Story of Levi

This is the story written soon after the death of my son for his scrapbook.

Thursday, April 14, 2005 is a day that will be with me forever. I was 36 weeks pregnant with Levi. I had a regular doctor’s appt. scheduled at 2:15. In the examing room Dr. Dimmette could not detect a heartbeat. She said that it could be because he was breach. I had to wait about 15 minutes for the ultrasound room to open, so I called Gary to tell him what was happening. When we hung up Gary immediately put me on the prayer chain at church. As soon as Dr. Dimmette put the ultrasound camera on my belly I knew that my baby was gone. I saw the flat line at the bottom of the screen. Dr. Dimmette waited some time before telling me what I already suspected. I started to cry and so did she. She sent me to the hospital to confirm what we both already knew. I told her that I just wanted to go that I did not want to wait until Gary got there. I walked across the parking lot and entered the maternity ward of the hospital. The nurses met me and took me to a room where another ultrasound was performed. The results were the same. I did not have the heart to tell Gary on the phone when he called. I waited until he got there. He wouldn’t believe it. He began to pray over my belly for about 10 minutes. He then asked them to perform another ultrasound, unfortunately it was with the same results. Gary became so angry. The first person he thought to call was our beloved friend Pastor Ken. He spoke with Pastor Ken and shared his frustrations that he was feeling. Pastor Ken encouraged him by listening to him and giving him scripture verses. By this time people from church were coming to give support. I asked Dr. Dimmette if I could go home and have the C-section the next day. I didn't have an outfit for Levi, or a camera and my sister-n-law would not have time to get there from Orange County to get an imprint of Levi’s hand. Dr. Dimmette said okay, the C-section was scheduled for the next day at 4:00 p.m. On the way home from the hospital I called my buddy from work, Dawn Smith, to tell her what happened and to let Rob, my boss, and the others know. I called Olivia to set up babysitting for Hannah for the time I would be in the hospital. The next day I had to be at the hospital at 2:30 to be ready for surgery by 4:30. We were in the middle of moving to accomdate our growing family so my mother-n-law and I packed up some of the house. I called people to let them know what had happened. Things really did not hit me until I was getting prepped for the C-section. All the emotions hit me like a ton of bricks and I began to cry. Once I was in the operating room I calmed down. That was until I received my spinal. No one warned me that it would numb me to make me feel like I could not breathe. I screamed loud that I was going to die and I couldn’t breathe. The anesthesiologist gave me an amnesia drug called vercede to make me forget what was happening to me. Once I calmed down Gary was allowed in the room. Up until this point we did not know why Levi died. But we soon learned when Dr. Dimmette said, “a true knot”. Levi had the umbilical cord in a “true knot” and wrapped twice around his neck. When I was done and in the recovery room I was allowed to hold Baby Levi. The family came in to see us. My sister-n-law Heather took Levi’s hand print out of this molding clay. Since we knew why Levi died we decided not to have an autopsy performed. We immediately had to start planning our son’s funeral. The hospital gave us a list of funeral homes and told us to be careful because there were some who took advantage of the grief people were feeling. We called our church to find out who they recommended; they said “Miller Jones”. Two minutes later our Aunt Bonnie called with the same recommendation. Gary and I got to spend several hours holding our baby. I took a little nap with him lying in my arms. Around 10:30 that night a young girl from the funeral home came to pick up our Baby Levi. That was the last time we saw him. We look forward to the day when we will see him in heaven.