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Take Two: Welcome Baby Landon!

Editor’s Note: Take Two is a series of blog posts chronicling the experiences of three WISH-TV anchors (Lauren Lowrey, Kylie Conway and Amber Hankins) who have been pregnant together in 2018. Each woman is expecting her second child and each will have a baby boy.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Welcome Baby Landon!

Landon Michael was born Wednesday, Aug. 22 at 5:43 p.m., at 6 pounds, 8 ounces and 20 inches long. 

I’m sitting in a bed in a quiet hospital room as I write this. It’s been nearly 24 hours since I gave birth to my second child, Landon Michael, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the outcome. He’s safe, he’s healthy and he’s perfect. 

In the final days leading up to what would become his birthday, I had become increasingly concerned for his health as I passed sign after sign that I was going into labor, weeks before my actual due date. Is it too early? Is there something wrong? What if he’s not okay? These questions filled my thoughts until a turning point Wednesday afternoon when I realized I was just hours away from holding this little boy. Soon, he would be here, and I wouldn’t have to worry any more.

Throughout my pregnancy, I had a sense I would go into labor early, but I only thought it would be a week, at most. I had no past reason to believe this child would be early, but my intuition pointed to it all along. 

So, on Aug. 16, when my obstetrician said I definitely would have a baby within two weeks, I started to panic. I had been right. Predicting labor isn’t an exact science and there’s no way to know when the process will go from passing signposts to being in active labor. But as I passed sign after sign, I was increasingly more scared. 

Landon had settled into a breech position, something only three percent of babies are in by 37 weeks gestation, and he had been there for nearly two months. His feet were pointed down and his head was in my ribs. It’s not considered a safe position for birth, and a C-section was on the table for his safety and mine. The only way to avoid it was to try to get him to turn, which had so far been unsuccessful. 

On Wednesday, Aug. 22 — the day that turned out to be his birthday — I had scheduled a last-ditch effort to avoid a C-section, called an External Cephalic Version, most commonly referred to as a Version or ECV. It would involve a painful few-minute procedure where my obstetrician would physically try to move the baby into a head-down birthing position by placing her hands on top of my abdomen and forcing him there. The procedure has a 56 percent success rate when it’s done, but it’s only done in 0.3 percent of pregnancies. Essentially, it was my Hail Mary. 

I was nervous, anxious and just plain scared. Not because of the impending pain but because I kept thinking something could be wrong with the baby. I secretly hoped I would go into labor early and avoid the Version all together, but as I arrived for my afternoon appointment, I realized time was up and I would have to try.

As I expressed my fears to my obstetrician, detailing my days of contractions and all the signs of labor I had been experiencing, she said, “Let me check you for dilation.”

Sure enough, I was in active labor and her next words changed everything: “I can’t let you leave this hospital when you’re in active labor, and because he’s still breech, we need to deliver him soon before you dilate too much more.”

At this point she paused and then said with a big smile, “We’re going to have a baby!”

My husband and I just looked at each other, stunned. 

I had mentally prepared for an emergency C-section if the ECV procedure didn’t go as planned. I didn’t prepare for skipping it all together and just having a baby. I was concerned whether I could make it through. After all, I had worked all day, was starving from many hours of fasting and was barely functioning on four hours of sleep. It wasn’t the best physical way to start life with a new baby.

But adrenaline, combined with the relief to just be done, was intoxicating. Soon I would be holding the baby, and my fears for his health and safety would be behind me. 

A childcare issue that afternoon meant our daughter had to come with us to the ECV appointment. It was a blessing in disguise because it gave me time to spend with her before my surgery. Thankfully, a friend was able to take her so my husband could stay with me through the surgery and the hospital overnight.

The C-section went great and my fears disappeared when I was finally able to hold him. I had been so worried about an early labor, but I’ve been assured by my doctors and nurses that the baby is perfect. What a relief!

Now we have to adjust to life with a newborn and everything it brings while wrangling an energy-filled preschooler. It’s no easy task, but with patience (and hopefully a little sleep), we’ll be just fine.