Leyton’s Birth Story

Sweet baby Leyton. You most certainly know how to make an entrance. As soon as your doctors carefully planned your birth around schedules and surgery dates, you decided you had your own agenda and your birthday had arrived…2 weeks early, and after less than 6 hours of active labor. Your mama thanks you for this. 

The next few days were full of many firsts! Your dad and I blissfully heard your first cry. Thank you for this, too. When you were still in my stomach we discussed how happy it would make us if you’d cry right away. So kind of you to oblige.  Next we cheered you on through your first heart procedure, first bath, first snuggle in our arms and your first ambulance ride (with sirens blaring down Sunset Blvd…what did I say about your ability to make an entrance?) All by the ripe old age of 2 days. To be clear, Mom and Dad wouldn’t mind if the ambulance trip was a first and final occurrence. 

Once we were settled at Children’s Hospital where we could sit in the room with you all day, we were met with yet another surprise. The surgeons moved your surgery date up to the following day. Days 3-5 were really tough days. You had to fight harder than I would ever wish for you. We stood by helpless and desperate to take it all away, but you amazed us all by staying “rock solid”, the doctors later told us, through even the darkest moments. Days 5-6 were blissfully uneventful compared to the rest of your little life thus far, and here we are on your 1 week birthday. In honor of how far you’ve come, I wanted to take a moment to commemorate your beautiful birth. It was the happiest day of my life, yet it’s memory was muddled by the tornado we were hurled into so soon after. It was an extraordinary day that deserves to be remembered. 

On August 11^th, 2019 around 5:30am I woke up to what felt like the Braxton Hicks contractions I’d been experiencing for months, but a bit of pain accompanied each one. I’ve never been so giddy or eager to feel pain in my entire life. I downloaded a contraction timing app and started to log each one hoping to find some regularity.

In the back of my mind I knew I was getting ahead of myself for many reasons:

1. I had just been checked at my last OB appointment and I wasn’t at all dilated. Zero. Nada. Nothin’.

2. I had been checking obsessively for any sign of spotting or my mucus plug and again, nada.

3. I was skipping around the apartment and chatting up a storm through each “contraction” so it would likely be long before this turned into the real thing.

Either way I told Jordan about them when he woke up around 6am, and we were both cautiously optimistic that it might mean baby was on his way soon.

I had been drinking, ok fine, chugging red raspberry leaf tea for the past week. I read that it can act as a uterine tonic to help prep my cervix for labor and I was all for trying anything that might get the ball rolling. We had an induction scheduled for August 19^th that I accepted, but also eagerly hoped to avoid. 

Long before I was even pregnant I researched birth stories and decided I wanted a natural, intervention-free birth and dreamed of peaceful skin to skin in those early hours. I dramatically loosened my grip on my picture after we learned of baby’s TGA diagnosis, but my doctors all agreed I could try for a natural delivery if it happened on its own before my scheduled induction. With that in mind, I was hopeful what I was experiencing Sunday morning was a sign that an induction was not in our future! 

I looked around our apartment and suddenly all I saw was mess. Every last minute item on our pre-baby checklist glared back at me. We had already packed our bags and made a plan for Mika’s care, but suddenly preparing our home for a baby felt like the highest priority. I cleaned high and low, climbing on top of the countertops to empty out every cabinet. I spent quite some time getting rid of expired baking ingredients from the forgotten shelves at the top of the pantry. (Because a baby will surely need access to those. Good thing I checked that off the list.) 

I insisted Jordan go to work because the contractions were extremely mild and irregular and while I was hopeful, I was terrified they would stop at any time. He reluctantly agreed, but insisted I keep my phone on me at all times and answer when he called. Every hour. Lol.

I went for a walk with Mika, our usual 1 mile loop in the neighborhood around our apartment and called my mom and sister to fill them in. We planned for them to attend my delivery, so I wanted to give them a heads up just in case. 

By 11am the contractions were roughly 9-11 minutes apart, but still so mild I was uncertain when they started and stopped. “Wait, do I still feel a little something?! Yes, yes I think that hurt a little bit. Better keep recording to be safe!” I continued this dance until I got bored of it to be honest. They weren’t coming any stronger or faster, so eventually I decided to ignore them. Which is exactly what the midwife who taught our labor and delivery class said to do. 

For the rest of the afternoon I continued my cleaning spree, went to the market (I distinctly remember timing 3 contractions as I browsed the produce section) and took another, much longer walk. So long in fact, Mika couldn’t keep up. See the picture below, ha! Things slowed down so much at this point that I texted Jordan and my mom to tell them this was likely a false alarm and to temper their excitement.

Then I woke up from a nap at 3:30pm and felt my first real contraction. Oh. Ok this was much different.  I went back to inputting them in my trusty app, this time with complete certainty when one began and ended. 6 minutes apart. They were suddenly so much stronger than my previous contractions; in a rapid fire turn of events I called Jordan and told him to rush home. This was real!

I took a shower around 4pm to relax, which really helped. I could have stayed in there for an hour! Jordan came home shortly after I got out and I’ll never forget the look of anticipation and determination on his face. He ran around the house in a flurry completing his own last minute checklist. I thought I’d done a swell job of that myself, but apparently he didn’t share my sense of urgency over pantry organization. He did however, need food- something I hadn’t had a real interest in all day. I threw up completely out of nowhere sometime in between my two walks, so I placed a Postmates order for him and left my tender tummy empty.

I started packing my toiletries and each contraction became stronger than the previous. The pain jumped from a 3 to a 6 in minutes, and when Jordan watched me swaaaaay and breeeeathe through the fourth strong one, he hinted that maybe we should head to the hospital. I was so nervous we would get there only to be sent home for not being in active labor that I didn’t reluctantly agree until an hour later. At this point I was dropping to the ground in frog pose and sighing loudly through each one. He loaded up the car and we set off for Cedars-Sinai Hospital just before 7pm. 

We checked in and were ushered to a triage room where we met the on-call midwife. She hooked me up to the same monitors I’d been doing non-stress tests on for weeks and checked my cervix. I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. Normally they don’t admit patients until 4cm but after calling my OB they decided I could stay. We were so relieved! 

We got to our room around 8:30pm, and were shocked to find that it was a giant suite with sweeping views of the city. This was a major upgrade from the rooms we saw during our hospital tour a few weeks prior, so that was a fun surprise! For about 3 seconds…because very shortly after we got settled into the room my contractions were so strong, they were all I could focus on. I had a much easier time coping when I was upright, so we decided to try using the birthing ball. 

In the middle of my second contraction on the ball I heard a pop! and felt a gush of warm fluid dripping down my legs. I remember saying, “My water just broke!” and then apologizing for the mess all over the ball. It was my own birthing ball brought from home, so not sure why I cared.

Immediately after my water broke, the contractions became even more intense and I started to wonder if I was going to be able to get through them without an epidural. We learned a hip squeeze technique in our birthing class and I became completely dependent on it. Jordan and our wonderful nurse, Kathryn alternated taking turns squeezing my hips to help open them during each contraction. I was vaguely aware that they were taking turns, but they operated so smoothly with almost no verbal communication that I just started saying, “baaaabe” at the start of a contraction and one of them would run over to assume their position. 

Somehow it was decided that I needed to use the restroom. I seem to remember Kathryn spearheading this mission, but that doesn’t make sense. If I were the one who initiated the trip, I very quickly regretted it. The three of us waddled to the toilet together because modesty flew out the window the second I checked into that room. I remember thinking that sitting on the toilet was possibly the worst position imaginable when a contraction hit. The next thing I knew I was peeing, contracting, and projectile vomiting all at the same time. This, my friends, is what I refer to as the lowest point of my labor. Poor Kathryn was in the line of fire and handled it, dare I say, gracefully. As if such a thing could exist given the scenario.

Seconds later, my mom arrived! She jumped on a plane from San Francisco with only a few hours notice, so seeing her brought on a flood of relief. She got right to work and in between contractions I asked her to put my hair up for me. It was down until this point in matted mess stuck to my face due to all the time I spent with my head on my forearms. 

At about 10:00pm the midwife came back to check me again, only to find that I was dilated to a 9. Halleluiah! She seemed shocked by how fast I was progressing, and everyone started running around quickly after that. I felt the urge to push with each contraction so they made me lay on my side and wait until my doctor arrived. This part was torture. I have never felt so in tune and simultaneously out of control in my own body before. Fighting the strong sensation to bear down was almost more challenging than the intensity of the contractions themselves! 

Finally Dr. Nguyen arrived. I can’t imagine a more perfect OB to deliver our special boy. He has such a calm confidence about him. He continuously put Jordan and me at ease throughout my pregnancy and instilled abundant reassurance in our ability to have a safe and smooth delivery. The moment he walked in with a huge smile on his face, it hit me that I was about to meet our son! 

I remember being vaguely aware of more commotion in the room, but if I acknowledged the extra people (I later found out our group totaled 14!) it certainly didn’t faze me. I was solely zoned in on the intense need to push this baby out. 

As soon as Dr. Nguyen was done getting set up he matter-of-factly said, “Ok if you feel like you need to push, just go ahead and push.” I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but the next contraction quickly came and I started pushing. Another nurse arrived at some point and was holding my left leg. She was kind and encouraging and locked eyes with me as she coached me through the next push. I was so grateful for her direction that I focused all my energy on doing what she said and poof! He was born three pushes later. 

He immediately let out the loudest, fiercest cry and it was music to our ears. I was so afraid of the condition he might be in when he was born that I had mentally prepared myself for silence and instant chaos from the NICU team, but neither image came to fruition. We had a beautiful moment on my chest and I will never forget the feeling of his warm body wiggling against me. The instant flood of love and joy was just incredible. 

Sharing the moment with Jordan and my mom made it all the more special. Jordan managed to snap pictures, kiss me, hold the baby’s hand, cut the cord, run into the lobby with his arms outstretched and announce to his parents that he had a son, AND follow the baby up to the NICU almost simultaneously. His ability to juggle so much and remain level headed, loving, and compassionate is one of the many things I adore about him. Leyton’s birth and the experience that followed not only brought us closer, but also made me fall even deeper in love with my husband. I’m grateful every day that we picked each other to share life with. Now with the addition of our sweet baby boy, I can’t imagine it any other way. 

Leyton Richard Weiss

8-11-2019

7lbs 4oz, 20″ long