Gavin Dean's birth story part I

Our sweet little boy, Gavin Dean, was born at 6:56am on January 23.  This date already has special meaning to me, as it was my mom's birthday.  We joked for my whole pregnancy that he would be born on her birthday and sure enough, he was. 

My water broke at 11:30pm, just after I had laid down for bed on Tuesday the 22nd.  I yelled for Steve and called my midwife.  She told me to go back to bed and rest and to let her know when my contractions were 5 minutes apart for an hour.  Steve and I started timing contractions and I knew I wasn't going to sit around for an hour when we had an hour drive to the hospital.  So when they contractions were getting closer and closer together after 45 minutes we left for the hospital.

We got there at a little before 2:00am, I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced.  My contractions were so strong and I wasn't getting much time to rest in between.  I tried every position imaginable and nothing was helping.  I was exhausted.  At 4:00am I asked to be checked again and I was dilated to 5.  I knew then I wasn't going to make it much longer without an epidural.  You girls who can go through childbirth naturally are seriously tough and amazing, I could not handle it!

At about 5:00am the anesthesiologist came to give me my epidural, I don't know how long it took to kick in but it felt like forever.  When it finally did kick in I laid down and relaxed.  Steve went out to the waiting room to talk to my Dad and his wife and my labor nurse started setting up the room for the birth.  She told me she would be out in a minute and to ring the call bell if I felt any pressure to push.  I swear, 5 minutes later, while she was still in the room, I said, "I think I feel something...isn't that too fast??"  My midwife got to my room at 6:00am to check me, I was fully dilated and effaced and I was ready to push!  Thank goodness for epidurals is all I can say.

I only pushed for about 20 minutes and Gavin was born.  I had him on my chest immediately and he was the sweetest thing.  He was so strong, lifting his head to look at me, just the most perfect little baby boy.  He weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces and was 21 inches long- exactly the same stats as his big sister Emily.

We spent some time doing skin to skin and then he nursed for the first time and did great.  Steve and I were so happy and excited to meet our little boy!

** Many of you know that Gavin has been in the NICU at Children's Hospital for the past 5 days.  I want to thank all of the bloggers who have reached out to me and everyone who said a prayer for Gavin.  Steve and I appreciate it more than we can even say.  This past week has been the scariest week of my life and having your support and kind words have helped immensely.