A Baby Story-Gavin

   My whole pregnancy was so different with Gavin that I was a little worried that I didn't really know what to expect with birth.  Ellie was "easy"...if you can call it that I and worried that Gavin would be a lot harder for some reason, but hoped that he would be just as quick.  I had a lot of braxton hicks contractions throughout my pregnancy.  I think some of it had to do with moving and doing too much.  I started having a little bit consistent contractions a few days before but nothing ever stayed more than a few contractions.  I really thought that I would have him early, maybe even earlier than how early Ellie was(8 days early)  but when Aug 24th came and went with no baby, I was a little discouraged.  Then on Aug 28 I was having more contractions, they still were just a little uncomfortable and not consistent enough to go in.  Then they stopped again....I was getting annoyed.  Then Aug 29 at 3:30pm they started getting more intense.  I made sure everything was ready and waited for Patrick to get off of work.  He called at 4:30pm saying he was on his way home and I casually told him they were pretty consistent, every 6-8 min and lasting just under a min.  He got home and we had dinner.  At about 6pm they were 3-4 min apart and lasting at least a min, so we decided to head over to the hospital(Timpanogos Regional Medical Center).  After getting all checked in, I felt like they were going to send us home because it wasn't really intense.  I always seem to second guess myself.  At 6:40pm they checked and I was still 70% effaced but dilated to a 4 now and had a huge bulging bag of water.  They said as soon as that breaks that we would be ready and they were surprised that it hadn't broken on its own.  I tested positive for group b strep so they started a really fast drip antibiotic.  They were worried I would go too fast and not get enough in me before he came.  It was super fast and my arm was freezing from it going in.  At 8pm I chose to have the epidural.  I knew I was going to have one this time so decided not to wait quite as long as I did with Ellie.  This was still the part that I was most freaked out about.  It was terrible.  It shot out pain into both sides of my back and my left leg started twitching and went really numb.  He had me tilt towards my right but then that one went really numb too.  It was fine in the end, but even after he was born I didn't have feeling for a lot longer than normal in one leg.  Scary to me, but I'm glad that I had it still.
    I held out and at 9:15pm I was a 5 and 90% effaced. At 10pm I was almost at a 7.  They said they expected it to be about an hour longer.  The dr came in at 10:25pm and broke my water.  His name is Dr Bean and he was really nice.  I hadn't met him before this but he was very good and cheered me on the whole way.  10:50pm I was an 8 but Gavin was sideways so they said I needed to wait a bit longer before pushing.  At 11:30pm they had me start pushing and it went really quick after that.  I only pushed a few times and he came at 11:52pm.  Weighing 8lbs 6oz and 21 inches long and PERFECT!  He had lots of hair that looked slightly red.  Patrick cut the cord and they handed Gavin to me.  He had swallowed some gunk and it made him stop breathing.  I was getting kind of scared because he wasn't crying and waw turning purple, but they didn't seem worried.  He soon started crying and it was awesome!  I love hearing that first little cry and knowing how strong they are when they are first born.  It was so great!

  I was amazed that Gavin was that big since when they handed him to me he seemed pretty close to what I remember Ellie being, but he is over a pound bigger than her.  I could tell a little when pushing that he was bigger, but not much.  He is so tiny compared to Ellie now and I am amazed at just how tiny and perfect everything is.  Gavin has long skinny feet.  When they did the stamp of his feet, they almost didn't fit on the stamp pad part.  They had to tilt his little feet to make them fit.
   I didn't tear very much at all and he said he only had to put in one stitch, which is awesome!  I felt so much better healing this time and was back on my feet a lot faster.  So glad to have our little man here with us and be part of our family.  We love him so much already!  I also need to put a picture of my cute nurse Sheryl.  She was awesome and helped so much with me feeling comfortable, especially having to change so many things with moving it was nice to have her.  She was great!