Levi Anthony Birchfield arrived on Friday, January 26th. He weighed 6 lbs, 5 ozs and was 18.5 inches long. He was 4 weeks early (at 36 weeks of the pregnancy).

It all started about 9PM on Thursday the 25th. Jessica was sitting at the computer when she sneezed really hard. But that’s not unusual for her – she sneezes a lot. But what was unusual was that this time it was followed immediately by her water breaking – something we were not expecting at all and were in no way prepared for. The nursery was complete but was in disarray due to the huge pile of baby stuff from the 2 baby showers the previous weeks. The rest of the house was a wreck because we had spent the previous 2 weeks nursing Kramer back to health after he ate 140 straight pins and had to undergo almost 6 hours of surgery. But none of that stuff mattered – the baby was going to be here soon whether we were ready or not.

My Oil & Gas law professor had just ended another dry lecture about oil conservation and I had just begun to pack up my books when my cell phone rang. This was a little unusual because although Jessica and I always talk on the phone while I’m driving home from SMU, I usually call her (or she calls me) a little later after I’ve had time to get in my car and start driving home. But I didn’t think much about it and answered the phone. “I think my water just broke” I heard Jessica say on the other end. What came next was the world’s fastest commute from the SMU campus to our house in Carrollton. I was driving like I had never driven before, and probably should never drive again.

I got home and Jessica and I started frantically packing. Jessica was more prepared than I was – she had packed her bag at least a month before. I, on the other hand, had done nothing. So I tossed some clothes in a bag, threw it, the cameras, and the car seat in the van, and off we went to the hospital. (Without Jessica’s bag.)

We got to the hospital and Jessica was put into a room where she would spend the next 18 and a half hours in labor. The first 12 hours were a breeze – Jessica was in a little discomfort but nothing too unbearable for her. But things really changed on Friday morning. She wasn’t progressing fast enough (the doctors wanted the baby delivered within 24 hours of her water breaking to prevent infection.) So Jessica was given Pitocin (birth inducing drug) to help speed things along. And boy did that work. It wasn’t long before Jessica needed the epidural to ease the almost unbearable pain. Once the doctor administered the epidural, Jessica was out like a light. She got a few greatly-needed hours of sleep. And when she woke up, she was refreshed and ready to have a baby. She progressed very fast and at 1:29PM after pushing for about an hour, Levi was here. It was the most amazing site ever seeing his little head poke out. I’ll never forget that sight.

Jessica was the first to discover and announce that the baby was a boy. We had intentionally avoided finding out the sex because it just really didn’t matter to us and we thought it would be more fun. While we had to take a lot of grief from friends and family over not finding out, we held strong to the end and didn’t know a thing until Levi arrived. Our doctor, on the other hand, informed us soon after Levi arrived that she had cheated about a month before and looked at one of the sonograms. She knew all along that it was a boy but thankfully she was able to keep it a secret from us.

So that’s the story of how Levi was born. Next up: Levi goes to the NICU.

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