They took Simon directly from the birthing table to a heated operating table for premies. I looked on as they suctioned out his nose and quickly placed a breathing tube into his lungs. Both Becca and I were nervious and excited to meet our little guy, and weren't quite sure when we would be allowed to. Five neonatal care specialists hovered over Simon, cleaning and drying him, placing electronic monitor leads on his body and checking his vitals. It seemed like ages before they lifted him off of the table and brought him over to Mom for a kiss and allowed Dad to take a few more pictures.

From Simon Levi

After a long night of no sleep, and painful contractions, Simon Levi was born. He was healthy, 2 lbs. 11 oz, 14 1/2 inches long and as feisty as could be. New Mom and Dad were very proud and looked on as the team of Neonatal doctors and nurses took care of inserting breathing tubes and attaching him to monitors. This picture is the only time we have seen him without all of his tubes. We can't wait until that will happen again!

At around 9:00 pm on Nov. 13th, our nurse Ricki finally petitioned with a resident Doctor to come down and check Becca's dialation. I had been writing down her contractions, their durations and pain levels since 1:00 and we both knew there had to have been a change in her dialation. Whenever we would try to get someone to check Becca, they would have to call Dr. McDuffy to get the approval. Until this point no one thought there would be any change since she didn't feel like she was having contractions and that her pain level was only a 3 out of 10.

The resident Doctor sat down on Becca's bed and asked her questions obviously doubting that there would be any change. Had the contractions gotten more painful? Has there been any bleeding? Becca's answers had been the same all weekend. No. The Doctor checked her cervix and from the look on her face found something very unexpected. With a white face and nervous shaky hands, she said "Ok, we have to get you downstairs. It's going to be ok. Don't worry. We'll just get you to Labor and Delivery as soon as possible." Becca and I looked at each other and knew instantly; we are having the baby tonight.

Today, I woke up feeling fine. I had a big breakfast with Perry, room service is great, and we were told Dr. McDuffy would be coming soon to do an evaluation. The doctor came around 8:00 and performed the exam. Everything checked out fine. The baby's heatbeat was normal and the ultrasound showed that things looked fine. We were so relieved! Although the doctor said we had a 70% chance of delivering early, we felt very assured that things were going to be just fine. Since we had been stable for over 24 hrs and were not on any meds, Dr. McDuffy prepared the papers to discharge me, and to send me home for 2 1/2 months of bedrest. I couldn't wait to go home and see our little dog Maggie!
Around 1:00, I started having a strange feeling in my side. It was almost like how I felt after running long distances. I started to feel worried because these were the same feelings I had last Thursday after my walk. I asked to see the doctor right away.
A freindly resident from Romania named Victor was sent down to ask me questions about my pain. He checked some vital signs, listened to my belly and told us to monitor the pains and keep track of when they happened. Perry and I were left with paper and pen, and he diligently kept track of my pains and their intensity levels. Soon a pattern started being very obvious. Every 10 - 12 mins the pains returned at the same intensity level and lasted for around a minute.
We reported back to Victor, and he came back to check on us after talking to Dr. McDuffy. "Dr. McDuffy said he checked you out this morning and everything looked fine. He said for us to just wait this out and see what happens." As he was leaving both Perry and I saw him raise his eyebrows in concern to the nurse. The meaning of this nonverbal communication was obvious. 'I think the baby is coming'

Finally, today the contractions stopped! The doctors still have no idea what started them, which is really frustrating. I didn't know if it could have been started by my vigorous cleaning the day before, the long walk Maggie and I took, or even the bread machine that I dropped on my toes. Dr. Payne assured me that there was nothing that I did that started the process. He also told me that I'd have to be in bedrest for the rest of the pregnancy. The big question is, when am I going to be giving birth? There are still so many things that I'd like to do during this pregnancy, including work at my new job that I got on Friday! The Labor and Delivery rooms were really nice, but this afternoon they moved me into a third floor closet to wait out the remainder of my pregnant days. They havn't said directly that I'll be stuck in the hospital for a couple of months, but they have mentioned about other patients who are. Hopefully, I'll be able to go home and lay around in my own bed. The nurses here are all very nice and make sure that I'm well taken care of. I was able to get my I.V. taken out as well, which will help me sleep better.