Leo's Story

He's here! He's here! Leo Patrick Starkey was born on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 1:55 p.m. He weighed in at 8 lbs 9 oz, 21 inches long and a 15 inch head.




I was scheduled for an induction on this day, but my hopes weren't high since I wasn't able to get in with Finn on my first try. But to our surprise when I called the hospital on Monday at 6 AM, they said come on in at 7:30 AM! Everything started to sink in. Oh my gosh, we are having our THIRD baby today! So my mom came over and we were out the door at 7:15. Maple Grove Hospital is fricken amazing. The birthing rooms are HUGE! It was like our own palace. My doctor was on call that day, so he broke my water at 8 AM. At that time I was about 4 cm dilated. It was so weird though, when he broke my water, I didn't feel the gush that I'd felt before. I was kind of freaked out. But the more I walked around the more I started to leak - a lot! So I got hooked up to pitocin right away too. Tom and I did a few laps trying to get the baby to drop and get things going. Nothing was really happening though. Then by about 9:45 AM, I started getting pretty consistent, painful contractions. I asked for my epidural shortly after and it was the best epidural EVER! I could still move my legs when they needed to check me, and I could still feel the tightening of the contractions, but not the pain. Tom and I ordered a movie. Because Maple Grove Hospital has free movies for you to watch. ha! We ordered that ridiculous Arthur movie with Russel Brand. I rested my eyes off and on. I think at about 12:15 I was checked and I was an 8. Then at 1:30, my awesome nurse said let's wait until 2 to check you and hopefully you will be complete and can get baby out! But my doctor came over at 1:45 and he checked me. He had me push a little bit while he was checking and he's like ok great - you are complete, let's do this! So they whipped out all of the fancy equipment, the huge light, I gave one ginormous push and his head was OUT! But his shoulders were stuck. It was pretty alarming and I could tell by the tone of the doctor's voice that he meant business, so I pushed again as they pushed on me and out he came. The biggest boy of my boys! Had I waited to go naturally, who knows what would have happened with his shoulders. Scary stuff. Since he came out so fast, his face was super bruised - but it's healed up. He still has blood shot eyes, but those will go away with time too. I would never ever in a million years thought I would use the word relaxing to describe my birthing experience with Leo, but that is exactly what it was. I was so happy when he came out. I was so happy to just not be pregnant again. I was happy he was healthy. And most of all I was happy that our family is completely complete now! Me and my boys!

Holy roots. I need my hair done asap!