Birth Story

Here is the birth story of our little Gavin (it's a lengthy one- i'm in a detailed mood). Apparently coming by a scheduled c-section was just too 'normal' for him. 

There we were, night of August 10th... getting all prepped and ready for the early morning wake up call to go to the hospital and meet him. I knew I needed to get some good sleep, seeing as how I'd be having a baby and all but... of course... I couldn't sleep- I'm a horrible sleeper the night before any somewhat-major event. And this was more than somewhat! 

Finally, a little after 1:30am I was able to drift off to sleep... only to be woken up two hours later by some way painful contractions. I figured they were just the normal, non-labor kind and ignored it and tried to go back to sleep. Just as I was going back to sleep, BAM. Another one. C'mon! I started to come out of it, thinking, No way. No way is he coming now. BAM. Another one. I woke Brad up because they were coming too hard and too close together to be nothing. I told him I thought I was in labor. He looked at the clock: 3:45am. He said we were going to get up in 15 minutes to get ready anyhow, so let's just get up now. I begrudgingly got up because I really really wanted more sleep! Warning: next sentence some may think is TMI soooo... watch out :) I went to the bathroom and lo and behold, I was bleeding. Like bleeding. Not good... not good at all and I knew it. I quickly got dressed and went out to tell Brad, where I surprisingly found my parents up. He was all dressed and ready to go, my dad had the camera ready to take the last maternity picture, my mom waiting for more details. I told them what was going on, Brad called the hospital (and only got to talk to the ER person), I tried to call my doctor... I gave up on that because I kept pressing the wrong numbers and couldn't think clearly at all. I told Brad to call the hospital again and get the OB department so they could call my doctor for me and let them in on what was going on.

Off we went to the hospital! Quick tidbit: We live about 15-20 minutes away from the hospital we were delivering at. There is a hospital in town, but we had decided to deliver at Tracy's hospital instead. Moving on- as we were getting on the freeway, the nurse in the OB department told Brad to go to the nearest hospital (there are two- one in the opposite direction in which we just got on, the other on a completely different route back into town). She said that I was probably having an abruption, which is when the placenta is detaching or has detached from the uterine wall... which can be very bad for baby. We had a decision to make- what hospital to go to. We decided to try the one in town... as we were going there, I changed my mind. I don't know why, but it just totally unsettled me to go there. So we turned around and headed back to the original hospital.

We got to the hospital about 10 minutes later and got checked in at the ER. The OB nurse got down to us super fast and in a hurry... definitely an emergency :) The contractions were awful at this point... I could hardly talk, and I'll admit, was crying from some of them. They immediately got the baby hooked up so we could see how he was doing- he was doing great, thank heavens! The nurses were everywhere: getting my IV hooked up, oxygen on, temp taken, Brad scrubbed up, questions answered, doctor arriving, etc. Half an hour later (which is QUICK), we headed over to the operating room. Got my spinal put in (ouch) and prepped for surgery, then the blue surgery curtains got put up. Brad got brought in a little after they started the surgery. He started to watch and the anesthesiologist told him to sit down- apparently, Daddy wasn't allowed to watch this surgery, unlike James'. Brad was a little bummed, but oh well. About 10 minutes later, we heard the beautiful first baby cry... and cry :) He was a little angry to be out :) They took him away and invited Brad over to cut the umbilical cord. Then they started closing me up while Brad helped them clean the baby up. Pretty soon Brad came over with our little one. He was absolutely beautiful. The nurses took some pictures, then took Brad and the baby away for the measurements and everything.

About half an hour later, I was done with recovery and headed to my room. Two minutes later, Brad came in with the nurses and, of course, the star of the morning: Gavin. It was wonderful having Gavin there, having everything turn out wonderfully. I was exhausted, but so happy. We just love having him in our family, he is such a sweet baby. James loves him too, though a little too much most of the time. But he is doing great :) We came home from the hospital Saturday and recovery is going really well. Gavin's birth kick-started our lives moving forward and we are so happy he is with us for the adventure.

01-05-11
i have remembered some things from gavin's birth that i want to remember:
- when we got into our prep room, i was immediately put on oxygen for the abruption. they kept taking it off to take my temperature and i was in so much pain, i kept forgetting to put it back in. my main nurse (who was so sweet) had to keep putting it back on, telling me to stop taking it out. well... i didn't... but i did forget to put it back on. 
- same sweet nurse let me hold her hand while i got my spinal. i felt more alone this time because the drug dr wasn't as friendly as the one i had in rexburg. lame, i know, but hey... delivery/birth is a vulnerable time :)
- again, same nurse was on duty the night after gav was born. she said that she was so relieved when she saw gavin on the monitor and he was doing great. she said babies with an abruption don't always come out so perfect. i had almost every nurse come in and tell us how lucky were gavin came out so healthy.
05-03-11
more things i remember! 
- the drugs didn't work as well as they did with james. when they started cutting me open, i could feel it on my right side. i told them it really hurt and they did a bunch of locals. it was better, but i was cringing almost the entire time because it still didn't numb up all the way. i could move and feel my right side like maybe an hour after the surgery (at the latest). left side: at least 2 hours. it's supposed to take longer than just an hour after the surgery.
- maybe TMI, but who cares... they actually took the placenta and sent it in to the lab for studying. verdict: definite abruption. this means my chances of future abruptions go from 3% to 5%.