back positive. It broke and I had absolutely no idea when! Because I wasn’t 36 weeks yet the hospital I planned on delivering at couldn’t keep me since they don’t have a nicu so as long as I didn’t progress over an hour they could transfer me. I called my family and they came to the hospital and my SO was on his way from work at this point.

They came back to check me again and I had progressed to 4cm and 80% effaced so i was unable to get transferred till after my son was born. Labor wasn’t terrible until she had to pop a second bag of water that had been created around where he had dropped into my cervix. Contractions were nonstop and almost unbearable at this point so I had asked for the gas and air, it didn’t do anything so I got the epidural at 6cm 90% effaced at 6:40 that night. I just hung out after that since the pain was gone.

They came back to check me around 11:50 and I was 9cm 100% effaced, she had me push once and we were ready to go!

I pushed for 7 minutes before my 6lb 3oz 19inches long Levi Robert was born at 12:15am on the 17th of May! I tore up a little bit, so I had a couple stitches. He was born 15 minutes into week 35, and after spending 35 minutes on my chest he was moved to get worked on since he was having trouble breathing. He got transferred to Maine medical center at 4am and I was transferred shortly after.

He spent 13 days in the nicu before we got to come home. He had dropped to 5lb 10oz when we got there, he was jaundiced, and his breathing was too fast so he had a feeding tube in since thy were afraid he was aspirate if we did oral feeds. He’s such a strong little boy and he was the nurses favorite! We got to come home May 30th and he’s been doing great since! My heart is so full and I’m so blessed that things went as smoothly as they did given the circumstances.

He’s absolutely perfect and we are beyond in love 💗

UPDATE: Lil bubs is 6 weeks now and thriving at 9lb! Just working on breastfeeding since he was born with both a lip and tongue tie and we haven’t gotten the lip tie fixed yet. He’s gaining about a pound a week right now and getting more rolls by the day 🥰