Our Little Levi (the condensed story)

On the first Sunday of October 2008, I couldn’t contain my curiosity any longer. I tried not to be excited about my late period; my menstrual cycle was not to be trusted—especially when we were hoping to miss nine months. By General Conference, Wesley and I decided to open another pregnancy test, hoping for more substantial results. Nervously, I looked at the results (attempting to expect another single line and not be disappointed) but then two lines appeared, the pink coloring darkening and darkening until I ran out of the bathroom giggling to Wesley. We glowed all day. And the next day. And the rest of the forty weeks.

After my initial, confirming doctor’s visit the first person we told about our pregnancy was the woman who answered the phone for our Deseret Mutual Insurance.

“When’s your due date?” she asked.

“June 3.”

“Oh! How wonderful! You’ll love having a summer baby. You’ll just love having a baby.” I knew she was right.

I wondered how long and how bright I could beam without giving our news away. Wesley and I discussed when we should tell our families: I worried about miscarriage and sharing the sorrow, but we wanted to share our joy. We debated the possibility of telling our families at Christmas. By then, I would be almost half-way through the pregnancy, but since we would only see them at Thanksgiving before that, I could probably hide my slowly expanding belly. I also worried about telling Holly Lynn, but she soon alleviated my fears with the wonderful call announcing her pregnancy. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I couldn’t think or write or study or focus; I needed to talk about my little growing baby. We anticipated a beautiful child; not an “it.” We fondly called our fetus Charles Lamb (after the essayist who wrote one of my favorite pieces, “Dream Children”) from the beginning. If needed, we could always change the fetus name to Alice Meynell after our 20 week appointment. After that first weekend in October, we talked to Charlie and told him how much we love him.

As we packed for Thanksgiving break, we wrapped a bundle of “coal” (okay, it was some blacktop—but it was easier and cleaner than coal) as an early Christmas present for each of our families. The bundles were the size of a small nectarine: the same size as Charles. When we arrived in Kuna, we stopped by my parents’ house first. Dad sat behind the bar as Mom unwrapped part of her “birthday” present. We told her that the most expensive one she would have to share with Dad. She looked at the black rock and the tag inside that read “Just a little Cole for Christmas” and then she fell (safely) on the wood floor.

“Really? How are you feeling? How long have you known?” My dad wiped his eyes and didn’t say much as Mom gasped out her surprised questions. We told them about the strong heart beat we had heard for the first time a few days earlier. We waited to tell my siblings the news until Thanksgiving dinner where Hollie Rae responded, “I knew we should have made that an official bet!”

We gave our package of Christmas Cole to Wesley’s family the same night we gave it to my parents. Christine looked at the package without reading the card with an expression that said, “What the—?” and so Wesley explained, “Well, this is about the size of our little Cole.” After about three seconds the news dawned on everyone and we were enveloped in a full-family tearful hug.

So the news was out! I sailed through my first trimester with health (and paranoid caution, always sure that I would trip or be bumped or topple on stairs—this lasted for 41 weeks). Strangely enough, my migraines and headaches disappeared almost completely. Little nausea, no vomit, enough energy to go to school with extra credits, teach my first-year writing course, scribble and submit work, and exercise every day. We couldn’t believe how blessed we were. I still couldn’t believe that we were actually having a baby. During the second trimester, my nausea increased, energy decreased. My weight gain and “off days” became more noticeable (especially on the days when I wondered if my head spun faster than the world’s rotation). Wesley and I went to school and work, immersed ourselves in our studies and callings, but our thoughts revolved around our developing baby. In January, we found out that our little Charles really was a boy. Through images made through sound waves we saw the layers of his brain, his facial features, his busy hands and feet. Struck dumb and in love, we stared at the black and white images.

I first felt our baby move during a session in the Timpanogos temple. Suddenly—a flutter. From that day until the day he was born, I rested my hands on my belly waiting to feel our little squirmer from the inside and from without. As he grew, his movements tickled (I never knew that you could be tickled from within!). Throughout pregnancy, our baby always moved more in the temple. He loved it there. As I neared my due date and attended the temple more regularly I sometimes wondered if he would become so excited that labor would begin there.

On Wesley’s birthday (February 26), we watched “Teenaged-Mutant-Ninja Turtles: The Secret of the Ooze” which features the Vanilla Ice song, “Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!” To our delight and amazement, the baby moved in rhythm to the song. After that, he often responded to music, tapping out the beat and dancing.

My third trimester was the most difficult. Although I exercised daily until two days before Charlie’s birth, I moved much more slowly and with pain. I finally threw up, but had to laugh at the scene of myself: a small stature woman trying to bend over her enormous bulky baby to reach the toilet. For inexplicable reason I believed that our boy would arrive early. He started dropping at 35 weeks and lowered each week until even others commented on how our baby dragged. But he didn’t come. I worried that he would set me in the hospital while Wesley was in Michigan for a conference. But he didn’t come. Our landlord scheduled a floor replacement in our kitchen—a great benefit!—on our due date, June 3, which I didn’t think we’d be home for. But he didn’t come. Excitement filled us. Peace and joy sustained me. While I anticipated the arrival of Charles, I never wanted reached the point of wanting to jump on the bed in order to force him here. We tried to imagine his face. We tried to imagine ourselves parents.

Wednesday, June 3 passed to the fourth, fifth, sixth. My contractions increased, yet not enough. At 37 weeks I was dilated to a one and 75% effaced. At 40 weeks I was dilated to a one and a half and 80% effaced—Wesley and I wanted to grasp the titles of “Dad” and “Mom.” On Sunday, June 7 my belly hardened into a contraction at five o’clock p.m. Instead of softening like a normal contraction, my muscles remained tense. Small contraction waves continued pulsing—not as consistently as we hoped, but pulsing. My muscles remained hard through the night and all of Monday. I stayed home in response to the pain and hope that we could have a baby.

Even though we called our baby Charles until the moment he was born, we posted a list of possible names on the fridge. How could we name our baby until we knew what he looked like? Both Wesley and I were unsure of who our baby was exactly; both of us also assumed that he would probably be Zerin Chad. For the last few weeks of pregnancy, though, I started thinking, “This baby is Levi. His name is Levi.” Blue Jeans. I didn’t know where that idea popped in from, so I stayed quiet. We still didn’t know what he looked like.

When Wesley returned from work at six o’clock, I had started to distract myself by researching family pedigree charts on FamilySearch and calling Grandma Keller to review family stories. (Since I can’t go to the temple for a while, I want to continue being temple and ordinance focused. What better place to start than family history?). I asked about Levi Newell Kendall, an ancestor who knew Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, traveled with Brigham Young to the Salt Lake Valley, and acted as a scout for other pioneer groups. Until I spoke with Grandma, I didn’t realize that he was buried in Mapleton, just a few miles south of where we live in Provo. For Family Home Evening (and to distract ourselves from my continuing contractions), we drove to the Evergreen Cemetery near Mapleton to search for Levi Newell Kendall’s grave. We wandered through the headstones but soon I couldn’t walk far or catch my breath because of the contractions. We had to leave before we found the grave.

We started counting the duration and distance of contractions at 9:30 p.m. They lasted for close to five minutes each and were only separated by three minutes. We were having a baby! We were sure. But we didn’t want to spend unnecessary time in the hospital, so we waited. I thought I might be able to sleep through some of them. We needed our rest if we would be welcoming a baby soon. At 1:35 a.m. the contractions intensified and our usually overactive baby stopped moving. That scared us. I planned on an episiotomy, forceps, and then a C-section (why be disappointed?)—anything to ensure that our son would arrive safely. It was time to go to the hospital. But. When we arrived the contractions stopped. We still registered and connected me to monitors tracking the contractions and our baby’s heart beat. To our relief, Charles’s heart remained steady as an ox—as it had been all through our pregnancy. After forty minutes one of our doctors came in and explained that since I was already overdue and had not made much progress, we could choose to be induced right then. He leaned toward that decision, but we didn’t feel right about it; we packed up, stopped at Smith’s grocery for ice cream (at four a.m.! our consolation prize), and returned home.

No contractions for two days. Wednesday, June 10 marked 41 weeks of pregnancy and our last doctor’s appointment. My doctors schedule inductions after 41 weeks for the safety of the mother and the baby since the placenta can start separating. Because I react strangely to even Tylenol, we had hoped to avoid an induction. More than that we wanted our baby to come on his own time when he was ready. We didn’t want to rush him; however, my body did not progress and I felt that we needed to have him here sooner rather than later. The hospital could schedule us for Thursday (the next day) or the following Monday. We chose Thursday even though Wesley had a final presentation in his material science class: it was a group project. His professor told him to inform his group of the situation and to plan on giving his part of the presentation later.

As the day progressed, we realized that June 11 was Wesley’s great-grandfather’s birthday. If still living, Joseph Royal Cole—the man Wesley was named for (in conjunction with Joseph Smith)—would have turned 99. The hospital would call us between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. depending on how many women came in to give birth naturally through the night. We told our families. Mom and Dad began their drive to Pocatello, “calmly moseying down to Utah, calmly” as Mom said.

To celebrate our baby’s near arrival, Wesley and I went to Mimi’s Café for dinner and enjoyed each other’s company. We went grocery shopping. We double checked our hospital bag and I made Wesley a lunch for the next day. It was possible that he could still slip in to class for his final presentation, so we prepared his things for school as well. We toppled into bed exhausted and tried to sleep.

As usual, I awoke every hour and a half through the night for a bathroom break. At three a.m. I took my prenatal vitamin and ate a few crackers hoping to stave off my normal nausea and give my body strength since I knew after the induction I would only be able to eat ice chips.

Our phone rang at five a.m.

“Is this Cassie?”

“Yes.”

“This is Utah Valley Hospital. Would you like to have a baby this morning?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think you can be here by six?”

“Yes.”

Wesley rolled toward me in bed. “It’s not 5:30 yet,” he grinned.

“I thought we’d have to wait until nine!” I responded. We embraced, said our couple and individual prayer, showered, and gathered our things for the hospital.

By seven a.m. we were in another labor and delivery room on the fifth floor with a huge window with a beautiful view of Provo. The monitors again tracked our contractions and Charlie’s heart. To our surprise, I had dilated slightly. Our nurse, Linda, hooked me up to the IV and began filling me with fluid and oxytosin. We waited. Wesley read our section of Ezekiel to me. He practiced his presentation. He helped me to the bathroom multiple times. We listened to audio books and talked. Linda returned to check on us and increase the dosage of the induction medication. Considering my past experience, we were surprised that my body did not respond quickly. Finally, at the highest level of medication my contractions became hard and constant. I could handle the pain, especially with Wesley there. His presence calms me.

We had not met our doctor on call for the day. Dr. Scott Jacob introduced himself around one o’clock and we knew instantly that we liked him. He would be there until seven p.m., but then would switch with our least favorite (though very capable) doctor. Dr. Jacob explained that he assumed he would need to break my water to allow labor to progress better (I was only dilated to a 3). “Breaking your water isn’t painful, but labor does speed up usually after that,” Dr. Jacob told us. “If you’re planning on an epidural you can get one before or after we break your bag of waters. It may be easier to get it sooner. Some people want to hold off on the epidural, but since you were induced your situation is different.” My pain was bearable. Although I wanted Wesley to stay with me, I also wanted him to be able to do his presentation. My parents were in Bountiful with my sister waiting for us to call—eager to come, willing to come sooner so Wesley could leave for campus for an hour. I didn’t want my dad to see me in contractions. I didn’t want Wesley to worry. And I had concluded weeks before that an epidural was probably a wise choice.

At 2:30, the anesthesiologist put the epidural tube into my back. I told Wesley to go to his presentation. He wouldn’t. I told him it wasn’t a big deal. He called his group who told him not to come; then his professor told him not to come. “Stay with your wife,” he said. We watched a thunderstorm through our window. The rain pelted the glass. We were both relieved to be together, even if it looked like things would go slowly. We anticipated greeting our baby at midnight or later.

At 3:30, Wesley used the bathroom. On the monitor the ever steady heart beat sounded a boxer’s punch, which I felt, followed by a gush of water. Dr. Jacob would not need to break it. Linda checked me. I was dilated to a five.

My parents arrived around four. We talked and laughed. Although I could not feel the intensity of my contractions I could move my legs some. Wesley fed me ice chips to keep my throat moist. We thoroughly enjoyed our hospital stay: nothing seemed rushed or intense, simply wonderful as we waited for our son.

At five p.m. I was dilated to an eight. Dad soon determined he should leave the room. Mom stayed.

At six p.m. Linda’s shift was over. She came to check me one last time—dilated to a large ten. She didn’t want to leave, but introduced us to Elizabeth, our next nurse. Weirdly, Elizabeth and Wesley had known each other their freshman year of college (she had grown up in the same town as some of his roommates). Elizabeth explained how we would push. Her mannerisms expressed full confidence in me. At no point did I wonder (even though I had expected to) if I could “do this.” I felt strong, capable, ready, calm. I could feel the power of our family’s prayers and fasts. Beautifully, I felt the presence of angels. Wesley held my hand and stroked my face. The sun shone brilliantly, glinting off of the remnant raindrops.

We pushed four sets of three. Dr. Jacob came in and informed me that another patient was also at a ten. “We’re in a relay! Let’s see who will win. I want to see these babies before seven. I’m not letting another doctor have them,” he smiled.

A mirror was directly across from me. I didn’t want to watch my own face. Elizabeth covered by taping a towel across the glass. We continued to talk and laugh, and bear down. No one acted nervous—we weren’t.

“Your baby has so much dark hair!” Elizabeth said as she, Wes, and Mom saw him crowning. I expect to push for hours. But around 6:25 Elizabeth said, “I’m going to get Dr. Jacob.” When he arrived, we pushed twice. No episiotomy. Only slight tearing. At 6:36 p.m. Our baby gave a small cry, then peed. Instead of pain, I felt elated with exhilaration and joy.

“He’s definitely a boy!” Dr. Jacob laughed.

I couldn’t believe we had a baby. I knew the strength and power I felt was not my own. I knew that angels had helped me. The Lord empowered my body and the body of our little boy. Wesley helped the nurses clean off the baby and we gasped as I held him close for the first time. A miracle. My heart overflowed. Most pregnancies do not go so smoothly. Few pregnancies are so secure and beautiful. While the doctors and nurses ejaculated about how well I did, I knew that for some reason God had given me the gift of this pregnancy and birth. He had given us our gorgeous child. He answered our prayers and faith and those of our families.

I am unworthy; I am grateful beyond description.

Wesley looked at me—both of us shocked, amazed. “I don’t think this is Zerin,” he whispered.

I stared at our baby’s face. “He’s not.”

Because our baby (no longer little Charles) was grunting strangely, he went to the nursery earlier than expected to have his lungs examined. (He was such a skilled swimmer, I figured it would take a while to adjust to his lungs). Wesley kissed me and wheeled our baby to the fourth floor. Elizabeth finished cleaning the room, brought me cranberry juice, and went to check on my son. My parents returned to sit with me. When Wesley returned, he told us there may be more respiratory problems and they were doing more tests. My parents went to be with the baby as Wesley and Elizabeth helped me into a wheelchair (“Most women who have just given birth, especially with an epidural, cannot get into a wheelchair this easy!” Elizabeth exclaimed) and took me to my room on the fourth floor where a new nurse, Krista, took over.

I had to wait five hours before holding my baby again. He stayed momentarily in the NICU with lung inflators. Then they x-rayed him to ensure that there were no holes in his lungs. I was informed of these happenings as my blood pressure was checked—of course it peaked. By 11:30, though, the pediatricians decided that he was fine, but that we’d watch his grunting and breathing closely. Krista and Mom helped me begin to nurse my son. He snuggled into me comfortably, recognizing me. Wavy dark brown hair covered his head. His arms, fingers, legs, toes surprised us with their length. He looked around curiously with his still-dark eyes. We gloried in his darling little nose, chin, full lips, and perfect little ears. We kissed him all over. My parents stayed until almost 2 a.m. Wesley changed a diaper that night that probably dropped our baby’s weight by a pound. We didn’t know that was possible.

Between the excitement, Wesley and I decided that we for sure wanted “Joseph” to be part of his name, but we hadn’t spent enough time with him to decide. At five a.m. the next morning, after feeding our baby and staring at our precious gift. We discussed our list of names again then narrowed it to two. Keller Joseph? Joseph Levi?

“This is Levi.” I said. So Joseph Levi Cole was born on June 11, 2009 at 6:36 p.m. named for Joseph Royal Cole and his daddy Wesley Joseph Cole. He is also named for Levi Newell Kendall. His name represents a heritage of faith, devotion to the gospel, and willingness to work hard to build a quality, provident life for himself and others as he builds the kingdom of God. I hope that he inherits his father’s gentle goodness, desire to serve, work ethic and intelligence. I hope that he knows the importance of opening his heart to love and his hands to benefit others.

On the night of June 12, Levi found his lungs. Instead of grunting, he learned to scream like a pterodactyl. Despite the noise and anger that sometimes accompanies his cry, I will ever be grateful that he can breathe well and use his lungs.

We all came home on Saturday, June 13 to enjoy his long fingers (we think he’s inherited his length from the McFarland side of the family) and long life. I never thought I would be so thrilled about messy diapers, a solid latch, a feeding every two hours. Wesley and I are completely enamored with our son, our little Levi.