a great adventure: August 2011

Throughout my whole pregnancy I had never felt a contraction or even a Braxton Hick so on Saturday morning, August 6th at 12:45 am, when I had my first one, I was a little suprised and also very excited. I was laying in bed trying to sleep, wondering when my baby would finally come. Believe it or not, I actually prayed that I would have a contraction with these very words in mind "give me some pain". Well then it happened. I couldn't decide if I should wake Gavin up to tell him because it might just be false labour and I didn't want to get all excited for nothing. I did tell him and then 15 minutes later at 1:00 my water broke. I've never seen Gavin jump out of bed so quick.

We woke Mom and Abby to let them know what was happening and then we drove to the hospital. We got checked into my labour room and I peed in a cup and dressed in a pretty hospital gown and got all hooked up to a bunch of monitors. Every once in a while I got up to walk around the nurses station. Gavin tried but he hurt his back really bad in basketball and was in worse shape then me so I finally just told him to go rest in the room because I was about to lap him and I didn't want to hurt his ego...poor guy.

We watched Quest for Camelot but I really don't know what happened because I was so excited and by then the contractions were getting painful so I was pretty distracted. When the nurse checked to see how far I was (a four), I decided to get my epidural. Why have pain if you don't have to right?
Oh my gosh, can I just say how wonderful epiduals are? Instant relief. For all you ladies who are all about going natural, hats off to you. I guess I'm kind of a whimp. I'll take my drugs, thank you very much. I did and I was happy as a clam.
At about 7 or 8 Mom and Abby came to stay with us for the rest of the day. We watched I Love Lucy and I did alot of sleeping and resting too to get ready for pushing, which came at about 1 pm.

The first hour I was thinking I have this in the bag, I'm going to push this baby right out. I've been working out religiously my whole pregnancy, I am in good shape. Gavin was a GREAT coach. He was super encouraging and sweet.

Well the first hour came and went and no baby. By then the nurse had turned off the epidural so that I would be able to feel when contractions were coming to push and also so I'd be able to walk around when the baby did come. Mistake.

Three hours later I was exhausted, my happy meter was at - 200 and I had no drugs so I was pretty much experiencing natural birth, minus the birth part. Dr. Nguyen said that either the baby's head was too big to fit all the way through or the cord was wrapped around his neck, preventing him from coming down. His second assumption was right. Emergency C-section. Great; exactly what I wanted to avoid.

I actually didn't care all that much at this point, I just wanted to know how long it would take for them to boot up the epidural again. By then I was crying and hyper ventilating and miserable. Why was Dr. Nguyen taking 5 minutes to explain what was going to happen?! Give me drugs! Numb me up! (by the way, while all this was happening, Gavin promised to buy me the Kia Sorento we both had our eyes on).
30 minutes later, I was once again happy; not because I was having a c-section but because the worst pain in the world was gone. I swear if I lived back in the day, I would join a convent and be perfectly happy serving God and never having to go through natural child birth.

I was wheeled into the OR, and with Gavin by my side, they cut me open and pulled out our baby boy. There's no way he would have come out my "natural door" because the cord was wrapped not once, but twice around his neck. No wonder the little guy was having such a hard time. It was pretty difficult for the doctor to even get him out in the c-section because he was wedged down in my pelvis from all the pushing. The poor thing had a really bruised head when he finally did make his appearance into the world.

Anyways, they pulled him out at 5:40 pm and I heard him cry for the first time and I can't even explain how wonderful that sound was. They cleaned him up, wrapped him in a blanket and finally, for the first time I got to meet my baby boy. He was perfect. I'll never forget how he looked staight into my eyes and never looked away. He was so alert and lovely and he knew I was his mother. It was so amazing, I can't even put how I felt into words.

They took him away with Gavin while I was stitched up and put in the recovery room and then finally, 2 hours later, I got to hold my perfect baby for the first time. Of course I cried and I was just so incredibly happy and so blessed to be the mother of this child of God.

We stayed in the hospital for 3 days together to recover and then we went home and our lives have been changed forever and I love it. I love being a mother and I love watching Gavin be a father. Grant is the perfect start to our little family and I love him so much.